Definition of olio 2a: a miscellaneous mixture : HODGEPODGE — Merriam-Webster
It didn’t take too many years of research for me to come to the disappointing realization that a lot of the romantic notions I’d held about recipes were simply not true. “Recipes” are not exact formulas. They can never really live up to the promise of conjuring up an exact place or time. Authenticity is a nebulous and possibly meaningless concept. Few recipes are truly as regional as we’d like to believe. Even fewer recipes were “invented” by any one cook or chef in some inspired moment.
Take the iconic crab cake: the ultimate ‘Maryland’ food. When I search for crab cakes in pre-1900s newspapers I find menu listings and recipes from Pennsylvania, California, New York, Texas, Kentucky… and more.
Other favorite recipes originated as corporate promotions, taking on a life of their own in the hands of home cooks until their unexciting origins become obscured.
I’ve come to accept all of this and I’ve largely dispensed with hierarchies of recipe value and validity.
Having said all that, how do I feel when I find a unique recipe, so unmistakably Maryland, created by a cook and spread organically by word of mouth? Pretty intrigued.
“A Spanish proverb says to make a good salad, four persons are necessary — A spendthrift, for oil; a miser, for vinegar; a barrister, for salt; and a madman to stir it up” – Tested Maryland Recipes
Unless you’re a die-hard salad fan, you probably haven’t been thinking to yourself “hell yeah it’s Salad Season!” For the most part you can get decent passable salad-makings year round.
Like so many things, salad used to be at the mercy of the seasons. A lot of the choice lettuces and herbs are “old world” – and though they’ve been here since the colonial days, they don’t appreciate the Maryland summer heat.
About this time of year in the 19th century, wealthy ladies were wowing their guests with artfully arranged salads served between dinner and dessert. Mary Randolph recommended gathering the lettuce and herbs early in the morning, and crisping the greens in cold (preferably ice) water before dressing. Other 19th century guides offered similar, if less precise, instructions:
“The Queen of the Kitchen, Old Maryland Receipts”, M.L. Tyson, 1874
Washed vegetables were sometimes dried with centrifugal force, just as they are in a salad spinner. This was done by placing them in a special basket and swinging it around.
An 1890 book lists a large assortment of ingredients that could make up this type of salad:
Salads — For these procure mustard and cress, borage, chervil, lettuce, parsley, mint, purslane, chives, burnet, nasturtium leaves and buds, fennel, sorrel, tarragon, corn salad, dandelions, chicory, escarole; water cresses, green onions, celery, leeks, lettuce, very young spinach leaves, the tender leaves of oyster plant, fresh mushrooms, young marshmallow shoots, and the fresh sprouts of winter turnips; also radishes, cucumbers, onions, cabbage, very young turnips, green peppers, and fresh tomatoes. Salad vegetables which can be cooked and allowed to cool and then made into salads are potatoes, beets, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, kohl-rabi, artichokes, string beans, green peas, asparagus, Brussel sprouts, spinach, dried haricot beans, Lima beans, lentils, and leeks; among the fruits are apples, pears, oranges, lemons, muskmelons, currants, gooseberries and barberries. – The New Practical Housekeeping, Estelle Wilcox, 1890
So… everything.
According to “Southern Provisions: The Creation and Revival of a Cuisine” by David S. Shields, popular lettuce varieties around the Baltimore area in the 1870s included butter lettuce, Simpson, and “curled Silesia.” He asserts that “both lettuce and celery… cultivated in Maryland [were] deemed of superior quality.”
For this post I tried out two types of classic salad dressings. The first recipe, for boiled dressing, was submitted to “Eat Drink & Be Merry in Maryland” by D. Charles Winebrener of Frederick County.
Boiled salad dressing is basically an alternative to mayonnaise-based dressing, and the predecessor of ranch. Boiled dressing is typically used for potato salads and cole slaw, but worked nicely with kale for a week’s worth of lunches.
Both of these dressings can be seasoned to taste with herbs and spices, and I opted to use a little ground chipotle powder in each.
I served the second dressing in in a somewhat more traditional salad based on the suggestions of Mary Randolph.
In her recipe she lays out, in typical great detail, her feelings on salad presentation:
“The Virginia Housewife: Or, Methodical Cook”, Mary Randolph, 1827
I also referenced my Maryland lady Mrs. B. C. Howard’s method. As is often the case, her treatments contain less seasonings than Randolph’s. The addition of a little sugar by Randolph is the mark of such an experienced cook.
“Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen”, Mrs. Benjamin Chew Howard, 1881
Edible oils used uncooked in this manner were sometimes generically called “salad oil.” I wondered about the oil available to these 19th century cooks. We can assume that even the gentry of this era consumed their fair share of rancid oils. Olive oil was available at the time, often known as “sweet oil.”
On the eve of the Revolution, a 1768 assembly in Annapolis called for a boycott of most goods imported from England.
Several Maryland counties entered into a resolution of non-importation of British “superfluities” and vowed to cease the import of horses, wine, beer, ale, beef, pork, butter, cheese, candles, refined sugar, and oil, “except salad oil.”
1769 Advertisement, Maryland Gazette, Annapolis
In the early 1800′s or late 1700′s, sunflower oil was developed and was sometimes used as an alternative to olive oil. In 1830, one national newspaper reported that “sun flower oil is likely to become an article of extensive manufacture in this country,” claiming that at “a large dinner party in the neighborhood of Baltimore recently .. a Salad, dressed with Sun-flower oil was eaten, and pronounced to be excellently well dressed, nobody expecting it not to be Olive Oil.”
Around that same time, in 1829, corn oil was discovered, “by accident in preparing mash for distillation.“ According to “corn.org” corn oil didn’t go into commercial production until 1889.
I strongly preferred the hard-boiled egg dressing for both flavor and convenience. I might just make this one a regular. What can I say – there is a reason Mary Randolph is a Southern Classic.
Boiled Salad Dressing
3 eggs, separated
1 cup of cream or half & half
¼ cup vinegar
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp salt
Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately, and slowly heat in a double boiler with vinegar, mustard, and pepper. Slowly stir in cream and continue to heat. When thick, stir in salt. Whisk constantly as it cools.
Recipe adapted from Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland
What does one do if they have too many tomatoes and no plans for an afternoon? Must be time to make a condiment.
Catsup, Ketchup… most people think tomatoes when they think of ketchup. In truth, the Tomato is a newcomer to the ketchup game, with previous recipes involving anything from walnuts to mushrooms to cucumbers.
I had hoped to make one of those sooner or later but the tomatoes became a pressing need before I got the chance.
With the assistance of a preserving-experienced friend, we worked from various recipes – primarily Mrs. B.C. Howard’s. Since I’ve already written all about her, we’ll have to focus on the ketchup for a bit.
The original aforementioned catsups derive from Chinese fish sauce variants dating to the early 1700s. Mushroom catsup in particular is called for in many of my old recipes as part of meat flavoring or as a component in sauces. Apparently tomato catsup hit the scene about a century after those sauces.
By the time of the 1881 publication of this recipe, tomato catsup had even been available in bottled form for over forty years. However, it seemed to experience a surge in popularity in the early 1900s – so much so that public health concerns were raised.
Books about ketchup report a number of companies bottling the condiment in Maryland. One brand, Fort Cumberland Catsup bottled in Cumberland, Maryland raised the ire of the FDA in 1914 for peddling “a filthy, putrid, and decomposed vegetable substance to wit decomposed catsup.” The catsup was destroyed by the US Marshall.
Over time the ketchup market has come to be dominated by consistency, ushered along by fears of benzoate and the new era of food purity.
A 2004 article for the New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell explores the aftermath of this consistency. Even today as “artisinal” versions of foods from Triscuits to mustard have become ubiquitous in our kitchens, ketchup remains on the fringe of the zeitgeist.
Our ketchup-making neither affirmed nor refuted the supremacy of the thick, sweet ketchup made by Heinz and their imitators. What we made was a 19th century seasoned, somewhat thinner product with a LOT of vinegar-y zip. I think I would have preferred cider vinegar instead of white, but the vinegar bite is not a weakness. This ketchup will combine nicely with some fruit for a bar-b-que sauce, and makes a good alternative for hot dog lovers who are not too fond of ketchup. After letting it mellow for a week or two we tested it on hot dogs and it was described as a “mustard-like ketchup.”
Mrs. Howard calls for tomato ‘catsup’ in “Bouilli,” “Beef-Steak with Tomato Catsup,” “Brown Sauce” and “Liver” so this may not be the last you see of this ketchup.
Recipe:
1 peck tomatoes
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons salt
1 pint vinegar
½ tablespoon cloves
½ tablespoon allspice
2 cinnamon sticks
1 bunch thyme & parsley
2 garlic cloves
Take
a peck of tomatoes and squeeze through a thin piece of muslin so that no
seeds get through. Add a dessert spoonful of cayenne pepper, two
table spoonfuls of salt, one pint of vinegar, half a tablespoonful of
cloves and allspice mixed, two sticks of cinnamon about three inches in
length a bundle of thyme and parsley tied together and two cloves of
garlic chopped as fine as possible. Simmer for four hours, steadily and slowly.
