Writing about contemporary politicians invites commentary on grievances, which makes me hesitate to make these kinds of recipes. As a resident of Baltimore, it is hard to imagine how history will look from the future. I imagine some more objective version of myself reading over these accomplishments and failures, but honestly, even Baltimore politics of the 70s and 80s leave me a little bewildered.
Still, if constituent services is any measure of a councilperson’s effectiveness then there is little debating that Mary Pat Clarke had a long and successful career. A Baltimore Sun article about her December 2020 retirement belabored that point. A summary of her political career was bracketed with statements about how she would be remembered most for “fixing prosaic problems for residents.” Filling potholes and restoring streetlights is pretty uncontroversial.
Clarke was born Providence, Rhode Island in 1941. After earning degrees from Immaculata College and the University of Pennsylvania, she ended up in Baltimore with her family in the late 60s. According to a Sun article from when she was elected President of the Greater Homewood Community Corporation in 1971, Clarke then lived with her four children in the Tuscany-Canterbury neighborhood.
After her election to Greater Homewood Community Corporation, Clarke was a regular fixture in the Baltimore Sun’s local news pages. GHCC operated a children’s summer day camp, organized Youth Corp cleanups of Wyman Park, and organized programming for Greater Homewood’s senior citizens.
Clarke’s husband J. Joseph Clarke had been a delegate who lost his seat to Joseph R. Raymond. In 1975, Mary Pat beat out Raymond for the New Democratic Club endorsement for city council. The Sun covered the endorsement as a bit of revenge. J. Joseph Clarke went on to be a developer in Baltimore. His company is responsible for many projects, including the demolition of the historic Southern Hotel.
After winning the council race, Mary Pat’s career in Baltimore City Politics lasted 45 more years. Those years included a mayoral run, work on various committees, two stints as Council President (and an earlier failed campaign for that office), a clash with the Harborplace Hooters, and various bills and stances, some worthy and some ill-advised. Which are which is up to your own discretion.
If there were definitive proof that fudge was invented in Baltimore, we’d never hear the end of it. Tourists would be encouraged to eat fudge-dipped crabcakes or whatever, and all the billboards in the city would be like “Sprint is the favorite network of fudge-lovers!”
Nevertheless, there is some intriguing evidence that ties the origins of fudge to the city. This was complete news to me when I recently checked out Stella Parks’ “Bravetart: Iconic American Desserts.” I was barely home from the library before I was contacting Atomic Books to order a copy of my own.
The cookbook contains a lot of historical background essays similar to some on this blog – but unlike Old Line Plate, “Bravetart” contains recipes that are actually useful. Aside from assuaging some of my dessert hang-ups (Hint: I grew up near the Hostess outlet), I found a lot of information that will help improve my baking, and this blog by extension. What put it over the top for me though was the quality of the research. I actually gasped aloud when I read Parks’ conclusion about the origins of the Oreo brand name.
One of the recipes in the book is for “Baltimore Fudge.” After years of researching Maryland food, it’s always exciting to find new things I was completely unaware of.
A 1995 piece in the Los Angeles times by Baltimore-born writer Steven Raichlen disseminated the Baltimore origins of fudge as reported by food historian John Mariani in the “Dictionary of American Food and Drink.” “When it comes to fudge,” Raichlen wrote, “Baltimore isn’t a bad place to come from.” Of course, the Sun reprinted that article so that readers could bask in this comforting fact.
The prevailing fudge origin story centers around a Vassar student, Emelyn Hartridge, who popularized the confection on campus; it then spread to other schools. Fudge-making remained associated with women’s colleges for decades. Hartridge, it turns out, is said to have gotten the recipe from a schoolmate’s cousin in Baltimore. (That’s how recipes go, especially sweet ones.)
