desserts Archives - Page 7 of 9

Black Walnut Cake

November 25, 2016January 13, 2019

“An old almanac in the Goschenhoppen Folklife Library contains a woodcut showing a farm boy with a baseball-bat size club whacking away at a walnut tree. The late Thomas R. Brendle records the practice of waking-up young fruit and nut trees that are reluctant to start bearing by beating them with club. The folk practice dictates that the trees were to be beaten on New Year’s Day in the morning without speaking. A current arborist write that this is not complete nonsense. Apparently if a young apple tree, for example, has reached the age when it should start to bear and it just doesn’t flower, during the winter when it is dormant a beating with a padded club and a vigorous twisting of the limbs traumatizes and shocks the tree into its normal cycle.” – The Historian: Black walnuts in local culture, Berks-Mont News

A search of early era newspapers for “Black Walnut” turns up a lot of talk about furniture. And this may be what the trees are primarily known for today. But today, foragers know that the smelly, stain-causing green projectiles launched from black walnut trees contain a tasty little treasure for those willing to do the work to get them out.

It is actually surprising that black walnuts didn’t catch on sooner with Euro-Americans, because their flavor is very floral and perfumey – fitting in well with the rose or orange flower water flavorings that were common in desserts of the era. But with Chesapeake abundance, it could be easy to overlook such tough nut to crack. I harvested some black walnuts last year, dried them out, and had Burgersub drive over them with his car, but they came out too pulverized for use. Mom says that my grandmother smashes them with a hammer – but then she has smaller more nimble hands for picking the nutmeats out of the walnut chambers. This year, I bought them at the farmer’s market, conveniently shelled and ready for use.

Black walnuts were widely consumed by Native Americans, and the practical Pennsylvania Dutch (and their Maryland counterparts) have long used the nuts and the trees’ wood. One Pennsylvania writer has said that Black Walnut Cake was a Thanksgiving tradition in his family.

Elizabeth Ellicott Lea’s Black Walnut notes, “Domestic Cookery,” 1859

Many older Maryland recipes for Black Walnut Cake resemble a pound cake, but I chose a lighter cake from “Maryland’s Way,” contributed by a Ruby Duval of Annapolis (1891-1976). This cake contains baking powder, and uses only the beaten whites of the eggs. Food writer Clementine Paddleford wrote of a similar recipe, hailing from Kansas, in 1952.

I recently learned from “Maryland’s Chesapeake” by Neal and Kathy Wielech Patterson that The Maryland Department of Natural Resources sometimes collects donated bushels of black walnuts in order to grow them into seedlings to be planted along streams. This program, called “Stream ReLeaf,” plants native trees to curb erosion and runoff – ultimately resulting in a healthier and cleaner Chesapeake Bay. If you’ve ever seen the piles and piles of nuts dropped by a black walnut when it’s having an abundant year, you may be reassured that you can have this cake and a clean bay too. Ugh, nevermind, just eat some cake and watch out for the shells because you can break a tooth.

Recipe:

1 Cup butter
2 Cup sugar
3 Cup flour
2 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Cup milk
1 Cup black walnut meats
5 egg whites
Powdered sugar
almond extract or other flavoring

Preheat oven to 350°.

Cream butter, gradually beat in sugar, mixing until smooth and fluffy. Sift together flour and baking powder. Gradually add flour and milk to creamed butter/sugar, alternating, beginning and ending with flour. Gently fold in beaten egg whites and walnut meats, keeping light but mixing thoroughly. Pour into bundt pan that has been greased and floured; bake for 45 minutes or until lightly browned.

Wet powdered sugar with almond flavoring and/or water and mix until smooth. Spread over cake while it is still slightly warm.

