I’ve been gradually getting to “know” Elizabeth Ellicott Lea a little better, and coming to really like her. At first her no-frills thrift seemed unexciting and maybe even a little stern. Certainly she doesn’t radiate the Maryland pride of other authors who boast their Maryland-ness in the titles of their cookbooks. Lea was a Quaker…
“Once upon a time, people were wont to talk about the strawberry season and to look forward to it with delightful expectation. It brought visions of strawberry shortcake with mashed berries… and there was the social angle, the strawberry festival which brought together the elite of the neighborhood… Gone are these amenities, sacrificed beneath the…
Though I’ve referenced her book a few times, I have been a bit neglectful in discussing Elizabeth Ellicott Lea, author of one of the oldest Maryland cookbooks. “Domestic cookery; useful receipts, and hints to young housekeepers” was first published in 1845, with several augmented editions printed in Baltimore in subsequent decades. In addition to famously…