melwood cook book Archives

Bisque Ice Cream / Cauliflower Salad with Chef Charlotte

August 15, 2018January 9, 2019

Now and then I encounter an unfamiliar recipe enough times that I just have to give it a try. Such is the case with “Bisque” Ice Cream, a recipe that has popped up in various forms in 19th-century manuscripts, later transforming into a jello pudding dish before disappearing altogether.

1940s and 50s recipes such as the one in “A Cook’s Tour of the Eastern Shore” have more or less a banana pudding structure – with a crust and/or topping of crushed vanilla wafers and a creamy lemon-gelatin-pudding center.

Originally, “Bisque” was a sweet-cream ice-cream containing crushed macaroons or cookies, and sometimes sherry. It was obviously originally a way to use up the stale sweets. Some recipes even specify that the macaroons *must* be stale.

The Bisque Ice Cream formula was (and is) virtually limitless. A 1912 trade publication, “The American Produce Review,” defined bisque ice cream as “a frozen product made from cream, sugar and bread products, marshmallows or other confections, with or without other natural flavoring.”

Advertisement, 1955, Salisbury Daily Times

The name doesn’t need much explaining – Wikipedia says this of the soup for which bisque ice cream is named: “In an authentic bisque, the shells are ground to a fine paste and added to thicken the soup.”

I’ve been wanting to take recipes out of my kitchen and socialize and share the food (and perhaps, when applicable, the failure.)

I met Chef Charlotte Galley at her work, where I took a class on eggs for an omelet blog post that I never got around to.

When I returned to take a chocolate class and she happened to be teaching that one too, I suggested we get together to try out some recipes together. I visited her at home where I got to see her chickens and family heirloom recipe box.

Galley is a native Marylander, trained at the Baltimore International Culinary College, and a farmer’s market enthusiast. We gathered what we could find at Waverly and chose a few recipes.

For the bisque, we used the macaroon recipe from Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen. The basic bisque ice cream appears in several Maryland cookbooks as: 1 pint of milk, 1 quart of cream, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 dozen macaroons and 4 cups of sugar. We used way less sugar than that because… that is a lot of sugar.

We also made a Cauliflower Salad from “The Melwood Cookbook”, and took another stab at Baltimore Peach Cake. Peach Cake merits its own post so I’ll get back to that later.

I’ve been lagging on my weekly posts lately due to a job change and upcoming (Maryland-recipe-filled!) vacation, but I’ve got a few posts lined up in the coming weeks. In the fall I hope to make the rounds of local kitchens. If you’re a blogger, chef, or neighbor, drop me a line! In the meantime, enjoy all of the wonderful fresh vegetables and every kind of ice cream possible.

RECIPES

Macaroons:

A pound of almonds, blanched and well beaten; a pound and a quarter of sugar; the whites of two eggs, dropped into it without beating, and stir up all with a knife; two or three spoonfuls of peach water [I used rose water – also authentic]. Roll them in your fingers, and put them on white paper to bake, in a slow oven.

Recipe from “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen” by Mrs. B. C. Howard

Bisque Ice Cream

1 quart cream
1 pint milk
4 cupfuls sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Roll 1 dozen macaroons, and add to the cream.

Recipe from “The Church Cook Book”

Cauliflower Salad – Mrs. Percy Duvall

Clean and separate a fine large head of cauliflower, taking care to leave the center of the flower without breaking. Boil in salted water and chill. When serving use lettuce leaves to garnish the dish, and place the cauliflower with the largest piece in the center of the dish.
Make the following dressing, which should be poured over the cauliflower and served on the table. If, however, the salad must be served from the pantry, it may of course be done, but the beauty of it is as a table-served dish.

Dressing for Cauliflower Salad

Chop very fine:

1 onion
1 small cucumber pickle
1 green pepper
the heart of a stalk of celery
a few leaves of parsley
1 small tomato or a tablespoonful of canned tomatoes will do if the fresh tomato is impossible
3 tablespoonfuls French mustard
½ cupful thick sour cream
3 tablespoonfuls olive oil

This will serve ten people easily, as a course.