Recipe adapted from Maryland’s Way: The Hammond-Harwood House Cookbook

One Hundred Dollar Fudge

November 13, 2016January 13, 2019

In 1971, a woman in Fruitland, MD, recovering from an illness, took out an ad in the Salisbury Daily Times to express gratitude towards the “many friends who contributed in any way” towards her recovery. She thanked friends, neighbors, ambulance drivers, doctors, her Pastor, and she praised the Lord. She also thanked “Bill Phillips and the many Party Line listeners” – for the cards, flowers, phone calls and cash donations that they provided in her time of need.

For over thirty years, Party Line was one of the most popular radio shows on the Eastern Shore. Hosted by onetime station manager William Phillips on the WICO country music station, “Party Line” served as a forum where listeners could call in to buy, sell and swap anything from outboard motors to exotic birds. The idea of Craigslist as a morning talk show may seem confusing, but by all accounts, the show’s popularity could be attributed to Phillips himself, who charmed listeners with “folksy chit-chat” – and a sense of community so strong that it mobilized listeners to care for one-another in times of need. An oft-repeated anecdote about the show involves a woman who called to report that her husband lost his dentures on the beach – later found by another Party Line listener, of course.

The nature of radio broadcasts is somewhat ephemeral – and an on-air flea-market even more so. But the show has left behind a lasting legacy in the form of a beloved cookbook sourced from its many listeners. Eastern Shore natives still seek out copies and share memories of the tattered copies of this book serving faithfully in their family kitchens. According to the book’s preface, “What is Cooking On Party Line” received 1400 contributions from listeners.

The resulting book gives an overview of what was cooking in Eastern Shore kitchens around 1983. From the first recipe for “Cheddar Cheese Balls” to the final recipe, “Red Pepper Jelly,” the collection demonstrates that food habits from a particular time and place can’t be easily pigeonholed or stereotyped. While there are many convenience recipes associated with the 1970s, featuring processed ingredients such as Kool-Aid and Cheez-Whiz, there are also recipes that have obviously been passed down for generations, for pickling and preserving, or serving up game like muskrat, possum, and woodchuck. Eight different corn pudding recipes are included. There are, of course, nearly 40 recipes featuring crab. The book also weaves prayers throughout, a constant reminder of spirituality and its ties to the kitchen.

My own copy has a previous owner’s index of favorite recipes hand-written in the back cover- mostly for some of the cakes. When the compilers of “What is Cooking on Party Line” received multiple submissions of very similar recipes, they attribute the recipe to multiple names. It’s interesting to observe the way the recipes had spread and been shared, even before this popular cookbook was published.

I decided to make one of the more ‘popular’ recipes and so I made “One Hundred Dollar Fudge,” a recipe with seven names listed underneath. I didn’t have marshmallow fluff so I made it from marshmallows. I would actually recommend this step to others who make the fudge. The corn syrup in the fluff controls sugar crystallization, and my fudge came out so smooth that it got comments on that fact.

1966 ad for a political appearance on “Party Line”

William Phillips passed away in November 1994, and the show came to an end. WICO Program Director Dave Parks recalled “he was one of the last local superstars in radio. One of a dying breed. He was known all over the Eastern Shore. He was like a Hollywood star here. He endured because of his personality. He really was Mr. Radio.”

Some younger cooks who have inherited copies of the book may have never heard the show, but many people still recall it fondly and can sing the jingle by heart.

“Hello.
Is this the party line?
Yes, it’s your party line and it’s time for all the gossip on your party line.
What’s goin’ on, tell us who, when and how?
Well, just listen in to your party line now.
WICO Radio brings you the latest on your party line, party line.”

Recipe:

2 sticks margarine or butter
4 ½ c. sugar
1 can evaporated milk

Cook over medium high heat and bring to a rapid boil, stirring constantly. Boil exactly 5 minutes, remove from heat and add:

3 c. (18 oz.) chocolate chips
9 oz. jar marshmallow creme

Stir until melted. Add:

2 Tbsp vanilla
½ c. nuts
1 c. peanut butter (optional)

Pour into buttered 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Set in refrigerator overnight. Then set out two hours before cutting or it will crumble. Makes 5 lbs. of fudge.

