Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1896-11-28
MARYLAND BISCUITS.
\ Talbot County Lady's Indig-
nation Over II Philadel-
phia RcciDP.

An Eastern Shore housekeeper, who
is herself good cook, though she does
not have that work to do, as she al
WAYS keeps a trained colored cook
trained, that is in the old-fashioned
school of Maryland cookery, as well as
in the accepted modern method 50
much in vogue in the cooking schools
-criticises some Philadelphia recipes
for doing some cooking which she
thinks is done nowhere else rs well as
it is done in Maryland, and nowhere
in Maryland a well a. on the Eastern
Shore She says:
Here, for instance is recipe in
the Philadelphia Record for making
Maryland biscuit, and we are told
with an assumption of wisdom, if not a
display OF arrogance. that when YOU
make biscuit according to this recipe
one has the true bread OF colonial
days, when these biscuits had a repu-
tation far and wide and could not be
made ut the best bIt in MARYLAND
The writer then goes on to say that
when YOU have measured out and
mixed your -four and water YOU must
put the mass in block and with the
eye Of an axe give it 80 many thousand
whacks. then turn il over and whack
it so many thousand times more,
then turn and more whacks, and 80
on, all of which is bad and wrong
enough, but the worst is the writer
tells how much yeast powder must be
put in the -four or dough, This Is an
insult to the Maryland biscuit 1t
knows no yeast powder. And the
Maryland biscuit of colonial days
knew no biscuit block, no axe nor
beating. 1t was made by working
the dough on biscuit board with
hands and wrists until it becomes
light and flaky; coherent, but not
adherent ; spongy, but not sticky.
Tie biscuit block and the axe beating
is an innovation, introduced to tighten
the labor and expedite work as re-
CARDS time, but the process does not
make the true Maryland biscuits Of
colonial times nor Of these times.
''The dough is made by mixing the
best flour, water, pinch Of salt and
hogs lard The lard must be the
leaf fat of the hog, chat taken from
the entrails is not good enough rem
dered and preserved with the greatest
care. No one but the Philadelphia
Record writer ever thought of putting
yeast powder or any form of saleratus
in biscuit.
Sin a recent number of the Phlla-
delphia Ladies Home Journal, Doro-
thea Carteret has chapter on crabs
10 make crab croquettes, she says, take
the meat OF one dozen boiled crabs.
&c, and for deviled crabs, first pro-
cess, the picked meat Of one dozen
boiled crabs, &c.
Boiled crabs Did anybody but a
Philadelphia ever boil crab ? Were
Talbot county cook to boil crab
she would be summarily discharged.
And If a Talbot county housekeeper
should boil crabs she would be expell-
ed from polite society. Boiled crabs
This is worse, il possible, than putting
yeast in Maryland biscuit.
Il hardly have patience to tell
those Philadelphians, but il may be
good missionary work, that the way
to get dozen hard crabs ready for
picking is to put them, alive, in a
round pot over a good fire, pour half
a pint OF vinegar and gill of water
in the pot, cover up with wet seaweed
if at hand, if not, with ordinary fresh
and green sod grass from the yard, il
neither accessible, with anything which
will keep the steam in and let the
vinegar steam cook the crabs. Boiled
crab meat is not fit to be eaten. To Use
it in deviled crabs or croquettes spoils
the whole dish.
Deliver us from yeast powder
Maryland biscuits and boiled crabs,
and enjoy them at your fea Is, oh, We
Philadelphians, il they suit you You
may think them palatable, il You
know no better. but nature herself
will keep telling YOU they are not
wholesome"