pies Archives - Page 2 of 2

Shoofly Pie, Elizabeth Birnie

October 11, 2019December 26, 2019

Lest we forget the Pennsylvania Dutch contribution to the Maryland culinary tapestry, it was high time I tackled that old classic: Shoofly Pie.

This crumb-topped molasses pie most likely gained its folksy name from a brand of molasses, according to historian William Woys Weaver. He wrote about the pie in his 1993 book “Pennsylvania Dutch Country Cooking”:

“Shoofly pie is a breakfast cake meant to be eaten early in the morning with plenty of hot coffee. It first appeared in 1876 at the Centennial [International Exposition] in Philadelphia under the name Centennial Cake.”

Peach Pie Supreme, Alice Heckman Millett

September 10, 2019September 10, 2019

I’ve been a fan of the cheddar-apple pie combination for many years now and I often make my apple pies with a cheddar cheese crust. Somehow, I’d never considered doing the same for peach pies.

I made this simple pie for a Labor Day crab feast and my family raved about it – despite the fact that I kinda burned the crust. All this is to say, this is a surprisingly forgiving recipe.

The recipe was contributed by Mrs. Kenneth B. Millett to “A Cook’s Tour of the Eastern Shore,” a 1948 community cookbook benefiting the Memorial Hospital of Easton Md. The book contains over 400 handwritten recipes, and includes Eastern Shore wisdom on seafood and game.

“Dolphin,” a boat built by Kenneth B. Millett, on the Chesapeake Bay

Maryland White Potato Pie

April 26, 2019May 18, 2020

What is it about white potato pie? Something about this odd-sounding idea really captivates people. It certainly got my attention many years ago when I was cooking my way through the Southern Heritage Pie & Pastry book. That pie started an obsession with lost ‘Maryland’ dishes. I’ve tried hundreds of Maryland recipes from the mundane to the bizarre and eventually given talks about my findings. After showing people slides of dozens of delicious dishes, and mentioning dozens more, come the questions and comments about the white potato pie: My grandmother used to make it. What IS it? Do you have a recipe? It sounds good! It sounds disgusting.

When you scratch the surface, white potato pie is not all that strange. Flour can be sweetened with sugar to make cake and no one bats an eye. Zucchini bread is fairly common. If you can accept tofu ice cream or rice pudding, why not white potatoes, sweetened and flavored with lemon and nutmeg? White potato pie filling hails from the same pudding tradition as sweet potato pie or pumpkin pie – and their British relative, carrot pudding. Somewhere along the lines, white potato pie got left in the dust.

Custard Pumpkin Pie, Helen Cotter

January 24, 2019March 14, 2019

It’s almost hard to believe that the Sun published “My Favorite Recipe” in the same decade as Virginia Roeder’s “Fun with Sea Food.”

As much as I respect Roeder and her recipes, Helen Henry’s 1960s “My Favorite Recipe” column in the Sunday Sun was a welcome departure from Maryland’s long-unchanging recipe oeuvre.

Educator and librarian Mary Carter Smith shared a recipe for a peanut-coated chicken from Sierra Leone.

Carol Zapata, whose husband was a surgeon from Peru, offered up a recipe for “Cebiche” made using rockfish from the Chesapeake.

There was plenty of room for crab cakes, stuffed ham, and Thanksgiving roast goose, but the overall variety of recipes was far more representative of the dishes made in Maryland homes – and the variety we take for granted today.

*“My Favorite Recipe” columns from the Sunday Sun Magazine. Helen Henry top center.*

Blackberry Pie, Mrs. Ida P. Reid

September 24, 2018January 10, 2019

There aren’t many recipes specifically for blackberry pie. Usually, older recipes for “berry pie” will specify that blackberries, blueberries, or raspberries can be used.

Blackberry pie has been a longtime favorite of mine. I grew up making them with my grandmother so I wanted to make one for her birthday in September. I have also been falling behind on blog posts so I searched the newspapers for ‘blackberry pie.’

The recipe was shared in the Afro-American in 1938 by Mrs. Ida Reid. Mrs. Reid said that she enjoyed housework – and blackberry pie – and that she was heavily involved in her husband G. B. Reid’s Washington, DC department store.
The store was a longtime fixture at 11th and U (often stylized as “You”) streets in Northwest DC.