Macaroons No. 2, Miss Tyson

July 24, 2016June 8, 2022

This is another entry laden with tedious detective work, my unrestrained fanaticism ruining any possibility of ever attracting repeat readers.
I’ll try to keep it brief.

According to “The American Magazine and Historical Chronicle“, 1987, “famed Baltimore hostess, Mrs. B.C. Howard, compiled the earliest charity cookbook published in Maryland, Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen’(Baltimore, 1873).” Certainly, “50 years” is one of the more famous and important of Maryland cookbooks.

A few months ago, in my quest to print-on-demand every Maryland cookbook in the public domain, I found a lesser-known Maryland cookbook entitled “Queen of the Kitchen,” written by a mysterious “Miss Tyson” or “M. L. Tyson” in 1870. The name of course resonated but Tyson is no Paca, Howard or even Pratt – not as unquestionably Maryland upper-crust.

“Queen of the Kitchen” certainly disseminated around Maryland. Some of the recipes in “Maryland’s Way” came from different Marylanders’ personal copies of the book.

When I began to enter the recipes into my database I noticed something – many of the recipes were strikingly similar to recipes in “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen.” Copying recipes into new cookbooks hardly qualified as plagiarism at the time. It was rampant. Still, it is pretty interesting to see the source of so many recipes from Mrs. B.C. Howard’s book!

Howard may have owned a copy of the book, or she may have known Tyson and they both sourced the recipes from common friends or from each-other.

So… who was M. L. Tyson?

Apparently “Queen of the Kitchen” was a cookbook by a Baltimore woman, published to raise money to build an Episcopal church in Oakland Maryland. Kind of random but… ok.

By researching the church I was able to determine that M.L. Tyson was Mary Lloyd Tyson, born in 1843. And she was indeed Maryland upper-crust. Mary Tyson’s mother was none other than Rebecca Ann Key, cousin of Francis Scott Key. Her father, physician and planner Alexander H. Tyson was Rebecca’s second husband. According to accounts, Rebecca Ann Key was a stunning woman.

“What was she, you will ask—she was no Queen or Goddess—she represented
no character in Shakespeare—neither was she attired in any costume as a
princess—she was herself only and as herself dressed in some white
material familiar to you ladies, but unknown to me. She paraded through
those rooms—crowded with all the beauty of this city of beauties—the
acknowledged Queen of the Night—not that she received more attention,
but she elicited the most admiration.” – “Some Account of Mr. and Mrs. Cohen’s Fancy Ball,” MDHS Underbelly blog

It’s agonized me that I could not find her portrait.

Dr. William Howard’s home, Charles and Franklin Street, (loc.gov)

So anyway, Rebecca’s FIRST husband was William Howard. William was Benjamin Howard’s brother. Basically, Mrs. B.C. Howard and M.L. Tyson were related, and certainly knew one-another.

What’s more, Mary Tyson’s half brother, William Key Howard, married a woman named Clara Haxall Randolph in 1860. Clara was Mary Randolph’s niece. How about that!

There’s a few other asides. Pretty much all of the people involved were Confederate sympathizers – William Key served in the war. Here is his picture:

findagrave.com

Mary’s younger sister Nannie married an actor named Robert Lee Keeling. He was twenty years younger than her. Future mayor James H. Preston (I made his corn pone) was an usher at their wedding. The marriage quickly soured. Robert Lee Keeling went on to become a celebrated painter of miniature portraits.

When “Queen of the Kitchen” was published, Mary Lloyd Tyson was a single woman of 27. She was likely not the female head of her household as her mother was still alive. (As opposed to Mrs. B.C. Howard who was 72 when her book was published.)

I think the Tyson’s lived here, on the 500 block of Park Avenue (loc.gov)

Mary Tyson became Mrs. George Tucker in 1875. The Tuckers resided in Virginia. Both Rebecca Ann Key and Mary’s sister Nannie spent their final days there, and Mary herself passed away in 1908.