After filling the bottles with catsup, put two inches deep of sweet oil
in each bottle. Rosin the bottles the more effectually to exclude the
air. [Modern cooks follow canning procedures]
More preservation tactics of Mrs. B.C. Howard née Jane Gilmor, this time in the form of chutney.
Mrs. Howard has a number of Indian recipes in her cookbook, including three “East India Receipt”s for chutneys and pickled lemons.
She also includes a curry, a recipe for “Binderloo”, and “Indian Pilau.” From my modern vantage point they instill a kind of trust in her tastes and experience, although for the time they’re not entirely atypical.
The Bristish ‘Thacker, Spink & Company’ published a book on Indian Cookery the year before “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen” came out. A sophisticated lady like Mrs. Howard may have come across these Indian-via-Britain recipes through friends, family or servants.
Gooseberries were unfamiliar to me before this undertaking. Some say that this “old world” fruit are so-named because they are served with goose. Wikipedia suggests that the name may just be an “etymological corruption.”
Also: “Gooseberry bush” was 19th-century slang for pubic hair, and from this comes the saying that babies are “Born under a gooseberry bush.”
I got these berries from Reid’s Orchard and turned to my beloved Punjab Grocery for some ginger, garlic, and tamarind.
There were no fresh tamarinds that day so I used paste – preserved tamarinds are possibly appropriate here, as I do not believe tamarinds to be cultivated in Maryland.
The package informed me that these tamarinds had been seeded but that was LIES and my food mill is lucky to be alive.
The results are fantastically tangy and beg to accompany meats. I wonder if they would go well with binderloo?
Recipe:
2 Lb gooseberries
1 Lb tamarind
.5 Lb sugar
.25 Lb raisins
.25 Lb ginger
.125 Lb garlic
.125 Lb mustard seed
Four pounds ripe gooseberries two pounds of tamarinds one pound of sugar half abound of raisins half a pound of ginger quarter of a pound of garlic quarter of a pound mustard seed Boil the gooseberries in a quart of vinegar with the sugar Grind the other ingredients with another bottle of vinegar and quarter of a pound of salt Mix with the fruit and boil for twenty minutes Let it cool then bottle for use.
Recipe halved from “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen” By Mrs. B. C. Howard
Soaking the weekend’s worth of garlic for easy peeling.
This is staged – this is actually not an ideal way to use this attachment.
When I saw all the bountiful berry offerings from Reid’s Orchard at the Waverly Farmers Market, I had to take action.
Nearly all of my Maryland cookbooks contain recipes for currant jelly. It was popular with meats, especially game such as venison. It is also a frequent ingredient in more complicated sauces containing onions and such.
Being a fan of a little sweet-tartness on sandwiches, I figured I will have a use for this.
Mrs. B.C. Howard includes three different recipes for currant jelly in “50 Year in a Maryland Kitchen.” One recipe promises to yield a result that is beautifully clear and “will keep perfectly.” I have no-one to impress so I was a little more haphazard.
I sense that the clearest of clear currant jellies was a bit of a status symbol to impress guests.
Another currant jelly recipe was contributed to EDBMiM by “Mrs. Clarence J. Roberts née Miss Frances Fairfax.”
My research suggests that this is a typo and the husband is Clarence M. Roberts, a politician from Prince Georges County. Frances’ father was either the 11th or 12th “Lord Fairfax of Cameron,” whatever the heck that actually means.
The Fairfax family’s Bowie plantation, Northhampton, is now an archeological site in the middle of suburban development.
I also referenced a recipe from Elizabeth Ellicott Lea (more on her at a later date.)
These books promise many further uses for the jelly, from a jelly-roll cake, meat-sauces or inclusion in an sweet boozy punch.
Recipe:
currants
sugar
water
The currants should be picked from the bushes during dry weather. Place the currants in a pot and crush lightly. Place over heat with a small quantity of water to keep from burning. As soon as they are cooked soft, strain through fine cheesecloth or a sieve until all the juice is extracted, then strain it slowly through a finer cloth to remove all impurities and pulp. Measure the juice and put it in a clean pot with an equal weight of sugar. Let boil for five minutes, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Can immediately in sterilized jar(s).
Recipe adapted from “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland” and “A Quaker Woman’s Cookbook”
