The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1897-01-08

U4RYL4ND BISCUITS

is herself good COOK, though she
does not have that work to do, as she
always keeps trained colored cook
trained. that is in the old-fashioned
school Of Maryland cookery, as we'll
as in the accepted modern methods so
much in vogue in the cooking schools
criticises some Philadelphia recipes
for doing some cooking which she
thinks is done no where else as well as
it is done in Maryland, and no where
in Maryland as well as on the Eastern
Shore. She says:
''Here, for instance, is a recip in
the Philadelphia Record for making
Maryland biscuit, and we are told
with an assumption of wisdom if not
display of arrogance, that when you
make biscuit according to this recipe
one has the true bread of colonial days,
when these biscuit had reputation
far and wide and could not be made
at the best but in Maryland. The
writer then goes on to say that when
you have measured out and mixed
your flour and water you must put
the mass on block and with the eve
of an axe it SO MANY thousand wacks,
then turn it over and whack it so
many thousand times more, turns and
more whacks, and so on, all Of which
is bad and wrong enough, but the
worst is the writer tells how much
Yeast powder must be put in tie flour
or dough. This is an insult to the
Maryland biscuit. 1t knows no yeast
powder. And the Mavland biscuit Of
colonial days knew no biscuit block,
no axe nor beating. 1t was made by
working the dough on board with
hands and wrists until it becomes
light and flaky; coherent, but not ad-
herent; srongy, but not sticky. The
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
made the true Maryland biscuit of
colonial times nor Of these times.
"Tbe dough is made by mixing the
best flour, water, a pinch of salt and
hogs lard. The lard must be the
'leaf-fat' of the hog, (that 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.
''In recent number of the Phila-
delphia Ladies' Home Journal Doro-
thea Carteret has chapter on crabs.
To make crab coquettes, she says, take
the meat of one dozen boiled crabs
&c, and for deviIed crabs, fir process
the picked meat of one dozen boiled
crabs &c.
''Boiled CRIBS. Did anybody but
Philadelphia ever boil crab:
We're a Talbot county cook to boil a
crab she would be summary dis
charged. And if Talbot county
houstkeeper should boil crabs she
would be expelled from polite society.
Boiled crabs. That is worse, if possible,
than putting yeast powder in Mary
land biscuit.
81 hardly have patience to tell those
Philadelphians, but it may be good
missionary work, that they way to get
a dozen hard crabs ready for picking
is to put them, alive, in round pot
over good fire, pour half 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; if either
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 coquettes spoils
the whole dish.
"Deliver us from yeast powder
Maryland biscuits and boiled crabs, and
enjoy them at your feasts, oh, We
Philadelphians, if they suit you. You
may think them palatable, if you
know no better, but, nature herself
will keep telling you they are not
wholesome