I made Tyson’s macaroons – what would today be called ‘macarons’. This is not one of the recipes that Howard reprinted, although she did use a second macaroon recipe, with slight adjustments. The Tysons lived in Baltimore city, not far from Belvidere at all. Especially considering that M.L. Tyson was not the head of her household at the time of the books publication, the families might have shared receipts.

I don’t have a good way to finish this post but if you’ve made it this far, what does it matter? These cookies were delicious for the record.

(Strawberry) Extract for Ice Cream

July 8, 2016May 31, 2019

While vacationing in 2015, on a day drive down the Delmarva peninsula, we found ourselves in the relatively sparse landscape of Bloxom, VA. We spotted a striped truck off of Route 13 with stenciled letters announcing “Mi Pequeña Taqueria” and pulled over into the scorching parking lot where this taco truck stood. We enjoyed classic tacos filled with meltingly tender tongue or smoky pork prepared ‘al pastor’, and topped with a modest sprinkling of diced tomato and onions. Optional hot sauce waited at the picnic table. This taco truck and the syndicated Spanish-language radio station we listened to were the only indications of another side of the Eastern Shore.

Every summer, droves of people pass to and from the beaches and beach towns, crowding into the narrow slices of paradise in an attempt to squeeze the most joy out of summer vacation days. Off of the back roads is a hidden workforce for whom summer means the opposite of vacation. Summer means crops to be harvested, one after another: strawberries, beans, tomatoes, fruit – first down South and then further North as the climate ripens crop after crop.

Aubrey Bodine, “Strawberry Picking” Marion Station 1953 (preservationmaryland.org)

As I did research on Strawberries for this post and the previous strawberry post, I was struck by the transience, the true impermanence of this workforce. Whereas immigrant groups have been known to come for the labor, weaving new traditions into local culture, and some people settling down to become a permanent part of it, farm labor is so seasonal and isolated that some of us may hardly know that thousands of people are living nearby.

In our region, it seems pretty glaring that the economic predecessor to this work force was slavery.

After emancipation, the system of labor migration fell into place. In some instances, employers were even caught re-enslaving their “employees.” Involuntary servitude cases occur to this day.

An 1891 Baltimore Sun article described the life of strawberry pickers living in the “farm barracks”:

“About ten thousand men, women and children, armed with cooking utensils and bed clothing, have just invaded Anne Arundel county. Here they will remain until the last vestige of the season’s crop of berries, peas and beans have disappeared… The strawberry pickers are recruited from the neighborhoods about the packing-houses in Baltimore, and they are of almost every nationality. Bohemians, Poles and Germans predominate, with a fair sprinkling of Americans, Italians and colored people.

The barracks where the pickers live while on the farms vary according to the means of the farmer and the size of the patch… often they are simply old tenant houses… The life is as near gypsy-like as anything can be. The first thing done is to build a fireplace of mud in the open air, which is used in common by all the pickers.” – Army of Harvesters, The Sun May 27, 1891

Despite describing the sparse sleeping quarters where workers “sleep close” sometimes even sleeping outside, plus the long hours, and the watchful eyes of the “row boss” ensuring they don’t “eat as many berries as they pick,” the article depicts the situation as a fun “summer vacation” for the workers.

In 1900 the Sun reported that hundreds of African-Americans from the Eastern shore flocked to the strawberry-picking jobs in Anne Arundel County and then in Delaware. This was the height of the strawberry boom and there were not enough laborers to go around.

The labor shortage didn’t last long, however, and job competition may have fueled a spate of terrorism in 1937, as black laborers’ cabins in Somerset County were mysteriously burned to the ground. Several people were killed, and although a coroner’s jury ruled the fires an accident, the State’s Attorney was on record suspecting foul play. The Sun pointed out that even accidental fires should have merited scrutiny of the housing conditions.

