Of all the casualties of the car-centric highway age of Baltimore, perhaps the reduction in neighborhood snowball stands looms the largest on sweaty summer strolls through town. The ice cream trucks are great but… just not the same.
When in 1977 the Baltimore Sun ran one of their many annual celebrations of the beloved summer treat, they estimated “perhaps 1000” snowball stands operating in the city – about one for every 822 people.
Although the 2012 SnoBaltimore map never claimed to be comprehensive – snowball stands these days are often ephemeral or hard to pin down – the number was closer to one snowball stand for every 4500 residents (locations in the county included due to my laziness.)
Aside from the lack of foot traffic necessary to do a bustling streetside trade in snowballs, sporadic health-code enforcements may have dampened business a bit. There were at least four stands within a square block of 25th and Greenmount, the Sun reported in 1977, and it was “a very profitable business.”
These days, snowballs may generate less profit, but certainly no less enthusiasm. The 1977 article continued a long tradition of venerating the snowball as a part of Baltimore summers. A search through the archive will confirm that at least the tradition of *writing* about snowballs is alive and well.
This rich corn soup is not unlike Elizabeth Ellicott Lea’s Corn Fricassee. The flavor of the corn is front and center (or, depending on your palate and your corn, the soup is bland).
The attribution in “Maryland’s Way” is “Mrs. Murray’s Bride’s Book, 1858.“ It is possible the recipe is to be found somewhere within the voluminous Cheston-Galloway papers at the Maryland Historical Society. The collection encompasses many descendants of Samuel Galloway, a Maryland merchant and slave trader in the 1700s.
Galloway owned an estate, Tulip Hill, in Anne Arundel County. His son James Cheston would build Ivy Neck nearby on the Rhode River in 1787. The homes remained within their large and tangled family tree for many generations.
Mrs. Murray was born Mary Hollingsworth Morris somewhere down that family tree, at an intersection of cousins Anne Cheston and Dr. Caspar Morris. Tracing family connections demonstrates the many ties between Baltimore and Philadelphia families, and Philly is where the Morris family resided before settling at Ivy Neck, on the Rhode River in Anne Arundel County.
In 1844 the Morrises signed documents to gradually manumit all of the people that they had enslaved there. Four years later, Dr. Morris wrote a biography of abolitionist Margaret Mercer, an Anne Arundel County neighbor who worked with the controversial American Colonization Society.
In Dr. Morris’ biography, he credits Mercer with influencing another local enslaver, Daniel Murray Esquire, to release his slaves. Murray then joined the efforts of the Colonization Society. There is still a county in Liberia named Maryland, a vestige of this attempt to “resettle” people who had in most cases become naturalized to North American culture and terrain.
It was Murray’s son, Henry M. Murray, who married Mary Hollingsworth Morris in 1856. The family lived at Ivy Neck, perhaps with Mary’s “bride’s book,” but also with the help of servants, many of whom were probably the same people manumitted by Mary’s parents. The Ivy Neck property has two different tenant houses, one of which was home to a man named Daniel Boston who cooked for the Murray’s daughter Cornelia and her family at Ivy Neck in the 1930s.
The house at Ivy Neck burned down in 1944, and part of the property eventually went to the Smithsonian Chesapeake Bay Center for Environmental Studies.
Well, there you have it, “Fresh Garden Corn Chowder.”
Shuck corn and remove silk, then grate corn off the cob into the soup pot; add milk and heat slowly. Beat egg yolks and work the soft butter into them; add a little of the hot corn and milk mixture to egg and butter, beating well; then stir this into the soup. Add salt, sugar and a dash of pepper and bring to a simmer. Serve hot with chopped chives and paprika.
Recipe adapted from “Maryland’s Way”, “Mrs. Murray’s Bride’s Book, 1858”
Besides, the soot wasn’t the last mess to deal with. There was, of course, lots of sand. In 1910 a permanent boardwalk was built to elevate vacationers from the perils of sand.
A highway bridge to Ocean City was built a few years later. At last, the beach could be enjoyed without too much inconvenience from soot OR sand.
Ocean City remained a sleepy little beach town. When John B. Lynch, his wife Ruth, and his mother Minnie built the Commander Hotel on 14th street in 1930, it was a bit of a risky prospect. On the northernmost end of the “city”, the property was beyond the end of the boardwalk and a bit out of the way.
In 1933, an August hurricane changed everything. Residents watched as huge waves battered the barrier island, buildings washed away, and the boardwalk was destroyed. Thirteen lives were lost, and the road and railways linking the island to the mainland were no more. At the south end of the island, the Sinepuxent Bay washed a stretch of land out into the ocean, creating an inlet directly from the Atlantic to the bay.
Fishermen were overjoyed at this last bit. No longer would they have to drag their ocean catches across the island to the safe harbor of the bay. Federal funding was quickly secured to preserve the inlet from filling back up with sand. The new inlet became a crucial fishing port. Ocean City was now much more than a sleepy resort; it was the “White Marlin Capital of the World,” attracting sport and commercial fishermen. In the year 1939, 161 white marlins were caught – two by President Roosevelt.
The Commander Hotel proved to be a gamble that paid off. It was expanded over the years and incorporated attractions like clambakes and dinner theater.
The hotel was known for their food; three meals were included with the price of a room. Sometimes, guests enjoyed clams and corn served at long tables on the beach, or they dressed up in coats and ties to have dinner in the dining room in the evenings. John Lynch, Jr., the son of founders John & Ruth Lynch, contributed this Peach Brandy Pound Cake recipe to the 1995 book “Maryland’s Historic Restaurants and Their Recipes,” noting that in addition to the cake being a favorite in the Commander’s dining room, his own family enjoys it around Christmas.
And it is indeed a great pound cake – moist, flavorful, and just sweet enough.
The old Commander Hotel was torn down in 1997 to make way for something larger and more modern. By this time, hotel meals were no longer an important part of vacationer’s stays, with the plentiful restaurant options in town. The current building fits in with the other large hotels full of generic rooms that serve more as a place to stay than a destination in itself. Guest Norris Lanford recalled as much on eve of the hotel’s demolition: “I didn’t go to Ocean City. I went to the Commander Hotel.”
In a town built on a barrier island, where everything could be one big storm away from washing into the sea, change is the one thing you can count on.
Recipe:
1 Cup butter
3 Cups sugar
6 egg
3 Cup flour
.25 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Cup yogurt (or sour cream as called for in the original)
2 Teaspoon rum
1 Teaspoon orange extract
.25 Teaspoon almond extract
.666 Teaspoon lemon extract
.5 Cup peach brandy
Cream butter and gradually add sugar. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with yogurt, beating well after each addition. Stir in flavorings. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until cake tests done.
Recipe adapted from “Maryland’s Historic Restaurants and Their Recipes” by Dawn O’Brien and Rebecca Schenck
As I hopefully made clear last year, the results of the “Eastern Shore Tomato Tasting” are in no way definitive. Taste and quality can vary from year to year, day to day, and tomato to tomato.
Why bother, then? For fun.
This year I roped in some assistance from Kit Pollard, local food writer and author of the Mango & Ginger blog, as well as Erik Morgan, a Maryland pal who is a chef at Aldine in Philadelphia, and occasionally presents enviable culinary artistry on Instagram.
The usual panel of anonymous friends was also present, plus a baby who hated all of the tomatoes.
Not much has changed along Tomato Alley, with the exception of last year’s nameless stand now identified as Cosquay Farms. (A historical Maryland farm in fact!)
Demonstrating the fickle nature of this endeavor, Wrights Market was this year’s favorite – last year it was second from last. S & H and Oakley’s continue to be strong contenders. Oakley’s was an early favorite, but the variety between tomatoes took them down a peg.
Wright’s Market, Hebron
A few notes on the tomatoes..
Cosquay Farms:
“[The] only one that has an aroma.”
“Attractive, rich red. Smells ‘like a tomato.’”
“Not much aroma.”
Oakley’s Farm Market:
“Super sweet!”
The Farmer’s Wife:
“More flavor. Good texture.”
“Light mottling on the inside, good deep red. Nice bite.”
“Pleasant, lingering tomato musk.”
Wright’s Market:
“Very red! Good amount of goo. Tart! Mild sweetness, good lingering umami.”