Recipe from “The Melwood Cook Book”

Chocolate Ice Cream, Mrs. Percy Duvall

July 3, 2018January 14, 2019

The preface for the Melwood Cookbook gives a lofty -if somewhat bewildering- purpose for the book:

“This book is compiled and published as a means of raising money with which to build a club house, in order that the aims and purposes of [the Woman’s Club of Melwood District] shall be the more fully realized… for when we shall have a place of meeting, to which we shall feel free to invite others of like aim, we may find in the free discussion of existing conditions, a solution that shall result in the bettering of ourselves, our homes, and our neighborhood, known as it is as a ‘Pretty fine place to live in’.”

Although the book was compiled in 1920 by women from the Upper Marlboro area of Prince George’s County, the overall collection of recipes gives an impression similar to late 19th century cookbooks by Southern ladies like Jane Gilmor Howard and Marietta Gibson.

The Melwood Cookbook’s primary author, Mrs. Percy Duvall (nee Matilda Roome) was born in 1864 in New York, but she fancied herself a “Daughter of the South.” Her mother Catherine* Wilcox had been from Savannah Georgia, born to a family of tobacco merchants. When the family fled north during the Civil War, Catherine met and married William Oscar Roome – a Union Army Captain. After Matilda was born, the Roomes moved from New York to northern Virginia.

Young Matilda, according to her biography in “Littell’s Living Age,” suffered after her mother died and her father remarried. Her stepmother, a “Long Island Yankee,” made her do household chores in spite of the family having “black servants.” Woe is me, poor little Matilda. Matilda escaped her tragic homelife by taking art classes and learning to paint.

Tilly Roome with painting, “Littell’s Living Age”

Around 1890, Matilda married William Littell, a tennis friend of her brother. In an exciting scheme to support his new wife, Will Littell signed on with Dr. Frederick Cook aboard the Miranda – an expedition to the North Pole.

Meanwhile, Matilda put her art schooling to work. She went into business decorating lampshades and selling them to local shops in New York. The lampshades became so popular that they were shipped to stores all over the country. “Tillie” Roome Littell also began to contribute recipes and crafts to women’s magazines like “Table Talk” and “The Delineator.”

Unfortunately, the Miranda hit an iceberg and Will had to head home empty-handed and without glory. According to the story, he hitched a ride on a fishing boat, sleeping on a pile of fish.

Matilda wasn’t too happy with her husband arriving back in New York broke and smelling like fish. Nor was Will feeling too adequate in light of his wife’s financial success. The couple was divorced and Matilda went on to work as a secretary to stockbroker J. Edward Addicks, providing the man with real-estate advice that made him quite wealthy.

Mount Airy, 1936, John O. Brostrup, loc.gov

Eventually, Matilda invested in her own piece of real estate. Mount Airy, a Southern Maryland home built by the Calvert family, would finally allow her to live out her dreams of being the “mistress” of a Southern home. And she played the part – her biography talks of her managing sharecroppers who would be “dishonest if not supervised” … oh brother.

Matilda’s second marriage was to an Upper Marlboro neighbor, Percy Duvall, in 1908. It was during this marriage that she compiled the Melwood Cookbook.

Mrs. Duvall belonged to a large social network that allegedly included U.S. Presidents, diplomats, politicians, and businessmen. Duvall’s cooking was renowned. Recipes from the cookbook frequently appeared in The Prince George’s enquirer and Southern Maryland Advertiser. To bring in more income, Duvall began opening her home for meals to business travelers. She renamed the mansion Dower House to avoid confusion with Mt. Airy in Montgomery County. The popularity of Dower House led to a real-estate offer that the savvy businesswoman couldn’t refuse. She sold Dower House to newspaper editor Cissy Patterson in 1931. She forever regretted it.

Matilda’s prize-winning recipe in the Ryzon [Baking Powder] cookbook, 1917, MSU library digital collection.

This ice cream recipe states that “this is the way chocolate ice cream is made in France.” Matilda did indeed visit France in the early 1900′s, when she went to Paris to take operatic singing lessons. Despite the recipe containing a staggering cup of flour, I followed formula. The end result tasted like a chocolate frosty! This recipe is best served directly from ice cream maker as it will freeze quite hard.

