There is only one thing that excites me more than finding an old cookbook that I didn’t know about, and that’s finding a local dish that I didn’t know was local. When Matthew Korfhage wrote to me last summer to ask about Delmarva Barbecued Chicken I was confused. We have a barbecue tradition in Maryland other than pit beef? Don’t organizations everywhere raise funds by selling chicken by the side of the road? Maybe they do, but on the Eastern Shore, the chicken in question is a little bit different. Baltimore Sun, 1984 With a sauce made from vinegar, oil, poultry seasoning, and the strange ad ..read more

“Ham-Lettuce Mixture”: the awkward title caught my eye. The recipe opened with this: “A hearty country dinner, fit for guests or family. A good conversation menu!” I thought the recipe was so odd, I had to make it immediately. I invited friends over for dinner. I told them what I was making. My friends politely declined. In practice, “Ham-Lettuce Mixture” is basically a warm salad, packed with hearty eggs and potatoes and topped in a sweet-and-tangy cooked dressing. It was just fine! Tasty even. The recipe appears in the 1969 “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread,” a hefty 350-page cookbook compi ..read more

“Shirley Fout Miller was a walking medical miracle.” So opens her 2012 obituary in the Hagerstown Herald-Mail. “She contracted tuberculosis at age 12 from her mother… Shirley was not expected to live more than a few months.” As an adult, she twice survived breast cancer and tuberculosis resurgence. Her daughter Holly Miller said, “She’s been cheating death for 75 years.” Shirley spent many years being ill. Unable to participate in a lot of typical childhood and teenage activities, she turned to another outlet: art. Shirley Fout Miller may not be a household name, but she left an admirable bod ..read more

I imagine that Anna D. Cannon had some stories. After graduating high school in 1942, she became the first female school bus driver in Montgomery County, and worked the job for 30 years. Unfortunately, Anna is another person whose stories I may never know. I know only that she was born in 1924 in Garrett County to Gilmore and Linna DeWitt. Anna and several of her eight siblings on the family farm were listed as “unpaid family worker” in the 1940 census. Anna married Lawrence A. Winters, who died in 1960. Her second husband, Frank Cannon, died in 1994. Anna Cannon lived to be 93, and her 2017 ..read more

One of these days I’m going to stop choosing recipes before looking into whether there’s an uncover-able story. This is another new post with scant facts. Still, I enjoyed looking into the life of Gertrude Comer, who contributed her “crazy” chowder to a cookbook put out by the Gatch Memorial United Methodist Church in the 1960s. I do know that Gertrude lived most of her life in Northeast Baltimore, near where the Gatch Memorial United Methodist Church stands on Bel Air Road. In 1996, she told the Baltimore Sun about her desire to remain in the neighborhood. She looked forward to affordable se ..read more

For Marian Barclift, gratitude was a part of everyday life. She believed that finding and sharing joy would attract positivity into her life. The numerous friends, family, and coworkers who mourned her passing are evidence that it worked for her. She passed away on November 27th, 2009, the day after that year’s Thanksgiving. Her Baltimore Sun obituary describes the success she had as a teacher at Pimlico Junior High School, where former principal Samuel R. Billups observed that “Marian had an awareness of students and their concerns, and she knew how to reach out to them and get them to put t ..read more

“The kinkling and the doughnut die, The pancake and the waffle cease, But now doth come the rhubarb pie, Oh, may I have another piece?” — Baltimore Sun 1910 The Germans who colonized Western Maryland in the 1700s brought with them devout Christianity — primarily Lutheranism and Calvinism. But where one scratches the surface of devout Christianity, one often finds a little bit of Paganism hiding out, and Carnival season might be one of the times when the old ways are less hidden (despite the masks.) Fat Tuesday aka Fastnacht happens to coincide with a time when a feast may have taken place am ..read more

“Tom Smith liked clothes.” The Afro-American covered every detail of Thomas R. Smith’s 1938 funeral. Five women wept. “Two were relatives.” United States Senator George Radcliffe spoke at the service, which was held on the lawn of Smith’s home at 6621 Reisterstown Road. Inside the house, Tom’s body was dressed in striped trousers; a satin, striped black ascot; and a black coat with a gardenia in the buttonhole. In his closet, he left sixteen pairs of white shoes, silk shirts and boxers, and “innumerable suits of all kinds, colors and materials.” On the lawn of Smith’s home, across from where ..read more

Note: The following is an essay from “Festive Maryland Recipes,” posted here with the original recipe from the community cookbook. “Festive Maryland Recipes” contains an adapted version of this recipe. After the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 removed discriminatory barriers to moving to the United States, Maryland gained a new population of Korean-born citizens. Naturally, these newly-minted Marylanders brought their celebrations with them. In the 60s and 70s, newspapers began to report on the festivities. A 1970 Lunar New Year event held at the Korean embassy in Washington, D.C. att ..read more

Mrs. Edward Z. Watson “disclaim[ed] any fame as a cook,” said a profile in the Afro-American in 1958. The article described the vivacious teacher, seamstress, and mother of two as a “party girl,” who “not only adore[d] going to parties but [was] not adverse to giving them either!” They shared her cake recipe using “many of the newest methods,” including a MixMaster mixer. The title of the feature was “Mrs. Edward Watson makes the highest cake you’ve ever seen.” Afro-American, 1958 The light and fluffy cake could be served a variety of ways. “For the chocolate frosting I use the recipe right o ..read more