CUISINE OF MARYLAND CUISINE OF MARYLAND

Oliver Wendell Holmes in nThe Professor at the Breakfast Table" called Baltimore "the gastronomic metropolis of the Union." While it is un­ doubtedly true that there is no disputing about tastes, it is equally true that menu cards have borne the names of Maryland and of Baltimore more often than those of any other section of the country.

Maryland's cooking is as diversified as her topography. Her lower counties specialize in what the rest of the nation regards as typically southern cooking, fried chicken, planked shad, soft crabs, hominy, grits, spoon- bread, corn pone, Sally Lunn, beaten biscuit ("knead for five minutes and beat hard with a hatchet for thirty minutes"). The counties of both "Shores" bordering on the Bay with their wealth of sea food and migratory water-fowl, cherish recipes handed down from one generation to another, while in those counties lying just across the border from rural Pennsylvania, German and Pennsylvania Dutch influence is noticed. In the mountain sections of Western Maryland the cooking of big game and gamey fish is specialized in.

Chesapeake Bay produces in teeming abundance much of the East's supply of oysters, crabs and fish. Cambridge in Dorchester county is one of the largest shipping points in the country for all kinds of sea food, as is also

Crisfield on the lower Eastern Shore, where are located nurseries for the diamond- back terrapin. Deal Island in Tangier Sound is one of the finest hunting grounds for wild fowl in the United States and is a crabbing and fishing center of importance. Hooper's Island, also in Dorchester, is one of the greatest 2

concentration areas for wild geese and ducks, canvas backs, mallards, red

heads and muscovies in the country is an important sea food point. At Kent

Island in Queen*s county, a large fleet of fishing craft at anchor in the

harbor give picturesque evidence of its main industry.

The tidewater also produce in abundance sea trout, large

mouth black bass, croakers, shad, blue fish, and rock (striped bass).

Trolling for the latter is a popular pastime in Chesapeake Bay throughout the

summer and fall. The rivers of the state teem with trout of all varieties,

rainbow, brook, and brown, with small mouth black bass and other varieties

of inland fish. Maninose, a shell fish something like a clam with a softer

shell and very easily opened, lies buried near the surface and is found at

low tide during the winter months.

In the mountain regions of western Maryland still are found

an occasional deer, as well as wild turkey, ruffed grouse and game fish.

Throughout the State partridges, doves, rabbits and an occasional pheasant

are found.

Maryland’s remarkable dairy farm and garden truck sections doubtless are in part responsible for Baltimore’s culinary reputation. In dairying the State has for many years ranked near the top in quality of production and more recently quantity of production has been stepped up. The fertile and level land of the counties bordering both shores of the bay pro­ duces luxuriant crops of vegetables and fruits of all kinds.

The high tradition of eating in Maryland harks back to

Revolutionary days. Soon after the p>eace was signed in Paris, Baltimore began to grow. Roads were built, contacts established with the West and taverns sprang up along Market Street, now Baltimore Street. One of the most famous of these was the Fountain Inn which stood a few doors off of Market Street on s

the site of today’s Southern Hotel. It was a low old fashioned structure,

shaded by a row of trees and its gaily painted sign-board, portraying a

gushing fountain, swung above the heads of passengers alighting from the mail

coach on its way to Richmond from Philadelphia. Washington and Lafayette were

guests at this hostelry— the latter repeatedly— and it was here that Francis

Scott Key came for breakfast the morning after the bombardment of Fort McHenry and here he revised his hasty notes of the "Star-Spangled Banner" and gave it

to the printer that same day.

The Indian Queen at Market and Hanover Streets and the General

Wayne Inn at Market and Paca Streets were other famous taverns giving shelter and sustenance to the notables of those early days. The latter, a stately

Georgian building of brick, swung its sign board from its northwest corner, flaunting a portrait of "Mad Anthony" himself, brave in continental blue and buff.

