Baltimore Foodways in the Late Nineteenth Century

Terrapin chowder, related recipe below

I’m going to do a series of stories on what I learned while doing field work in Baltimore, Maryland the city’s African American foodways and eateries which is my shtick. Baltimore developed black neighborhoods like other North American cities. Many of these neighborhoods have histories that date back to the Reconstruction era. During the Reconstruction period 1863-1877, the various forms of debt peonage in the shipping industry in port cities like Baltimore that replaced slavery hardly improved the diet of former slaves. At the turn of the century the port city of New Orleans for example had large populations of workers who inhabited boarding houses, poor houses, and hobo encampments. As result restaurants that catered to these workers sprung up around the city that had menus that centered around the continuation of the antebellum diet including, the 3m’s—meat (salt pork), meal, and molasses—as well as in the case of the Chesapeake region, terrapins which served as rations which enslaved Africans turned into a delicacy. Here is a related recipe:

Chesapeake Terrapin stew: http://www.reciperascal.com/chesapeake-terrapin-stew/

1950s Infrapolitics & Segregated Restaurants

Activist James Farmer eating at a southern lunch counter 1965

Jim Crow segregation laws required that blacks sit apart from white customers in restaurants. In her memoir, singer Diana Ross, who grew up in Detroit, remembers a trip she made with her siblings to visit relatives in Bessemer, Alabama, in the 1950s. “I dimly recall seeing signs on water fountains, in waiting rooms, and at movie theatres: WHITE, COLORED.” She goes on to say, “There were so many indignities black people endured; everything was separate and unequal.” Interviews with southerners indicate that African-American customers and restaurant employees did not simply capitulate to Jim Crow conditions in the South but employed what one scholar calls “infrapolitics.” In the case of segregated restaurants, infrapolitics included such everyday forms of resistance as theft and passing. For example, blacks working the “coloured” window at white-owned restaurants regularly gave away food or discounted the food sold to blacks.

Eating Jim Crow Series With Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Jim+Crow+

What Happened to that Old Soul Food Restaurant?

A fish restaurant for black folk, Memphis, Tennessee, 1937  

Yesterday I hooked up with my cousin Charlie White who is a Baltimore native. I road shot gun with him as we went exploring the city’s historic soul food restaurants. When he informed friends and other family members about what I was hunting down, we were both amazed at how black owned operated restaurants in the city have gone out of business places like the Chuck Wagon and East Baltimore. Before the emergence of the civil rights and black power movements in this city and others, African-American cooks working at segregated restaurants, barbecue stands, bars and grills, and nightclubs helped establish consumer demand for what became known as soul food in the late 1960s. Jim Crow policies ensured that black restaurants remained separate black spaces. For working-class blacks, these eateries enabled them to collectively relax and recover from the stress of racial politics. In large part, many of the eateries flourished due to the Jim Crow laws and customs that restricted the public dining options of African Americans beginning in the late nineteenth century and ending with the 1954 landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court ended the principle of “separate but equal” and affectively began the slow death of Jim Crow segregation laws and many black owned and operated restaurants.

July circa 1850: Barbecue, Beverages, and Temperance

Banana-peach buttermilk smoothie, recipe below

Still delving into former slave Louis Hughes’s July circa 1850 description of a barbecue in near Charlottesville, Virginia. His description of the beverages served at this July plantation barbecue provide rich details on antebellum religion and politics. “The drinks were strictly temperance drinks - buttermilk and water.” Between 1825 and 1835 the Presbyterian minister Charles Grandison Finney led a spiritual revival and preached social reform sermons in Central and Western New York which became known as the burned over district. The temperance movement came out of the revival calling Christians to be filled with the Spirit of God and not with strong drink. Nineteenth century elites also latched on to this theme as way of encouraging their workers to say sober and thus more productive on the job. From Hughes we learn that the Second Great Awakening and the temperance message had its influence on his Virginia master. By the start of the Civil War, the joint Southern and Northern Presbyterian Church association split not over the issue of temperance but over the issue of slavery. Here’s a cold southern buttermilk drink recipe

Banana-peach buttermilk smoothie recipe: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=566466

Barbecued Peach Cobbler, July Circa 1850

Peach cobbler, recipes below

Did a post yesterday based on former slave Louis Hughes July circa 1850 eye-witness account of an open pit whole pig barbecue feast near Charlottesville, Virginia not to long before the start of the civil war. In addition to a vivid description of an antebellum barbecue, Hughes provides rare insights into large scale baking among enslaved African American cooks at this same barbecue event. “Peach cobbler and apple dumpling were the two dishes that made old slaves smile for joy and the young fairly dance. The crust or pastry of the cobbler was prepared in large earthen bowls, then rolled out like any pie crust, only it was almost twice as thick. A layer of this crust was laid in the oven, then a half peck of peaches poured in, followed by a layer of sugar; then a covering of pastry was laid over all and smoothed around with a knife.” Now the apple dumpling description, “The apple dumplings were made in the usual way, only larger, and served with sauce made from brown sugar. It lacked flavoring, such as cinnamon or lemon, yet it was a dish highly relished by all the slaves. . . . The oven was then put over a bed of coals, the cover put on and coals thrown on it, and the process of baking began. Four of these ovens were usually in use at these feasts, so that enough of the pastry might be baked to supply all. The ovens were filled and refilled until there was no doubt about the quantity. Here are peach cobbler recipes that fit well with this antebellum story. More on Hughes’ eye-witness account tomorrow.

Traditional peach cobbler recipe: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/peach_cobbler/

Vegan peach cobbler recipe: http://chetroy.com/healthyvegan/?p=185

July 1968 Field Work on Soul, Washington, D. C. Part II

Mumbo sauce covered fried chicken and fries, recipe below

Talking about the findings from social anthropologist Ulf Hannerz, July 1968 field work in Washington, D. C. on soul. Hannerz concluded that soul is something essentially African American, urban, and lower, class. Things with soul have a down home southern origin and soul refers to the early, constant, and intimate exposure to the southern down home experience. Starting in the late 1960s, soul became a symbol of solidarity among the people of the ghetto. The argument from the streets insisted that Soul is superior and those who have it are successful and members of a select group of experts and connoisseurs, particular in cultural productions of soul such as soul music and soul food. Something that is distinctively D. C. and full of soul is mumbo sauce. First appearing in the 1960s, it’s a red condiment allot like barbecue sauce that is tangier and sweeter. Washingtonians use it on fried foods like fried fish, fried chicken, and French fries. I could not find an exact recipe for it but a source I found said it's made from “roughly equal parts of sugar and vinegar, with a bit of ordinary ketchup” with some corn starch added as a thickener and boiled for unspecified time.