Harrisburg Pennsylvania Daily Independent, 1903
By 1903, recipes appeared in regional newspapers for “Baltimore Fudge.” The women’s magazine The Delineator in 1907 referred to “…Baltimore caramels, a confection afterwards known as ‘January Thaw’ and now called ‘fudge.’” The “January Thaw” term is a little hard to search, but it doesn’t seem to have been as prevalent in old newspapers and cookbooks as “Baltimore Fudge” or “Baltimore Caramels.” When I surveyed other 19th-century recipes, it appeared that the major difference between the “Baltimore” chocolate caramels and others was that the Baltimore recipes usually don’t contain molasses.
Chocolate was primarily consumed in beverage form in the early days of the United States, and was most popular as a breakfast. The chocolate caramels that became popular in the mid-1800s required better control of heat. I won’t get on too much of a chocolate tangent but needless to say, there was a lot going on.
Candy and confection caught on more as the price of sugar went down and the quality of cooking technology improved. Its been written that 19th-century Baltimoreans tended to eat a lot outside of the home. Sweets like fudge could be had right alongside oysters in busy downtown markets.
Baltimore Sun, 1877
Confection recipes appeared in trade magazines for hotels and the like, but confectioners also had their own trade magazines. Books like “The confectioners’ hand-book,” printed in London in 1883, offer up fascinating detail of the processes involved in 19th-century candy-making.
An 1865 book, “The Art of Confectionery,” suggested that candy making was becoming an exciting pastime for housewives:
“While the preparation of soups, joints, and gravies, is left to ruder and stronger hands, the delicate fingers of the ladies of a household are best fitted to mingle the proportions of exquisite desserts… It is absolutely necessary to the economy of the household that this art should form a part of every lady’s education. This fact is becoming generally acknowledged, and the composition of delicate confections is passing from the hands of unskilled domestics into the business and amusement of the mistress of the household.”
I definitely have rude and unskilled hands but I gave it my best.
In “Iconic American Desserts,” Parks referenced the ‘caramels’ recipe found in the “The Favorite Receipt Book and Business Directory,” an anonymous advertising cookbook printed by a ladies’ church group in Baltimore in 1884. I was able to trace that recipe back to the 2nd published Maryland cookbook “Queen of the Kitchen,” by Mrs. M.L. Tyson in 1870.
The first Maryland cookbook (1859) was by killjoy Elizabeth Ellicott Lea who was not likely to promote frivolous treats like chocolate caramels. Her only chocolate recipe is for a drinking chocolate “for the sick.” You had to be sick to get chocolate or liquor in the Lea household.
After appearing in “Queen of the Kitchen,” the chocolate caramels recipe was subsequently printed in the classic “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen,” by Mrs. B. C. Howard in 1873. Mrs. Charles H. Gibson also included it in her 1894 “Maryland and Virginia Cook Book.” In fact, that book includes SEVEN slight variations on the recipe. This made me decide that Mrs. Gibson is kind of irritating.
In the Los Angeles Times, Raichlen shared a fudge recipe from his grandmother. Although the ingredients are essentially the same, the order of operations involves dissolving the sugar before stirring in the chocolate. This recipe was reprinted in the Baltimore Sun Recipe Finder, where a reader described it as having “a smooth texture with a slight crust on the outside.” This is basically how my own fudge turned out, despite putting all the ingredients straight into the pan.
Stella Parks’ book has an updated Baltimore Fudge recipe which includes some white sugar to decrease the bitterness, as well as far more precise instructions and tips than found in the old Maryland cookbooks. In the years I’ve been doing this blog, I’ve actually grown disillusioned with famous chefs and cookbooks, but I endorse “Iconic American Desserts,”… that is, unless you work for Visit Baltimore in which case… move right along, nothing to see here.
Recipe:
1.5 Lb brown sugar
.25 Lb chocolate
1 teacup cream
.25 Lb butter
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
“Mix together and boil twenty-five minutes; stir in one tablespoonful vanilla juice before pouring out to cool.“
Recipe from “The Favorite Receipt Book and Business Directory,” Church of the Holy Comforter (Baltimore, Md.). Ladies Aid Society, 1884
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.