Shortly after, an ample labor source came from WWII “prisoners of war.” A few of the camps were later used to house migrant workers.

The state created a commission to tackle the issues of housing and healthcare for the large force of migrant workers in Maryland. Their reports offer at least some insight into the demographics of workers and their lives in labor camps.

Abandoned Migrant Camp, Bishopville MD, Lee Cannon

The commission reported in 1983 that of the 57 licensed migrant camps in Maryland “more than a third experienced major deficiencies in meeting established health and safety standards.” Westover was a particularly infamous large camp in Somerset County:

“The Westover Camp, once a World War II holding pen for German prisoners, has acquired such notoriety that migrants from as far away as Texas refuse to stay there… Families live in single-room units without running water. Most units have refrigerators and small gas plates for cooking; sometimes doors, sometimes not. Latrines offer stools without stalls, gang showers with no privacy… ditches filled with stagnant water and.. gaping bins of garbage…” – Migrant Workers on Maryland’s Eastern Shore (1983)

In 2014, public health official Thurka Sangaramoorthy reported on her blog that she was “astonished” at the camp’s cleanliness and upkeep, considering its past reputation.

Sangaramoorthy’s website offers a more recent look into the humanitarian issues that still exist in some of Maryland’s labor camps.

While the workforce is now comprised largely of people of Mexican origin, there have been varying percentages of African-American, Haitian, Guatemalan, and Puerto Rican people making up significant numbers of workers over the years. Workers keep to each-other and their families, and travel too frequently to leave many obvious signs of influence on local culture. Aside from the occasional taco truck spotting, many Marylanders have no awareness about this aspect of our economy. And yet most of us partake in it- at the grocery store, the produce stand, and yes, when we eat those ‘fancy’ tacos on the way home from the beach.

Recipe:

1 Pint sharp vinegar
5 Quart strawberry
1 Lb brown sugar

“1 pint sharp vinegar poured on 1 quart of strawberries, to remain 24 hours. Then strain it on a second quart of fruit, and so on until you get the extract from 5 quarts of strawberries; add to it, 1 pound of brown sugar. Then boil and keep skimmed; then let it cool before bottling it. Cork it tightly and keep it in a cool place.Extract of raspberries may be made in the same way.”

Recipe from “The Queen of the Kitchen: a collection of “old Maryland” family receipts for cooking” by M. L Tyson

Extract shown next to Preserved Strawberries

(mini) Smith Island Cake

July 4, 2016January 13, 2019

“Effective October 1, 2008, the Smith Island Cake became the State Dessert of Maryland (Chapters 164 & 165, Acts of 2008; Code General Provisions Article, sec. 7-313). Traditionally, the cake consists of eight to ten layers of yellow cake with chocolate frosting between each layer and slathered over the whole. However, many variations have evolved, both in the flavors for frosting and the cake itself” – Maryland Manual On-line

I confess to being a onetime Smith Island Cake skeptic. When the layer-cake was declared the state dessert in 2008 I was baffled. What of the white potato pie? Or Lady Baltimore? (Not a Maryland cake by the way. Shame on me.) And then, in my haste to try this famed cake, I ordered up a slice at one of the many restaurants along Route 50 boasting the dessert. Hoping to lure in tourists on their way to or from the beach, many such establishments scrambled to procure some form of “Smith Island Cake.” I was disappointed by nine dry, lifeless layers, probably straight from Sysco, foe of all that is authentic.

I was missing the point of the Smith Island Cake Act. This cake wasn’t coronated to reign above all other Maryland desserts and to add a token “must try” to diners’ lists for corporations to cash in on. This is about more than cake. It is about recognizing a unique place and culture in our state.

Smith Island Cultural Center | Ewell, MD

Many Marylanders have, unbeknownst to us, had Smith Islanders to thank for our soft crabs and crab cakes, dishes widely known and ‘owned’ from the shore up through the panhandle. When you eliminate the clams, crabs, oysters, and fish that comprise the seafood-centric sustenance of Smith Islanders, what is left to distill into an emblem of tradition and the meticulousness of skilled island cooks is Smith Island Cake.