Guy's Hotel in Calvert Street where the present Post Office

stands was another inn popular with epicures. It was here that Thackeray came according to Kennedy's Journal after his lecture on George IV. Around the corner on Fayette Street was the first location of the Rennert and diagonally across the street, at the southwest corner of Calvert and Fayette Streets, on the site of the present Equitable Building, stood the celebrated Bamum's

Hotel. Charles Dickens in his "American Notes" — visit of 1842 — writes of it thus:

"The most comfortable of all the hotels of which I had any experience in the United States— and they were not a few— is Barnum's Hotel in that city (Baltimore) where the English traveler will find curtains to his bed for the first time, and probably the last time, in America— (this is a dis­ interested remark for I never use them) and where he will be likely to have enough water for washing himself which is not at all a common case." 4

Another Britisher, G. W. Featherstonhaugh, F.K. S., in his book

"Travels in the Slave States of North America," published in London in 1844, gives Mr. Barnum this tribute:

"If there is a hotel keeper in the United States who merits the commendation of a traveler, the veteran Mr. Barnum may claim to be that person— His neat parlors and bedrooms, his quiet house, his excellent table and the ready and obliging attendance found there leave the traveler little to desire."

Baltimore's markets have equally as long and famous a tradition as her inns. The most noted of them and the one no tourist should fail to see is Lexington Market. Its site is part of the original Howard estate, given by that same John Eager Howard, whose equestrian statue by Fremiet stands today north of the Washington Monument. Deeded to the city in 1782, the market was laid out that same year but for some reason was not open for business until 1803.

Its open air sheds extend in a triple row for three city blocks. Its fruit and vegetable stalls overflow the sheds and stretch along the throughfares. Green peas in their moist green pods, bunches of spiky carrots with feathery plumes, snowy cauliflower, stalks of celery with golden yellow tips, oranges, luscious apricots, lemons, grape fruit, tawny pears and purple plums, all lend their rich and glowing tones to the symmetrical arrangements on the stalls.

Center Market at Baltimore Street and Jones* Falls— or Marsh

Market as it was more popularly known— the name being a hangover from the days of the swamp upon which it was originally built in 1784, is a dramatic scene, vivid with local color.

William Wirt, the distinguished Maryland jurist of the early nineteenth century, wrote of this market "I rose before day, shaved and dressed by candle light, took my cane and walked to market." "0, what a quantity of s superb beef, mutton, lamb and veal, and all sorts of fowls; hogheads full of wild duck, geese, pheasants and partridges." Center Market was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1904 but was rebuilt. Today it is largely wholesale and supplies the other markets.

Other open air markets such as Belair, Richmond, Broadway,

Hollins lure thousands of Baltimore housewives to their laden stands.

No chapter on Maryland cooking would be complete without mention of Baltimore1s street cries. They are, in their way, as unique as

London's and merit more space than can here be given.

With the coming of the R months, the demand for oysters begins, for Maryland law forbids dredging during May, June, July and August and the white aproned darky with his enamelled buckets makes his rounds and sings his wares:

"OYEEE, 0IEEE---E— E" in a grand opera tenor which at times approaches the best efforts of a Swiss yodeller.

During the summer months the same negro appears with a large market basket covered with a napkin and now his cry has changed to:

"Crabbee, crabbee, don* yo' wan'

"To buy my debbel cra-a-abs,"

"Debbel, debbel, debbel era— a— abs."

Perhaps you do. If so, you may find them as delicious as many a crab imperial for which you pay double the price.

"Straw-bay-rees, Ann 'Ran'l straw-bay-rees" announces to housekeepers that Maryland's own home grown berries from nearby Anne Arundel

Coirnty are in the market.

"Sawf crabs, sawf crabs," or

"Fresh feesh, fresh feesh." 6

"Red, ripe mattusses,"

"Fresh grass an* cab-buges," are other cries frequently heard.

The old traditions of Maryland cuisine, the fine heritages of native fare and cooking that has made Maryland food famous are still upheld in private homes, clubs, an in a few hotels and public eating places. But gone from the hotels are the large menus of yesteryear. Contrast the present day hotel fare with this average weekday dinner menu at Baraum’s City Hotel in 1885.

