Maryland Cooking Compiled by the Maryland Home Economics Assoc.

Maryland Cooking Compiled by the Maryland Home Economics Assoc. 1948

I’m not sure how they sourced the contributors for this one–perhaps an open call of some sort? The association thanks many people both named and “anonymous friends” for the illustrations, cover, lettering etc. At the end there is a note (typed!) that says the book was to help “furnish our share of the cost of establishing a permanent headquarters in Washington for the American Home Economics Association” and to maintain the Mary Faulkner Scholarship for girls who want to become home economists. There are a few color advertisements in the back of the book for local and national businesses and products.

My copy has a note to Helen, a lovely person, from Ray.

There are a lot of Maryland regional recipes here–a strong showing for Maryland Beaten Biscuits, Hot Milk Cake, Eastern Shore Terrapan, Shad, and a lot of crab dishes. There are regional dishes from other areas too–there is a recipe for City Chicken which I haven’t encountered here in Maryland but I know is popular in other Rust Belt and the Great Lakes areas. New Orleans Pralines and Grape Nut Pudding also puts in an appearance.

This is one of the more charming cookbooks in my collection. Not only are the recipes handwritten and many include little illustrations, but it also looks like each recipe is in the handwriting of the contributor. Or maybe they were re-written by volunteers? The handwriting is quite varied so I’d lean towards it being the contributors themselves. Many of the contributors included little history notes or cooking tips and often their location.

The amount of handwriting that went into this book is amazing. Even the index is handwritten.

The sections all have cute line drawings illustrating the type of recipe.

There are a lot of candy, cakes, pies and sweet spreads represented as well as aspics, salads and griddle cakes.

I modernized a deviled soft crab recipe from this book. It also appeared in my Folklife grant project.

I modernized a recipe for cherry fritters from this book.