By IMKE AHLF-WIEN
In 1963, an iconic cookbook was published by the Hammond-Harwood House Museum in Annapolis, dedicated to “the generations of Maryland cooks who since 1634 have blended the fruits of bay, field and forest into Maryland’s Way.” More than 60 years later, Maryland’s Way: The Hammond-Harwood House Cook Book (over 100,000 copies sold!) is not only an impressive collection of over 700 recipes, but according to Kara Mae Harris, whose blog Old Line Plate features many of them, it’s “a collection of historical documents, compiled in a gargantuan effort and preserved for posterity.”
The history alone merits leafing through the book’s pages of bountiful recipes for seafood, fowl, game and meat, as well as vegetables, sauces, pastries, pies, cakes and other sweet temptations. Some of the dishes are still popular today — especially the desserts and those featuring Maryland seafood like crab and oysters. Others, like kidney stew or liver pudding, are all but forgotten and are hard to find even at restaurants.
Unfortunately, the cookbook also leaves the discomforting impression that the recipes were executed and compiled by the mistresses of the great manors all around Maryland. But that leaves out a big part of the story.
This is where food historian Joyce M. White comes in. Among her other endeavors, White advises the Riversdale House Museum on all things food history. She has been interested in Maryland’s foodways for decades and finally brought her research together in the fascinating book Cooking Maryland’s Way: Voices of a Diverse Cuisine, which was published last year — just in time to celebrate the Hammond-Harwood House’s 250th anniversary.
Courtesy of Joyce M. White
In an interview with the Life & Times, White explained that, while the original cookbook reflects diversity, it doesn’t acknowledge it. And that’s what she set out to change — by telling the stories of the people behind the food that were never told before. She was surprised, she said, how much material she found in letters, journals, oral histories, newspaper articles and advertisements, as well as in archaeology and research journals.
There’s Sam, the enslaved cook who worked at the Riversdale House Museum and is likely the creator of the Strawberry Hill Beef Stew recipe featured in Maryland’s Way. And there’s Sybby, who was enslaved by the Thomas family in Baltimore where she oversaw the kitchen and was often tasked with creating meals that may have consisted of two to three courses, each with up to 20 individual dishes. These are just two stories among many others which White rescues from oblivion, rectifying and enriching the narrative of Maryland foodways.
Maryland’s food history draws upon three major influences: Maryland’s Indigenous people, the British who settled in Maryland in the early 17th century, and the African diaspora. Several minor influences also left their mark, including the Pennsylvania Dutch who settled in Western Maryland, the Quakers who built a community around Sandy Springs, and the many immigrant communities who settled in Baltimore, including people from Central and Eastern Europe.
The second half of the 20th century brought still more cuisines to Maryland that are reflected in cookbooks, restaurants and festivals across the state. The Great Maryland Recipe Hunt, organized by the Maryland State Archives in partnership with the Hammond-Harwood House, “aims to collect family recipes that showcase the state’s cuisine,” according to a Washington Post article from January 2023. White said she plans to compile these recipes into a cookbook that will be available online as a PDF.
If you would like to try the historic recipes in either book, you may be able to find (or order) the more particular ingredients at the District’s Eastern Market or at one of the Amish markets in our area, according to White.
Brunswick Stew
This is one of the many fascinating recipes originating in Maryland and other southern states that, according to Cooking Maryland’s Way: Voices of a Diverse Cuisine, “symbolize the convergence of Native American, European, and West African influences and perfectly symbolizes the multifaceted cuisine of the American South.” It was a typical “post-hunt dish” that commonly used small game, such as squirrel or rabbit, and was cooked over a long time. Because not everyone has access to freshly hunted squirrels or rabbits, this recipe uses chicken instead. It would be an ideal dish to make in a slow cooker.
Ingredients:
- 2 young chickens, preferably pastured, cut into parts
- 3 slices bacon
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 medium potatoes, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 28-ounce can peeled tomatoes
- 2 cups yellow corn
- 1 cup butter beans
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp breadcrumbs
Directions:
Add chicken pieces, bacon and onion to a gallon of water to boil about four hours before dinner. Stew about one hour, then add other ingredients and stew until the bones of the chickens can be readily removed. Add breadcrumbs and butter.
Sweet potato pone
This recipe is a great example of a “a model dish representing two vital diverse elements of Maryland’s foundational cuisine”: The term “pone” comes from a Native American word for a type of cornmeal bread or pudding, and it was enslaved Africans who brought a taste for sweet potato from the Caribbean islands (where a similar dish was usually made with coconut milk) to Maryland.
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup butter
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups grated sweet potato
- grated rind of an orange or half a lemon, preferably organic
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- dash of cinnamon
- ½ cup milk
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F. Cream butter and sugar. Add sweet potato and beaten eggs to the mixture, and beat well. Add orange or lemon rind, spices and milk, and continue to beat. Pour into a well-buttered 9″ pie pan and bake for 30 to 40 minutes.
(Recipe adapted from Cooking Maryland’s Way: Voices of a Diverse Cuisine)