Gumbo Soup Consomme Macaroni Boiled Blue Fish Egg Sauce Boiled Leg of Mutton Caper Sauce Chicken, Butter Sauce Corned Beef Tongue Roast Ribs of Beef Tame Duck, Stuffed Ham, Champagne Sauce Chicken, Stuffed Lamb, Mint Sauce Loin of Veal Filet of Beef, Braise, aux Champignones Macaroni, au Tomat Baked Tomatoes, Stuffed Calves Head, a la Italienne Chicken Liver Croquettes with Peas Deviled Crab Cold Roast Beef Smoked Beef Tongue Ham Pressed Corned Beef Sliced Tomatoes Olives Lettuce Cucumbers Boiled Potatoes Rice Lima Beans Sweet Potatoes Cabbage Mashed Potatoes Stewed Tomatoes Green Corn Apple Pie Whortleberry Pie Bread and Butter Pudding Wine Sauce Vanilla Ice Cream Jelly Cake Ginger Pound Cake Butter Cake Watermelons Peaches Grapes English Walnuts Pecans Filberts Almonds Raisins Confectionery Cheese Coffee

Ahd this was a $1.50 dinner! With weekly rates, it was less than a dollar. 7

But in most of the major hostelries, the fare of traditional

Maryland dishes, is to be secured only on a special order* With the recent razing of the Rennert Hotel gone is the last public institution where certain

Maryland specialties were served as every day items.

The great majority of these recipes called for an extravagant use of eggs, butter, milk and cream, and commercial houses that try to provide old-time Maryland cooking are faced with a real problem. Another difficulty is in obtaining enough cooks who know how to use the ingredients.

Some Maryland specialties are difficult to get. Maryland sugar cured hams and Maryland smoked sausage used to be plentiful. But now the

Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland farmers have ceased to do their own butch­ ering and native meats are rare.

The most noted of Maryland cooking is, of course, old fashioned fried chicken, "Maryland Style." It is found on bills of fare from Maine to

California though not always recognized as such by native Marylanders. It is usually prepared by the following recipe:—

Cut up young chicken and dip each piece in thin batter. Flour and fry until brown in hot fat, deep enough to half cover chicken. Reduce heat, cover skillet and cook slowly until don#-. An old practice is to serve with cream gravy and waffles, or c o m fritters and bacon, or, best of all, golden brown diamonds of fried mush, garnished with parsley.

The diamond-back terrapin, undoubtedly, runs a neck and neck race with fried chicken, "Maryland Style." as the most noted Maryland dish.

Perhaps it is an even draw, for the scarcity of the former with its consequent exorbitant price, makes it less popular. It is scarcely to be believed today, when individual portions at good hotels range from $5 to $5, that there was a time when slave indentures in Maryland bore the stipulation that terrapin 8 should not be fed to the negroes oftener than twice a week, on the ground that it was so easily obtainable that some owners would deprive their slaves of the flesh animals, substituting terrapin to save money. Because of their excellent flavor they were sought extensively and by the beginning of the twentieth century, these slow-growing, long lived creatures had become so greatly diminished, especially in the South Atlantic States, that they were in great danger of com­ mercial extinction. It is not a marine turtle but a land tortoise, living mainly in salt marshes. A traditional recipe is:—

"Immerse live terrapin in boiling water and boil under cover until tender or when feet crush easily by pinching. Then withdraw from water, placing each terrapin on its back in order to retain the natural essence.

When cool remove yellow shell skin. Use all meat portions, eggs and liver.

Be careful not to let any of the gall bladder penetrate the meat or essence.

To each six inch terrapin use one quarter pound of butter and one half cup of good sherry wine. Salt and red pepper to taste." Some Maryland gourmets decry the use of sherry as a flavoring but take their glass of sherry (or Madeira) on the side.

The oyster is another famous Maryland food. The oyster industry represents a heavy investment and gives employment to a great number of persons.

Owing to unrestricted tonging and dredging in past years the natural oyster beds and bottoms of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries have been greatly depleted, causing material loss to those engaged in the business. Some restrictive legislation has, however, been enacted, which it is believed will restore the business to its former properous status. Much planting of shells and seed oysters have helped. There are many angles to this business, such as tonging, dredging, 9 steaming and canning oysters, shipping the raw products to the markets after shucking or in the shell. The oyster from the Chesapeake is declared by connoisseurs and people in the trade to be the finest bivalves in the world, and the place names given them of localities from which taken, such as Mobjack

Bay, Honga River, Rappahannock River, Blue Point, Tangier, Chincoteague and others are well known.

The industry is seasonal in that, what planting is done, occurs in the summer while the dredging, tonging and catch is made in the fall and winter months, when cool weather make the oysters palatable and ideal as a delicacy and food. Baltimore has always been the principal point from which the product has been shipped, but in recent years much of the best of the mollusks have been going north to Philadelphia, New York and Boston, as well as to other sections of the country, by way of the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

The oyster will not develop in water of less than a certain per centum of salt and it is a delicacy of great food value and has certain mineral qualities which are of aid and value to the human system. Following are some recipes for the preparation of oysters for the table.

FRIED OYSTERS: Drain and dry one pint of large oysters; beat two eggs, to which add a little milk; dip oysters in cracker meal, then into egg batter and again in cracker meal. Season with salt and pepper to taste, fry in deep fat, and drain on brown paper.

OYSTER COCKTAIL: Use two dozen small oysters, one tablespoonful of horse radish, one-half teaspoonful of Tabasco sauce, one tablespoonful each of vinegar and Worcestershire sauce, one tablespoonful of catsup, one-half teaspoonful of salt and the juice of two lemons. Mix and chill in refrigerator for one hour before serving. 10

OYSTER STEW: Drain one quart of oysters and strain bits of shell and foreign substances from the oyster liquor. Add to the liquor one- half cup of milk and a little cream, two tablespoonsful of flour, some finely chopped celery and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in some flour and drawn butter and cook until well done.

OYSTER LOAF: Cut lengthwise the top of a Vienna loaf. Hollow the inside and spread the casing with butter alter which fill with one quart of raw oysters. Add a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, one small cup of cream, plenty of butter, salt and pepper and a few drops of Tabasco sauce. Place in a baking dish, pour oyster liquor over all, set in oven until done, then slice and serve hot.

GRILLED OYSTERS: Drain one dozen oysters until nearly dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Dip them in drawn butter and fresh bread crumbs, and broil quickly to a light golden color. Serve on warm toast with broiled

Maryland cured ham and garnished with sliced lemon and parsley.

Maryland’s culinary reputation is further strengthened by the stuffed ham, that Easter dish, peculiar to Southern Maryland. It popularity has diminished with the passing years, but in many kitchens, especially in

Southern Maryland and Frederick county, this post Lenten masterpiece is still prepared. One of the favorite recipes for its preparation is:—

For a sixteen-pound ham use one peck of greens: cabbage, sprouts, turnip greens or kale, two dozen bunches of spring onions or their equivalent in chives, red and black pepper and celery seed.

Allow fifteen minutes per pound after the ham starts boiling and cook steadily until three-fourths done. Then put aside to partly cool while the greens scald in the ham liquor. When well wilted, take greens up and chop 11 well, Season greens with celery seed and pepper to taste.

Then with a sharp knife cut crescent-shaped openings in the ham, top and bottom, as deep as the knife will go. Stuff the mixture of greens in the incisions, as much as they will hold. Make as many incisions as the ham will conveniently take.

Fold in a stout cloth and sew fast. Replace ham in the boiling liquor for the remaining quarter of the time allowed for cooking. Cool in the liquor, and when thoroughly cold, it is ready for use. Keep cloth on the ham to preserve the moisture and keep in a cool place.

As if nature had not sufficiently blessed the Marylander with the oyster,the tidewaters of the Chesapeake abound in fish and crab, not to mention wild fowl.

From the founding of Maryland, fish has been one of the most important items in the Free Stater's diet.

One of the better known and popular sea food dishes was planked shad or baked shad, a seasonal delicacy obtained only in the spring, when this fish "runs" in the Chesapeake on its way to the Susquehanna River to spawn.

Gourmets anxiously await the season, stating no other fish can approach the taste of the shad.

A white oak plank about one and one quarter inch thick in which an indentation the shape of a fish was cut was warmed in the oven, the fish was opened and cleaned and stuffed with a stuffing of bread, butter, salt and pepper and sage. The fish was sewed and placed on the plank which was placed in a hot oven for about 40 minutes, then removed, put on hot plates and served. The method now in use for baking is so much similar except that when the fish is placed in the pan a cup of water is added. When the shad is taken from the pan. 12

one-half cup of milk, two tablespoons tomato juice and one teaspoon of butter is

put into the pan, when this comes to a boil, it is removed and used as a sauce for the fish. Restaurants now specialize in baked shad, planked shad taking

too long to prepare.

CRAB has always been one of the favorites of Maryland sea food delicacies. The soft shell crab being considered the superlative in good eating.

The only specie that is caught for commercial use is the blue crab and during

the season which extends from May until November they assume an important place on the menu in Maryland.

The crab in various stages of its life sheds its shell. At which time it is called a "peeler." It next becomes a "soft shell" as the new shell stiffens, and finally a "hard shell."

Soft crabs are taken by three forms of apparatus; scrapes, scoop nets and small seines. A few are taken incidentally on trot lines together with hard crabs.

Crabs are sold by the fishermen principally in the "peeler" condition. Most of the hard crabs are obtained with trot lines.

There are many ways in which to prepare crabs and each has their adherants. Among the famous recipes are:—

CRAB SOUP: Boil six crabs, break the shells of three and pick the others. Fry the three broken ones with two slices bacon, chop a small onion up fine and Then the crabs and bacon are half fried, add the onion. All must be fried partly brown. Add half a pint of water and let stew slowly for half an hour. Add half a gallon of water and let boil down to three pints.

After putting in water peel and cut a quart of tomatoes up fine and add. Add a large tablespoon full of butter wrapped in one of flour and a bunch of parsley cut up, and 13

stirred in a cup of new milk or cream. Let it boil a few minutes and serve.

The crab meat from the picked crabs is to be placed in the bottom of the tureen.

STEAMED CRABS— One of the most popular manners of eating hard

crabs is the Crab Feast which during the summer months are held at thousands of

places on the tidewaters of the Chesapeake. The communal repast is to the

Marylander what the "Clam Bake" — "Barbeque" and "Fish Fry" are to those inhabitants of other regions. The recipe is nothing more than dumping crabs in boiling water, into which condiments and vinegar have been placed, for 25 to

35 minutes. Plenty of "cold beer," a dish cloth and a towel are about the only necessary requirements.

SOFT CRABS— When you prepare Soft Crabs, be sure they are all alive: then, turn back the pointed ends of the 3hell, and scrape out the "deadmen," or the fingerlike, membranous lungs; take off the "apron," from the back, and cut-out the mouth and eyes. You do not remove the claws, or the "feelers," or legs.

Dip the crab in beaten egg, then lightly, into bread crumbs, mixed with a little salt and pepper, and fry 10 minutes in deep boiling fat. If they be "Spiders," or very small crabs, they will be even more delicate if they are sauted in butter.

Serve hot, with Tartar sauce, and quartered lemon. Garnish with parsley.

DEVILED CRAB— Melt 2 tablespoons butter, stir in 1^ tablespoons flour mixed with 1/4 teaspoon salt and a good pinch of black pepper. When smooth add 1 cup cream; bring to a boil for about 2 minutes, season with red and black pepper, and a pinch of mustard, according to how "hot" you wi3h the mixture; add a little celery seed. As it cools add about 1^ pounds crabmeat to make a stiff mixture. This must be done carefully, or you will mash the crabmeat. Fill the shells, do not compact the mixture, mound high, sprinkle with bread crumto; run a hot oven, and bake until a nice brown. 14

CRAB IMPERIAL— 1 pound "Flake," or "Lump" crabmeat, 1 cup cream

1 cup finely chopped red or green pepper, preferably both, for color, 1 cup bread crumbs, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, l/2 teaspoon dry mustard,

1 teaspoon vinegar, salt and red pepper, 1 tablespoon butter. Melt butter, add cream, salt, pepper, mustard, Worcestershire and vinegar. When thoroughly mixed and heated, add red and green peppers, bread crumbs; mix well, take from fire, and mix-in, very genrly, the crabmeat. Stuff shells, mounding highly; and remembering not to break the lumps of crabmeat. Sprinkle lightly with bread crumbs, and run in hor oven to bake to a nice brown.

No traditional Maryland menu would be complete without the

"Maryland Beaten Biscuit." The sheer physical effort in its preparation would make the modern housewife shudder. To prepare take:— lj pints of flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon lard. Add salt to flour and blend thoroughly with lard. Three gills of milk and water— half and half— to be added slowly with a stingy hand, for the dough must be very stiff. Knead for 5 minutes and beat with a hatchet for 50 minutes. Form into small biscuit and prick on top with a fork. Bake in moderate oven for 20 minutes.