It is hard to pin down the cake’s origin from newspapers or books. The name “Smith Island Cake” is a relatively recent convention, and the number of layers varies and bloats through the ages. Some early news-writers mention trying the famous “seven layer cakes” of Smith Island. Layers eight, nine and ten have been slapped on in the last 20 years or so, with authority enough that many would scoff at seven layers today.

Mrs. J. Millard (Helen Avalynne) Tawes’ “My Favorite Maryland Recipes” features a seven-layer cake with a cake and chocolate icing composition that is nearly identical to available recipes for Smith Island Cake. Tawes grew up in Crisfield, the closest town on the mainland, a departure point for ferries to the Ewell community on Smith Island.

My 1981 copy of “Mrs. Kitching’s Smith Island Cookbook” does not include the recipe for the cake – it was added by popular demand to later editions in the 1990′s. According to “Ethnic American Food Today: A Cultural Encyclopedia” (2015, Lucy Long), “many incorrectly credited the late island hostess, innkeeper and cookbook author Frances Kitching with the cake’s appearance. She helped popularize it with the thousands of guests she served at her home and boarding house…“ This account claims that the thin layers were the result of a primitive wood oven in which it was hard to get a larger layer to rise properly.

Others maintain that the large icing ratio helped to preserve the cake for longer. The rising fame of the cake only serves to further confuse the cake’s true origin or ‘purpose’ – as if a cake ever needed a purpose.

At the risk of incurring the wrath of purists everywhere, I used Kitching’s recipe for the cake layers to make two miniature layer cakes, and swapped out a cream-cheese icing. I gave my tiny cakes a patriotic flair with food coloring, and I did a characteristically incompetent job of icing them. Nonetheless, the cakes were a hit; moist soft layers held together with a thin slathering of icing.

Smith Island Cake, Bayside Inn

In 2015 I visited the island. After a 30-minute breezy ferry ride to the Ewell community, we watched a video of a resident swiftly and expertly picking crabs for packing. I inquired into Mrs. Kitching’s old place – it had long since burned down. We strolled the streets for awhile. They resembled a sleepy Eastern Shore fishing community, but due to population (and land) loss it was even quieter. Occasional boat motors buzzed like cars on a distant highway, cicadas sang nearby. I was surprised to see pomegranate trees surviving the climate. Biting flies terrorized us, distracting from the picturesque calm summer day. We retreated indoors to Bayside Inn to finish our visit with a soft crab sandwich and yes, a slice of Smith Island Cake. I chose the “Peaches and Cream” variety. It was the best slice of cake I have ever tasted.

Recipe:

2 cups sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into chunks (1 cup)
5 eggs
3 cups flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1 cup evaporated milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
½ cup water

Cream together sugar and butter. Add eggs one at a time
and beat until smooth. Sift together flour, salt, and baking
powder. Mix into egg mixture one cup at a time. With mixer
running, slowly pour in the evaporated milk, then the vanilla
and water. Mix just until uniform.
Put three serving spoonfuls of batter in each of ten 9-inch
lightly greased pans, using the back of the spoon to spread evenly. Bake three layers at a time
on the middle rack of the oven at 350° for 8 minutes. A layer is done when you hold it near your
ear and you don’t hear it sizzle.
Start making the icing when the first layers go in the oven. Put the cake together as the layers
are finished. Let layers cool a couple of minutes in the pans. Run a spatula around the edge of
the pan and ease the layer out of the pan. Don’t worry if it tears; no one will notice when the
cake is finished. Use two and three serving spoonfuls of icing between each layer.
Cover the top and sides of the cake with the rest of the icing. Push icing that runs onto the plate
back onto the cake.

Smith Island Cake Recipe: visitsomerset.com

Cream Cheese Frosting: