The Historical Society of Washington County Maryland presents A Collection of Treasured Regional Recipes 25th Anniversary Edition 2006 Hagerstown, Maryland
As of this writing, this book is still available for purchase new from the historical society. Shipping is quite slow but it is worth the wait! This is one of the most complete cookbooks I’ve found if you are looking for historical and regional recipes.
The “fast forward” talks about how high the demand was of a new version of the cookbook and then is followed by the “forward” by Sally Sears Moody which goes over the spirit and process of the cookbook. They talk about the recipes shared were vague about ingredients, directions and serving size and while they chose the recipes and tested some, they decided not a modernize them but to keep them mostly as-is. They point out that the book isn’t for the “novice cook” or someone who isn’t interested in cooking from scratch but for people who enjoy heritage recipes.
There are a lot of illustrations, including some for crafts like table decorations and historical locations. There are some excerpts of historic speeches and pamphlets from the area.
There is a “historic and untested” section which includes everything from carpet soap to syrup for dumplings. Other chapters are more typical–appetizers, main dishes, vegetables, salads, etc.
The contributors are named and a few recipes are from local restaurants. Some recipes are reproductions of newspaper clippings (with credit) or historical (with providence).
Many regional recipes like beaten biscuits (three versions, including one that uses a food processor!), shoofly pie, crab croquettes, Maryland Cider Ham apeas, and fastnachts. Several versions of Sally Lunn buns.
A few recipes, like Catherine Spreecher Taylor (Mrs. Wallace Taylor)’s tantalizingly named “tangle cakes” have no instructions at all, simply a list of ingredients. My guess it is similar to funnel cake but who knows for sure?
The index is particularly well done and helpful with recipes cross referenced into descriptive categories.