culinary history Archives - OLD LINE PLATE

Chocolate Waffles, Miss Mary McDaniel

May 23, 2017January 17, 2021

Back when I first made Maryland Fried Chicken for my blog, I became a target of some amusing internet vitriol. The authenticity police took one look at my fried chicken leg served atop a waffle and saw heresy.

Although the disdain seemed a bit over the top to me, I can understand the confusion at its core. I always thought of the chicken/waffle combination as a Southern dish, dispersed our way during the Great Migration.

Waffle suppers had in fact been a popular church dinner dating back to at least the mid-1800’s, and in Maryland, they often featured chicken or “frizzled beef” aka creamed chip beef.

1924 advertisement, Salisbury Daily Times

Carvel Hall Hotel manager Albert H. McCarthy had been a Maryland resident for at least 37 years by the time he prescribed that “Maryland Fried Chicken” be served atop a waffle in “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland” (1932, Frederick Phillip Stieff).

In fact, a lot of the times when waffle advertisements or recipes appear in 1930′s newspapers, a distinction is made when the subject is “dessert waffles.” Talbot County resident Miss Mary McDaniel’s recipe for “Chocolate Waffles”, also from Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland, certainly falls into that category. It is the only waffle in that book containing more than a tablespoon of sugar.

Dutch immigrants brought waffles to North America in the 1700s, when they were cooked in an iron over an open fire. According to culinary historian Joyce White, cast iron waffle irons can be commonly found among the kitchen items in 18th and 19th-century probate inventories of taxable properties.

Waffle recipes varied regionally. In the South, sweet potato waffles became popular. Rice and corn were common frugal additions that also caught on in Maryland. All of the late 1800s Maryland cookbooks include multiple waffle varieties.

The first electric waffle irons hit the scene around 1911 and waffles became easier than ever to make. A Frederick Y.M.C.A. reported raising over $2000 (adjusted for inflation) from a waffle supper in 1913.

Advertisement, 1930

Waffles seem to have experienced another resurgence in popularity in the 1970s. Less than a half a century before, Aunt Jemima ads and the Aunt Priscilla column in the Baltimore Sun promoted racist associations with waffles. The imagery and language can be jarring. In 1975, Harlem native Herb Hudson founded Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles -arguably the most famous purveyor of the classic combination- in Los Angeles. Chicken & waffles’ soul food identity was being cemented – and reclaimed.

If you order a waffle in Maryland today, you are likely to be served a chewy and sweet thick waffle made from pancake batter. I confess to routinely settling for this at diners.

True waffles can be had from the specialists like Connie’s & Taste This. These places frequently offer different sweet varieties like red velvet for the salty sweet set. In this spirit, I decided to go ahead and have some well-salted & honey-slathered chicken with my chocolate waffle. Although I can see the appeal, corn or rice waffles will remain my preference. Savory waffles will go better with chip-beef or chicken with cream gravy.

I’d like to see the chip beef waffle make a resurgence. Everything old becomes new again. Hopefully when it does there will be someone lurking in the shadows, ready to fight a war on behalf of toast.

Recipe:

.5 Cup butter
2 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Cup sugar
1.5 Cup flour
2 egg
.5 Cup milk
.25 Teaspoon salt
2 oz melted chocolate
vanilla extract, to taste

Cream butter and sugar, then add well-beaten eggs. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add flour to eggs, alternating with milk. Stir in chocolate and vanilla. Bake on hot waffle iron. “Serve with whipped cream or XXXX sugar.”

Recipe adapted from “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland”

Sources: Mary Randolph

November 25, 2015January 17, 2021

Mary Randolph, Library of Virginia

Interest in culinary history tends to enjoy a boost around this time of year. Some excellent pieces have been written illuminating the historical foods consumed on Thanksgiving. As though our own traditions are not authentic or traditional enough, many of us feel compelled to dig into the origins of the very day that defines the word ‘tradition’ in the United States.

I admit to being less concerned with what the Pilgrims ate than I am with the foods found on Maryland tables for the holiday.

While there is some overlap, Marylanders and many Southerners especially may find that many of our Thanksgiving favorites made their way to the table through the same thorny and winding path as the other foods we know well.

One source that I cross-reference for this website is not a Maryland cookbook at all. Nonetheless, Mary Randolph’s 1824 book “The Virginia Housewife” is a crucial text whether you want to dissect the lineage of your “candied yams” or the so-called “Maryland Beaten Biscuits.”

