Dr. Edna Dorothy Meshke, like most of the contributors to “Maryland Cooking,” was a home economist. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: many of us have no idea how much we owe to Home Economics educators for creating, sharing, and fine-tuning classic recipes, and for raising the expectations of what a recipe can be.
Reinhold and Bertha Meshke immigrated from Germany to Minnesota in 1889. Their young cousin Fred made the journey in 1889 help the couple on their farm. Once established in America, Reinhold and Bertha had three daughters: Hazel, in 1899; Lucile, in 1904, and Edna, in 1907.
In 1930, at age 23, Edna was teaching at a public school while living in Faribault, Minnesota with her parents, who had retired from farming, and her sister Hazel, who was a nurse.
Edna earned a BS and PhD from University of Minnesota, and a MA from Columbia. These impressive credentials took Edna all around the country.
In 1938 she taught at the University at Buffalo. In 1943 she was at the University of Wisconsin. Some time in the 1940s, she led the Home Economics department at Butler University in Indiana. At some point, she worked at Pennsylvania State University. Throughout these years she continued to appear in Faribault city directories, leading me to believe that between school terms, she returned to live with her parents and sister at their home 711 1st Street.
With a rich yellow dough and an overabundance of dried fruits packed inside, Cornish Saffron Bread looks like the ultimate European Christmas treat. According to the Spitznas family of Frostburg Maryland, “in Cornwall, saffron bread is made on special occasions throughout the year, but in Western Maryland it became distinctly associated with Christmas.”
In 1955, Dr. James E. Spitznas (1893-1958) and his wife Elizabeth (1911-1994) (who were then living in Baltimore County) shared their recipe and story with Baltimore Sun food columnist Virginia Roeder. Roeder described Cornwall as the “land of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table,” but Dr. Spitznas pointed out that the tradition of Cornish saffron bread “probably preceded King Arthur by many centuries,” as the Phoenicians had been visiting Cornwall with packages of saffron for over 2000 years.
James & Elizabeth Spitznas making saffron bread together, 1955, Baltimore Sun
Dr. Spitznas recalled relatives from Cornwall mailing fragrant packages of dried saffron to Frostburg as the Christmas holiday approached.
Spitznas’ family had emigrated to the United States in 1874 from the village of Phillack, Cornwall. In the UK census, Dr. Spitznas’ grandparents Paul and Catherine Goldsworthy had been listed as “wire weavers and sieve makers.” In 1880 in Frostburg, Paul is listed as a laborer. It is possible that he came to do work relating to the mines of Western Maryland, like many other Cornish and Scottish settlers in Western Maryland throughout the 19th century.
Sarah Grace Goldsworthy became Sarah Spitznas and passed this recipe to James and his sister Sarah D. In 1948, Sarah D. and James’ wife Elizabeth measured and tested the old recipe to contribute it to the “Maryland Cooking” book.
The massive quantities called for in the “Maryland Cooking” recipe make enough bread to share with family, friends, and coworkers. I halved the recipe and still ended up with enough bread to freeze and eat for months to come. I think this will make an unusual French Toast, maybe good with a white wine sauce. As with all fruitcakes and fruit-containing Christmas breads, the dried fruits and nuts are variable by taste. I used currants, pineapple, and pecans. Don’t let raisins be the boss of you just because it’s Christmas!
Recipe:
Recipe from “Maryland Cooking,” 1948, Maryland Home Economics Association
Recipe note: after forming into loaves or buns, make sure to let rise again! The Spitznas used a bread pan but I didn’t have one so I rolled them into loaves.
I thought we’d take things back into the 20th century this week.
Among the “treasures” acquired in 1960 by the Maryland Department of the Enoch Pratt Free Library (”Maryland Room Acquires ‘Treasures’”, Baltimore Sun, November 1960) is a copy of a cookbook put out in 1948 by the Maryland Home Economics Association. Much like the “Secrets of Southern Maryland Cooking” book, it is written in many different hands with varying degrees of legibility.
Entitled “Maryland Cooking,” the book manages to pack 310 recipes. Three are for beaten biscuits, one is for crab cakes. “Stuffed Country Ham” is there too. The book is also notable in that it draws from regions of Maryland where less community or historic cookbooks had been produced. One recipe for “Cornish Saffron Bread,” is prefaced with the description that it was introduced to Frostburg by settlers from Cornwall in the mid 19th century. Ethel Grove from Washington County appropriately contributed a recipe for “Maple Bavarian Cream.” Each of Maryland’s counties had a committee gathering recipes for the book.
