Eat, Drink And Be Merry In Maryland

I defy you find another cookbook that is dedicated to Oliver Wendell Holmes and features and introduction by Emily Post. That is, however, what you will find in Eat, Drink And Be Merry In Maryland by Frederick Philip Stieff. Stieff was the scion of a famous piano-making family and a well-known gastronome. Post was a rather famous Marylander who found the cookbook dredged up many a Maryland memory. Holmes once wrote, "Baltimore... is the gastronomic metropolis of the Union." Who knew!

This cookbook was published in 1932 and features over 100 illustrations by Edwin Tunis. Remember that the book was published in 1932, so some of the illustration are very politically incorrect. Some of the illustration offer up poems, jokes, and histories of Maryland. For instance in the "drink" section, this:

A Marylander and a Virginia were discussing the merits of their respective liquors, The Marylander poured the Virginia two drinks. On imbibing one the Virginian fainted. When he came to, he admitted defeat. "But, " said the Marylander, "you drank the chaser."

I am sure it was more amusing in 1932, but you get the gist.



The endpapers feature a gastronomic map of Maryland, featuring the bounty of the state. Stieff not only


cooked, but collected recipes from multiple sources: restaurants, hotels, bars, inns and people. He culled recipes from housewives and spinsters, to a recipe from Senator Millard Tydings for a rather interesting breakfast.

Since crab is one of the bounties that makes Maryland great, here is a recipe featuring the states finest.

CRAB MEAT DEWEY

Take one pound of crab meat, melt two ounces of butter and blend with two ounces of sifted flour, gradually add 2/3 cup of chicken stock and a pint of thin cream.
Bring to boil for about five minutes, season with salt and cayenne pepper. Stir in the yolks of three well-beaten eggs.
Pay attention that sauce is perfectly smooth, add one cup full of thin sliced cooked mushrooms and crab meat. Serve on toast in shallow casserole. Sprinkle very fine chopped parsley as garniture.—Maryland Yacht Club, Baltimore.

Susan Mason’s Silver Service

I got another cookbook from Ann for Christmas. Susan Mason’s Silver Service. Mason is a legendary caterer in Savanna. It is not unusual for clients to fly Susan and her staff to New York or Los Angeles for a party.

I am kicking off a week of cookbooks from Alabama and while Susan Mason has been based in Savannah for years, she was raised in Dothan, Alabama, so she is slipping in on a technicality. Mason fondly remembers a sign at the local country club that read, “No Pea-Shelling By The Pool.” Amusing as it is prophetic. If you get peas from Susan mason you can rest assured they are shelled by hand – though not by the pool.

Mason learned to navigate a kitchen from her mother and grandmother. They practiced a long-standing Southern tradition of having a grand Sunday Dinner*. I learned from my mother and great-aunts. Our Sunday Dinners were required social events. As a teenager, I loathed them, now I long to re-create them.

It was interesting to flip through Mason’s book, as many of her recipes are old Southern classics. They are not what one might think of as “catering” foods and yet Mason makes them seem extraordinary. At sit-down events, Mason loves to serve this crab salad. The key is to use the finest lump crabmeat.

Jumbo Lump Crabmeat with Pink Sauce

Pink sauce

2 cups mayonnaise
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brandy


8 to 10 ounces mesclun greens
1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat, drained
100 toast points

Make the pink sauce by combining the mayonnaise, ketchup, and brandy in a small bowl and mixing well.

Arrange a bed of greens on a platter. Mound the crab on the greens and pour the pink sauce on the top.

Serve with toast points.

What a gloriously simple yet sumptuous first course. Girls from Alabama know how to party.


* For the great-unwashed Yankees among you, “dinner” in the South is “lunch” and “supper” is dinner. In my family, dinner was at high noon, unless it was Sunday when dinner was moved back an hour so everyone could arrive from church. Supper was at 6 o’clock PM. There was never a variation. My Father (a great unwashed Yankee) once delivered my Mother and I to a grand dinner celebration in our honor, hours late. He was told to arrive for dinner and made sure we there hours early – for supper. Dinner was practically over by the time we arrived. It was the last time he made that mistake.