Interpreter Pam Williams working from “The Virginia Housewife” at the Hays House, Bel Air

Mary Randolph was born in 1762, near Richmond, to a prominent Virginia family. In 1780 she married a cousin, David Meade Randolph. Mary Randolph was well-respected as the lady of their estate “Moldovia” and its slaves and servants.

It is claimed that Mary Randolph’s hostessing was so widely famous that Gabriel [no last name], an enslaved man who led an unsuccessful rebellion of slaves in the Richmond area, would spare her life to cook for him though he hoped to kill other slaveholders. This story is dubious as it is likely that a man fighting for the freedom of enslaved Virginians would be aware of who did the heavy lifting in the kitchen at Moldovia.

The Randolphs and their Federalist ties became their undoing when Thomas Jefferson removed his cousin David Meade Randolph from the position of Federal Marshal in 1802. Evidently the extravagant hospitality left little room for savings and the family’s finances soon went into decline. Mary’s enterprising solution was to open a boarding house in Richmond in 1808. For the next ten years, the venture expanded Mary Randolph’s fame as a hostess and cook.
The cookbook (containing many other household hints) came out in 1824, with a stated purpose that is fairly typical of old cookbooks: the altruistic intention of the book was to educate young housewives.

Advertisement in the Frederick Town Herald, 1832

New editions of the book continued to be printed for decades after. Mary Randolph died in 1828 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

It is said that the book’s significance lies in its snapshot of the birth of true American cooking. While Amelia Simmons’ 1796 book “American Cookery” is considered the first American cookbook, Randolph did more than just incorporate some American ingredients to British recipes. Randolph’s book does not simply “make do” with the ingredients available to cooks in the young country – it celebrates them. “The Virginia Housewife” can be surprising in its adventurism, from Gazpacho to the loads of garlic found in some recipes. That spirit lays at the foundation of Southern cuisine.

This is why I have no intention of recreating humble, modestly seasoned dishes for Thanksgiving. Making the most of what we have in this day and age is not a necessity as it was to Simmons, it is a joy, as it was to Randolph, and to Jane Gilmor Howard after her. It IS the tradition that we carry on during the holidays and beyond.

My favorite passage from “The Virginia Housewife” demonstrates the meticulousness Mary Randolph was known for

Southern Heritage Cookbook Library

Interview: Joyce White

September 30, 2015January 13, 2019

Joyce White kitchen demo, Hampton Mansion

In a way, White Potato Pie led me into the world of uniquely Maryland food, and so it is fitting that it also led me to the website of one Joyce White, culinary historian.

As the foremost expert in Maryland food (in this author’s humble estimation), Joyce White’s expertise spans far beyond that into American and European historic foodways. She has recently curated a Maryland exhibit at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum (oh no, someone called Maryland the South! Here come the angry letters from all sides). I recently had the privilege of attending one of her engaging demonstrations, and I would recommend that food history enthusiasts follow her website for updates on similar opportunities. She has appeared at countless museums and libraries such as the Maryland Historical Society, Riversdale House, Sandy Spring, and the Charles County library, plus senior centers, genealogical societies and similar venues all over the DC/Maryland region. Although she has not authored any print publications currently, she may be writing a book on late 18th – early 19th century baking in America, highlighting British origins of the recipes.

A little bit about yourself and the path that led you to be a food historian:

I started out with food history as an intern at the Geneva Historical Society in New York State during college. I was forced to dress as an 1840s kitchen maid for a program for local 4th graders, I had to make a cake with them in the hearth. I never had done any historical cooking before, nor had I ever even built a fire. It was a good way to immerse myself in open hearth cooking as I had to do this several times per week over the course of the spring semester.

What type of perspective do you think that your work has given you into Maryland/American/World history?
I have learned so much and am continually learning every day. What I enjoy is being able to make connections between time periods (change over time),
regionalism (how the local economy, natural landscape, and rate of immigration and industrialization) affects the food choices that are made. I try to focus less on the origins of foods and more on what makes them persist within a culture. How do recipes adapt over time? Do recipes fall out of fashion and why? How are old world food traditions incorporated in a new world setting and time?