Other famous Maryland recipes are:—

SALLY LUNN:— 4 eggs, 1 cup sugar, l/4 lb. butter, 1^ cups milk, 4 teacups flour, 3 even teaspoons baking powder. Cream butter and sugar, add well-beaten eggs, then milk, then flour, baking powder and salt sifted together. Beat thoroughly and bake in pan with a chimney in a slow oven for about three-quarters of an hour.

OLD FASHION CORN PONE:— 2^ lbs. meal, lj lbs. flour, 3 pts. hot water (120 degree F), 3 pts. cold water, l/2 lb*. sugar, 5/8 cup molasses,

1/2 handful salt. Add hot water to the meal and fold in other ingredients as 15

desired. Allow pone to set for 5 hours. Bake in a well-greased pan in an hot

oven and when well browned cover with a tight lid. When crust puffs up, mash

down and add a little cold water. Repeat as often as needed to keep pone from

sticking. Bake (with good fire) for 5 to 6 hours. Cut fire very low and cook

all night.

TIPSY PARSON:— Take a loaf of sponge cake and stick it full of

blanched almonds. Place it in a large dish. Pour enough sherry wine over it

to saturate it thoroughly and over all pour a riched boiled custard.

LADY BALTIMORE CAKE:- -1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup milk,

5^ cups flour, 6 eggs, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon rose water. Cream

butter and sugar, add milk and flour sifted with baking powder. Add stiffly

beaten egg whites and rose water last. Bake in 3 layers in hot oven.

Make an icing of the yolks beaten with sufficient soft sugar

to spread well, and add 1 cup of chopped raisins and chopped pecan meats, also

5 figs cut fine. Spread between layers and cover entire cake, top and sides,

with a good boiled icing.

SPOON BREAD:— One cup corn meal, one egg, one teaspoon salt,

one tablespoon sugar, one teaspoon yeast powder. Scald meal with enough boiling water to swell particles. Then add beaten egg, salt and sugar with enough milk to reach consistency of thin cream. Add shortening and beat well. Add yeast powder and stir well. Pour into well-greased pan preferably deep— and bake in moderate oven until set, time depending on depth of baking dish.

EGG-NOG:— 12 eggs, 12 tablespoons sugar, 12 tablespoons French brandy, 12 tablespoons Jamaica rum. Separate eggs and beat yolks light, adding sugar, then brandy and rum. Beat whites stiff and add to mixture and top off with 1 quart of cream, whipped stiff. This should be allowed to blend overnight

Egg-nog is served in Baltimore in private homes and some hotels during the holidays, especially on New Year*s Day. 16

APPLE TODDY:— About Thanksgiving, half a dozen large red cooking

apples are baked until their skins burst. While still piping hot, they are

mashed thoroughly (skins, seeds, and all) and covered with half a gallon of

the best apple brandy. After being sweetened to taste, they are sealed in a

stone jar. And woe unto him who opens it before Christmas DayI

In Western Maryland the German and Pennsylvania Dutch influence

in cookery was introduced by the early settlers from across the Mason-Dixon

line. This influence spread to Baltimore and the present custom of serving

sauerkrout with turkey is attributable to this infiltration. In Western

Maryland such items as ponhaus (scrapple), souse, hassenpfeffer (sour stewed

rabbit), are common items of diet. The Moravians in this section still prepare

many dishes that have been handed down through generations and are as distinctive

as their mode of dress.

Some of their recipes are:—

LECKEPJjK :— 1^ quarts table molasses, 2 ounces butter, 1 ounce

saleratus, 1 pound almonds (blanched and chopped fine), lg pounds brown sugar,

2 ounces cloves, 1 ounce cinnamon, 6 ounces citron (chopped fine), 6 pounds

flour, 1 cup brandy. Mix together all ingredients except flour and brandy.

Start adding flour, a little at a time, and work in each quantity well before

adding the next. Keep the brandy to use as moistening as the dough gets stiffer

and harder to handle. (Usually a man is pressed into service for this job, as

real strength is required for kneading the dough.) Make dough two weeks before

it is baked, and set away in a cool place.

MANDEL SPITZEN:— l/2 pound butter, l/4 pound powdered sugar

4 eggs yolks, 1 pound wheat flour, S tablespoons cream. Rub butter to cream; add sugar, eggs, flour and cream; mix well. Sprinkle a little flour and powdered sugar on board and roll dough to l/4 inch thickness; bake. Icing— 17

Beat yolks of 2 eggs with 2 tablespoons water and add powdered sugar to thicken.