Matilda’s second marriage eventually ended in divorce as well. A 1930 census lists the value of her estate as $40k and the value of Percy Duvall’s at $50 dollars. At the time of his death in 1958, he was residing with his twin sister.

I couldn’t figure out what became of Will Littell. There is still debate over whether the captain of the Miranda, Dr. Frederick Cook, ever actually reached the North Pole. To some, he is considered a bit of a charlatan, although he has his defenders.

Matilda died in 1964, just a few weeks shy of 100 years. Who knows whether the Melwood women ever did build their clubhouse.

Recipe:

1 Quart rich milk
1.5 Cup sugar
1 Cup flour
.25 can cocoa (an antique cocoa can of the era appears to be 8 oz)
vanilla extract
.5 Cup butter
1 Pint cream
1 additional Pint milk, added the last thing

Bring milk to a boil, but do not allow it to boil before adding sugar and flour mixed and smoothed with the cocoa. When this is smooth, stir in the scalded milk. Allow to boil a minute, or until the milk is thickened. Remove from the fire and add the butter. When this is melted, add the vanilla and cream. If this is not sweet enough, add additional sugar and stir until dissolved. Add the cream and the additional pint of milk just before freezing. This is the way chocolate ice cream is made in France.

*some accounts list Mrs. Roome’s first name as “Matilda O.” I was unable to verify the correct name.

Rhubarb And Pineapple Marmalade, Rosa Lee Binger

May 26, 2018January 12, 2019

Prince George’s County hasn’t made many appearances on this blog thus far, despite being my place of origin. Awhile back, I came across some “Maryland Cooking” recipes printed in The Washington Times in 1921, from “The Melwood Cook Book.” I managed to find a copy and photographed it for archive.org before passing it along to the Maryland Historical Society.

A lot of the names in the book are members of prominent families from the Upper Marlboro area – Duvall, Bowie, Pumphrey. This recipe was attributed to “Mrs. Fred Binger.”

Frederick Binger was the son of Henrietta and John Binger, Germans who moved to Pennsylvania before or around when Frederick was born (1851). Census records throughout his life list Frederick Binger as a farm “laborer.” Frederick’s first marriage ended in tragedy in 1876 when his wife dropped an oil lamp, which exploded and caught her dress on fire. She did not survive the accident.

Frederick and his brother John acquired an estate near Upper Marlboro known as “Mount Clare.” The property had been owned by Richard O. Mullikin, a planter (tobacco, presumably) who “moved in the same social circles as the Claggetts and Bowies, and other wealthy landowners of the Marlboro area.”

1878 Atlas showing Fred Binger’s property, Maryland State Archives

In 1896, Fred Binger married a distant relative of Mullikin’s. Rosa Lee Duckett, the daughter of farmer Benjamin Lee Duckett, who was “one of the most highly respected citizens of [Prince George’s County,]” according to the Washington Times.

Rosa is, I believe, the “Mrs. Fred Binger” found in the Melwood Cook Book. In the early 1900s, Rosa took prizes in the state fair for her rolls and sweet pickles. She contributed all kinds of recipes to the Melwood cookbook: cakes, chow-chow, apple butter, and scrapple (remember, Mr. Binger was technically a Pennsylvania German), just to name a few.

I haven’t done anything with rhubarb this year and I love pineapple, so this Pineapple Rhubarb Marmalade seemed like a good choice. Technically it is more of a preserve than a marmalade since there is no citrus peel in it. When it came off the stove, the cooked pineapple taste was dominant. I figured this recipe must have been an economical way to get more mileage out of the pineapple. As it cooled down and sat a few days, the rhubarb tartness came through.

Mount Clare/Charles Branch/Binger Farm, Maryland Historical Trust

I’ve always been a big fan of Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler but now I can see the appeal of rhubarb preserves. Without committing to finishing an entire cobbler, I can snack on this taste of spring at any time for weeks to come.

Rosa Binger died in 1959. Some Washington Post mentions indicate that some of Fred and Rosa’s descendants still reside in the Upper Marlboro area.

I’ll have to try to make more of the P.G. County recipes from the Melwood Cook Book and Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland. There is a lot of history to learn about, and plenty of recipes to go along with it.