Do you have particular favorite “culinary eras” or geographic regions?
I seem to spend lots of time on eastern US foods from the late 18th – late 19th century. It is a time in Maryland that is still very British in foundations but also a time when a definite American angle becomes obvious in the food choices made. For example, hominy corn (a very American crop associated with lower classes originally from settlement through the 18th century) eventually becomes popular with all classes in Maryland (hominy croquettes found on a high class menu for Baltimore’s Hotel Rennert by the late 19th c.).

Have you noticed any increase/decrease in public interest in culinary history and if so do you have theories as to why?
People seem to be very interested in my programs. Of course, I try to provide topic options that are appealing such as Chocolate, Tea, Maryland, and Dessert.
It also doesn’t hurt that I offer samples at the end of all of my programs! I am actually at a point where I have to decline invitations to speak because there just aren’t enough days in the week and hours in the day for me to do it all.

Are there any other historians, writers, chefs, whose work you admire or who have influenced you?
Ivan Day, British Food Historian
Peter Brears, British Food Historian
Susan Plaisted, Pennsylvania Food Historian
Leni Sorenson, Monticello
Michael Twitty, Kosher Soul
Elizabeth David, cookbook author
The Two Fat Ladies (mainly for their very British take on things and humor)
And many more …

You contributed to an exhibit on Maryland food at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum – can you tell us anything about that for those of us who haven’t seen it?
I wish I could – I haven’t seen it yet! The exhibit was just installed this past spring. I did the research but was not involved in the actual exhibit design and
installation. There is a bit of anxiety in this type of collaboration because I cannot be sure those on-site will interpret my research correctly. A trip to New Orleans is on the list and I will hopefully get there sooner rather than later.

Do you still do any active research/learning and if so, what type of subjects are you exploring?
Always. I am constantly researching and revising all of my current programs and always thinking of new program topics. I am looking at creating programs based on the foods of Jane Austen, the foods of the Edwardian period for a Downton Abbey program, and the foods of Shakespeare.

What comes to mind when you think about Maryland food traditions specifically? Anything particularly unique or notable?

Recipe fossils, meaning something that was popular at one time but not so much any more:

White Potato Pie (look at my blog for that one);
Baltimore Fish Peppers: a type of very spicy African serrano pepper that was picked unripened and dried. It was made into a powder used to spice fish dishes (the light color of the unripe pepper did not discolor the fish dishes). Very popular in the late 19th century, not anymore though.

Beer – Baltimore was flooded with breweries in the 19th century. There were 40 breweries by the end of the century!

Muskrat – An Eastern Shore tradition popularized during the Great Depression of the 1930s

Pennsylvania Dutch Influences:

Smearcase Cheesecake
Scrapple
Pot Pie
Fastnacht donuts for Shrove Tuesday
Markets
And many others …

German influence: Sauerkraut with turkey for Thanksgiving and pork for New Year’s Day

What, if anything, do you feel is left for culinary historians to learn at this juncture? Are there any particular resources that haven’t been tapped to their fullest potential?
There is always more to learn. I would love to spend several days exploring local and national archives looking for hand written recipe manuscripts and journals dating as far back as possible. You can get a fantastic insight into the preferences of our ancestors by looking at their personal recipe books. You can
see which recipes are more popular than others (grease stains, notations in the corner, etc), and you can really see what types of crops were popular on a
seasonal basis. If only there were more hours in each day!

Joyce White’s Nutmeg Grater

Any ways in which your work has affected your home/personal cooking habits?
My family is less than enthusiastic about most of the historic cooking I do. I get made fun of a lot. My husband calls me Martha Washington Stewart! However, they are happy for me to try new things as long as I have a back-up in case they don’t like my experiments. I live with some very picky eaters!

Visit “A Taste of History with Joyce White”

Maryland Fried Chicken: lets do this

May 12, 2015January 13, 2019

Much like scrapple, Maryland fried chicken is a topic that I intend to revisit on Old Line Plate many times. There’s a lot of background, a lot of recipes, and enough confusion to go around.

So what IS “Maryland fried chicken”?

There is a European dish known as Chicken Maryland or Chicken a la Maryland, usually featuring bananas. This is probably the dish that is now famously known to have been on the menu of the Titanic.

There is a vanishing regional chain (outside of Maryland) known as Maryland Fried Chicken. Their main website is now shilling viagra and I never had the chance to try this chicken.

There are also some who would insist that Old Bay is essential to Maryland fried chicken. Old Bay and chicken make a fine combo but that is the kind of myopic thinking this blog stands firmly against.

There is also a controversial, questionable step included in some Maryland fried chicken recipes that flies in the face of modern fried chicken preference. That step entails steaming the chicken in the pan after frying it. This results in a very tender chicken but eliminates the crispiness. Sacrilege to some!

Fear not, that step is not essential. I am not sure when it became popularized but BC Howard’s book “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen” mentions no such thing. It appears in two of the five fried chicken recipes in Eat, Drink and Be Merry in Maryland.

In my estimation, the main defining characteristic of Maryland fried chicken is the pan scraping cream gravy. Fried chicken is served up in this manner throughout the South but various sources throughout the years offer this style as “Maryland fried chicken.”

My primary source for cooking this time was ‘50 Years in a Maryland Kitchen’. I also referenced the recipes that appear in ‘Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland.’

Albert H. McCarthy of Carvel Hall Hotel (erstwhile and now once again the Paca House) contributed the instructions:

“Cut young chicken into pieces and rub with salt, pepper and flour. Fry in hot fat to half cover the chicken until right brown. Serve with a cream gravy and waffles.”

BC Howard included a step which I feel is indispensable – brining the chicken. Her brine consisted solely of salt and water but I took a cue from my modern reference, a book called “Heritage” by Sean Brock.

I checked this book out from the library and it is beautiful but a lot of the cooking is fussy for my purposes. However, the author seems charming and gained my trust so I went with his brine which contains salt, sugar, and the secret ingredient of tea. He pan fried the chicken in many fats and topped it with the gravy (no mention of Maryland…)

The resulting chicken was very good but to my surprise it tasted like tea. (I’m not the brightest..)

In the future, to make sure that I enjoy the most Maryland flavor in my chicken I will probably stick with a salt & sugar brine only.

My next iteration of Maryland Fried Chicken will include the steaming step and a discussion of those who employed it throughout my recipe collection.

Maybe we can decide once and for all whether it is worth the sacrifice of crispiness – or perhaps whether there is room for both in life.

Recipe:

1 gallon water
38 tea bags (optional! or use less!)
1 cup salt
1 cup sugar
salt
pepper, black
flour
fat (oil, lard, bacon fat, etc.)
chicken
more salt
more flour
butter
cream
parsley

Put the water in a pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from the stove, add the tea bags, and let them steep for 8 minutes. Remove the tea bags, or strain the liquid if you used loose tea. Add the salt and sugar to the hot water and stir to dissolve them. Pour the brine into a heatproof container and cool it to room temperature, then refrigerate until completely cold.

Cut the chicken into 8 pieces. Rinse with cold water. Place in the brine, cover, and
refrigerate for 12 hours.

After the chicken has spent 12 hours in the brine, make an ice bath in a
large bowl with equal amounts of ice and water. Place the chicken in
the ice bath for 5 minutes. (the ice will rinse away any impurities.)
Remove the chicken and pat it dry.

Season the chicken with pepper and then cover with flour (lightly salted). Cook bacon in skillet and set aside. Add additional oils until frying temperature and add the chicken pieces, turning and stirring them about to keep them from burning. It takes half an hour. Move to a towel to drain. Pour off off all the fat and melt a tablespoon or so of butter with an equal amount of flour. Add cream, parsley, salt and pepper. Stir until thickened. Pour this over the chickens and serve with waffles.

note: due to the tea this chicken looks much darker than it would otherwise

Adapted from ‘Eat, Drink and Be Merry in Maryland’, ‘Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen’, ‘Heritage.’

Washington City Paper: The Mystery of Maryland Fried Chicken

Mid-Atlantic Cooking Blog: Maryland Fried Chicken

Scrapple, a first attempt

April 21, 2015April 16, 2019

In 2007, my friend hosted a “gross food” party. Everyone was requested to bring something from their childhood, a family favorite perhaps, something that might strike outsiders as a little gross.
Ketchup Fried Rice was enjoyed. There was Ribs & Kraut. Some bozo who didn’t catch the net brought Popeyes. I took the opportunity to slice up a block of RAPA Scrapple, cook it to ideal crispness on each side, and then fold each slice in a piece of un-toasted white bread.

It was in this manner that scrapple was served at my grandparents’ trailer in Chincoteague, to a line of kids and about half as many adults before the tedious ritual of beach preparations or fishing trips.