Blanch and cut fine 1 pound almonds. Ice cakes and strew almonds on top. Set

back in oven for a few minutes to dry.

LEBKUCHEN:— 2 pounds flour, 125 grams butter, 500 grams honey,

125 grams nuts (ground), 5 teaspoons rose water, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, rind

of 1 lemon, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon cloves, l/4 teaspoon nutmeg. Melt

honey in a little warm water; mix with butter. Mix soda with rose water. When

honey is cool, add rose water and soda. Sift together flour and spices, then add

gradually to above mixture. Cover dough and let stand in a cool place for 3 days.

Before baking, bring into a warm place for several hours. Roll dough on floured

board and cut into whatever shape desired. Bake in hot oven, and when finished

brush with honey water.

SCHNITZ & KNEPP:— Moisten with milk 2 cups flour and mix into a

dough. Add 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 egg and salt to taste. Separate dough

into small lumps (about size of walnut). Put schnitz (dried sweet apple slices)

on to boil. When steam rises from pot, drop in knepp and boil just long enough

for center of knepp to become thoroughly steamed. It should be spongy and

almost dry. Ham is sometimes boiled with the schnitz.

FASNACHTS:— About 5 P.M. boil 3 potatoes in enough water to

cover. When soft remove potatoes and mash. With potato water scald 1 pint flour, add mashed potatoes. When cool, add 1 yeast cake, dissolved in a little lukewarm water. At about 10 o ’clock mix 1 pint flour with 1 pint lukewarm milk, making a batter that will drop readily from spoon. To this batter add first mixture and let rise over night. In morning add 4 beaten eggs, l/2 cup melted butter, or butter and lard mixed, and 1 cup sugar. Knead stiff enough to roll, let rise till dough doubles its size. Roll, cut out in doughnut shapes and let rise again. When light, swim in hot fat. 18

SHOOFLY PIE:— Dissolve 1 cup molasses in 1 cup water. Mix

together 4 cups flour, 1/2 cup butter and lard, 1/2 teaspoon 3alt, 2 cups

sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar and form into

crumbs. Pour molasses mixture into pans lined with pie crust, then spread

crumbs evenly on top, sprinkle with cinnamon and bake in moderate oven.

Baltimore being one of the important ports of entry on the

eastern seaboard, Maryland became the adopted home of thousands of immigrants

from Europe and each group brought Old World recipes which even today are

strictly followed in numerous Maryland kitchens. Baltimore is spotted by

restaurants which feature foreign cuisine and in numerous stalls in the markets

food prepared by European recipes can be obtained.

Because of the large number of native Germans and those of

German extraction in Baltimore, their dishes have become quite common to the

average citizen. The city boasts of a number of German restaurants where such

fares as: Rouladen (round steak, beaten, rolled up with onions, broiled and

served with noodles); or Sauerbraten and Kartoffel Kloesse (sour beef and potato dumplings) are offered.

The Polish groups still hold their paczki bals or parties. Hie paczki is a Polish cake similar to the doughnut, filled with a cherry or prune.

Those Baltimoreans of Lithuanian extraction prepare such native dishes as dasriu (a sausage), vagurkiu (a native pickle), and drink vyritis. (a hot, spiced cocktail of honey, orange and lemon juice with a rye whiskey base).

The Italian colony has its groceries and restaurants, the latter patronized by other groups of Marylander*s as well. On the shelves of the groceries stores are still to be seen (although depleted because of the war) olive oil, fusilli, corone, semolina, cavatelli, triangoli, macaroni and vermicelli.

In the restaurants such native menus as: Spaghetti, ravioli and scallopina are offered 19

Among the Marylander's of Greek extraction the typical dishes ares Kefalakia (boiled lamb's head), song!akla (lamb liver saute), pilafi

(rice Anatolian style)j and pastichio Greaue (spaghetti pie topped with unsweetened custard, ground beef and grated cheese).

The Scandinavian has brought his Smorgasbord. Svenska kott bullar (a small meat ball), and fattigmanbakkels or poorman's cake.

With the influx of people from other states each bringing with them their favorite recipes peculiar to their native locale, the menus of the present day Maryland has lost much of their distinguishing qualities that made them famous