The cover illustration was done by Richard Q. Yardley, an editorial illustrator for the Sun, whose illustrations also adorn the Sun’s “Fun with Food” and “Fun with Sea Food” books from the 1960s.
The purpose of “Maryland Cooking” was to gain funds towards a Washington, DC Headquarters for the American Home Economics Association, and hopefully to provide scholarships to help “finance the education of girls who want to become home economists.”
After cooking schools had codified the domestic arts into a sort of ‘science for women,’ this type of education became offered to a younger audience through private schools or as part of public high school education. Newspaper articles marveled, sometimes condescendingly, at this new branch of education. In May 1913, a Sun reporter visited the cooking classes, which were taught at Western High School in Baltimore, and observed 120 pupils, “Baltimore’s fairest,” studying “ways to capture the heart of the male of the species.” The reporter declared that even a “hardened misogynist” would be charmed by the epicurean meals prepared by the students.
A follow up story in June remarked on the “awful fuss they make over a panful of pie.”
Home Economics at Iowa State College, 1942, Jack Delano, loc.gov
The housekeeping department, the June article continued, was conducted by Miss Helen Palen(1883-????), the “presiding genius” of a “dainty little flat” used to teach cleaning methods and laundry, although Palen noted that she did not expect the girls to have to do their own laundry.
Palen was still teaching housekeeping at the school in 1919, when the Sun reported on how the school was training girls “for future usefulness.”
Palen’s commitment to home economics education ran deep, and she appears in Johns Hopkins circulars as attending courses for teachers throughout the late 1910s. She served as the president of the Maryland Home Economics Association from 1918-1920.
That was nearly 30 years before the publication of “Maryland Cooking,” but it is her recipe for Beet Relish that I turned to to preserve my spring beets and cabbage.
Similar recipes appear in newspapers at the turn of the 20th century, but the European origins couldn’t be much more obvious. The beets (and in this case, a healthy amount of sugar…) sweeten up the horseradish and the cabbage mellows the whole thing out. The most similar condiment I could find online is called “tsvikly” in the Ukraine.
I naively thought that my backyard horseradish would be sufficient at first. When I dug it up and found it puny and pitiful, I had to go to a few stores to find horseradish that was unadulterated with oils or other additives. I ultimately found it in the seafood section.
I had forgotten the joy of a nice oniony roast beef sandwich with horseradish and greens. The relish also made a nice cheddar grilled cheese.
I made this recipe to go with the Kathy Wielech Patterson interview but then I got too rambly and it seemed like too much for one post.
So here it is. This is one of several recipes in “Maryland’s Chesapeake” that were contributed by local chefs. This one comes care of Adam Snyder of Brewhouse No. 16 in Mount Vernon, Baltimore.
Oyster pie is an ideal dish for an “upscale pub” in an old firehouse. Much like oyster stew, oyster pie is ubiquitous in old Maryland cookbooks, starting with the very first cookbook published by a Maryland author – Elizabeth Ellicott Lea. She offers up not one but three oyster pie variations.
A Rich Oyster Pie, Elizabeth Ellicott Lea, 1845
As I started to cut the pastry I realized that I was making a very large quantity, so I baked this pie in my 15″ skillet, setting a new personal record for pie diameter. It’s not pretty – you have to work fast with a hot filling and pastry crust. You can also make this pie in a deep casserole dish and have more cookies later (see below recipe.)
Sadly I did not have three cups of oyster liquor sitting around and had to substitute stock. Nonetheless, this recipe made a wonderful meal for a cold January night. Several nights, actually.
Recipe:
Crust:
2.5 Cups flour
1 Teaspoon salt
1 Teaspoon sugar
8 oz cold, unsalted butter
Filling:
.5 Lb bacon
2 oz butter
2 Cup celery
2 Cup parsnip
2 Cups diced yellow onion
.75 Cup flour
.5 Cup white wine
3 Cups oyster liquor or stock
4 Cup diced potato
2 Tablespoon whole grain mustard, prepared
1 Cup heavy cream
1 Pint shucked oysters
2 Tablespoons minces parsley
salt to taste
black pepper to taste
1 egg
To make crust: Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds. With machine running, slowly add ¼ to ½ cup cold water until dough comes together and forms a ball. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and flatten it into a disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least an hour before using.