Scrapple, Lexington Market

I checked with my grandmother and she says that she remembers eating scrapple her whole life. She also remembers ‘Panhas’ as a distinct but similar food from scrapple with a higher cornmeal content, whereas William Woys Weaver’s wonderful book “Country Scrapple” gives the impression that they are in fact the same thing.

My grandmother also stated that she believed scrapple originated in the South. This is a common misconception but scrapple is a Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland thing – with possible Native American and definite German origins, as well as regional adaptations and variations such as the Cincinnati specialty “Goetta,” featuring oats in lieu of cornmeal. Early recipes often featured buckwheat flour, and the selection of organs and meats used seems to vary to this day.

According to Weaver, the oldest datable recipe for American scrapple comes from Elizabeth Ellicott Lea, a Marylander (as the name makes clear) and Quaker who published her cookbook “Domestic Cookery” in 1845.
It is also stated that “the oldest scrapple maker still in business is Hemp’s in Jefferson Maryland,” founded in 1849.
Before that time, scrapple was made at home, often outdoors and in conjunction with sausage making.

“One [industrial era scrapple manufacturer] company does merit a mention, as it is a reminder that Baltimore is as much a scrapple town as Philadelphia. (Mencken disagrees – ed.) Henry Green Parks Jr. (1917-89), an African-American. began Parks Sausage Company in Baltimore in 1951. He converted an old dairy plant and soon put himself in open competition with firms like Rapa, which was essentially a Baltimore label. “More Parks sausages, Mom,” on radio advertisements is still remembered by many people today. The well-known Parks scrapple was the only Afircan-American brand to become a household word on a regional level.“ – Country Scrapple, William Woys Weaver

Parks went under and was bought by Dietz & Watson in 1999.

Source: Observer-Reporter, 1996

I’ve long held a defensiveness over the bad rep that Scrapple gets due to its name, and in the past I’ve jumped on the opportunity to serve it right. This however was my first time making it from scratch.

I started with a recipe for Scrapple from Mrs. J Morsell Roberts from “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland” but I also referenced a recipe from “Maryland’s Way,” the Hammond-Harwood House cookbook, and one from ”Chesapeake Bay Cooking“ by John Shields. His book is an excellent cookbook in itself but a valuable cross-reference for some of these minimal old recipes.

It’s lucky for us that Scrapple is so visually appealing because I haven’t found any good images for Mrs. or Mr. J Morsell Roberts.

The extent of my information is this:

Mr. J. Morsell Roberts died [1937 at] Calvert County Hospital.
Mr. Roberts was a member of an old Calvert county family, a son of the late Richard Roberts and Henrietta Morsell Roberts, and was very well known…. He was the husband of Mrs. Mollie Bond Roberts. – Calvert Gazette on mdhistory.net

I picked up a jowl at Lexington Market but I had to get the liver from a butcher shop. Perhaps I could have just gotten both at the latter and worked without the smoky jowl. I rinsed it, and the smoke flavor isn’t bad or overwhelming but it isn’t necessary.

Hog parts, Lexington Market

I also made my scrapple quite fatty. This was my first hog jowl experience. They are all fat. Weaver claims that the amount of fat included in scrapple increased over time due to various cultural factors. Mine may have taken it to new extremes. His book contains many recipes for scrapple. I intend to try some more this summer.
Lastly, my scrapple was a bit mushy. In a way, the mushiness ensured that it must be cooked properly, as it was impossible to flip until it had been well-crisped on one side.

There could be more to explore with scrapple in the future. Frankly, before reading Weavers book I had underestimated its very Maryland-ness. Any remnant of shame over this repulsive delight is purged from within me.

Recipe:

1 hog jowl
1 pork liver
salt
pepper, black
sage and/or other seasonings of choice
cornmeal
flour

Boil the jowl until the meat falls from the bone. (I did this in the slow cooker and added some onions I had to add flavor to the stock. Removed the onions later.) Save liquor it is boiled in. In a separate dish, soak the liver, changing water several times. Boil liver in separate water from jowl; throw this water away. Run all the meat through sausage cutter, then throw it in the reserved stock, season with salt, pepper, sage or other desired seasonings. Thicken with cornmeal the consistency of thin mush. Chill in a pan. To fry, heat a skillet with a very small amount of oil. Dredge slices in flour and fry until very crisp, turning once.