To make filling: In a large pot over medium heat render bacon in butter until crispy. Add celery, parsnips, and onions and cook until vegetables soften and sweat, about 8 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour and stir well to create a roux. Cook for 5 minutes. Pour in the wine and stir, scraping up any bits of vegetable clinging to the pan. Add the oyster liquor and potatoes. Cook until liquid thickens, then stir in the mustard and heavy cream. Add the oysters, turn the heat to low, and cook for 20 minutes. Stir in parsley, add salt and pepper. Remove mixture from the heat, and allow to cool.
To assemble pie: Preheat oven to 325°F. Scoop pie filling into a 4-quart oven-safe dish or casserole. Roll pastry out to 1/8 inch thickness and drape over pie filling. Crimp edges decoratively. Beat egg with two tablespoons of water and brush it over the crust. [I forgot to do this – K] Cut slits into the top to allow steam to vent. Bake for 30 minutes, until pastry is golden brown and filling is hot. Allow to rest 5 minutes before serving.
[Note from Kara: cut the extra crust into shapes, roll in cinnamon sugar and bake for 10-15 minutes in the oven with the pie.]
Note: there is some further important background on this book found in this post.
A lot of my recent recipes have come from “Maryland’s Way”, the Hammond-Harwood House cookbook, and that is because I am having a bit of a rekindled romance with this book.
When I originally started an “Old Line Plate” blog in 2010 this was my main recipe source. In the years since I’ve come across so many great Maryland cookbooks such as “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland” and “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen” as well as less sweeping books presented by everyone from small churches to local television chefs to the Baltimore Gas & Electric Company. I guess after spending some time with these other books I have come to have a greater understanding of what a treasure “Maryland’s Way” truly is.
Inside cover, “Maryland’s Way”
“Treasure” is the first word that comes to my own mind but an article written by the former director of the Hammond-Harwood House, Carter Lively* refers to it as a “masterpiece” which is every bit as fitting.
On first glance you might assume this cookbook is similar to a church fundraising cookbook with recipe contributions contributed by members. But then the attributions reveal something more: Baked Seafood in Shells.. Mrs. William W. Paca; Mrs. Virgil Maxcy’s Fried Chickens.. original receipt 1815; Chestnut Stuffing.. Mrs. Dorsey’s receipt 1855; Charles, Talbot, Annapolis, Chestertown, Wye River..
“Maryland’s Way” is no ordinary community cookbook. It is a collection of historical documents, compiled in a gargantuan effort and preserved for posterity.
“Mrs. Hope Andrews of Tulip Hill, who was serving as the President of the Hammond-Harwood House Association, and her close friend and fellow trustee Mrs. Frances Kelly decided they needed to raise funds for the Hammond-Harwood House museum by producing and selling a cookbook which would incorporate the culinary traditions of Maryland’s historic past.
They started testing recipes and reading old manuscripts in 1958 and after five years of hard work they produced a masterpiece of 372 pages filled with classic photographs by Aubrey Bodine and Marion Warren and over 700 traditional recipes springing from historic 18th and 19th-century Maryland cook’s notes, diaries, and recipe books.” – A Historic Cookbook, Carter Lively, 2013
For a mid-century cookbook, it’s quite ahead of its time. I have not really done any digging into the food histories in other states but one wonders if they should all be so lucky.
Just in case I haven’t done enough gushing over the book, another thing about it is striking to me. For a fund-raising cookbook from the 1960s, “Maryland’s Way” is beautifully designed. If it weren’t for the yellowed pages on my copy, it would be hard to estimate a publication date. For a benefit cookbook, the illustrations, photo usage and layout are strikingly cohesive and thoughtful.
“Maryland’s Way” was published to raise funds for the Hammond-Harwood House, but it actually made me aware of the house’s very existence. This 1774 architect’s delight is full of paintings by Charles Wilson Peale, host to a unique variety of interactive educational events, as well as the usual tours of the house itself. Since it is right downtown in Annapolis it makes for a nice day-trip, perhaps alongside a stop in the nearby Paca House, and if you’re like me… a look at the place where William Faris’ garden once stood.
Sadly I can’t make it to Annapolis more often. However, my copy of “Maryland’s Way” is never very far from my reach when I feel the urge to browse some more Maryland history.
*A big thanks to Rachel Lovett, Assistant Director & Curator at the
Hammond-Harwood house for furnishing me with this document
