recipes in her home kitchen— a challenge, considering that many of the“ recipes” were just ingredient lists with vague directives.
Harris— who has two cookbooks of her own,“ Old Line Plate: Stories & Recipes from Maryland” and“ Festive Maryland Recipes”— started documenting her local culinary research and recreations on her blog in 2011. Her journey has taught her that before blue crab and snowballs became Baltimore’ s calling cards, the city produced more obscure regional delicacies. Keep reading to discover some of these classic Charm City dishes and the beloved Baltimore restaurants and bakeries that still serve them today.
Baltimore Coddies
Baltimore may be renowned for its crab cakes, but it also specializes in another, lesser-known seafood fritter: the Baltimore coddie. This handheld patty, a fried cake made with potatoes and salt cod, offers a nod to Baltimore’ s once-thriving street food culture.“ There’ s this really rich tradition in Baltimore of vendors making a living from selling food on the street, whether it’ s crab cakes or strawberries or ice cream,” Harris says.
BALTIMORE CODDIE, FAIDLEY’ S SEAFOOD
There’ s this really rich tradition in
Baltimore of vendors making a living from selling food on the street, whether it’ s crab cakes or strawberries or ice cream.”
– Kara Mae Harris
In the early 1900s, codfish cakes were marketed as a convenience food for home cooks. Fannie Jacobson Cohen is credited as the inventor of Baltimore’ s version, made with 10 spices and a small amount of salt cod, which she sold at Cohen’ s, her stall in the city’ s Belair Market. Today, Baltimore coddies remain on the menu at regional grocery stores and long-standing quick-service establishments as a more budgetfriendly fried alternative to the crab cake. To look like a local, Harris says to pile your coddie with yellow mustard and sandwich it with saltine crackers.“ If you eat them any other way, people will kind of give you the side eye.”
To try these savory cakes, head to one of two culinary stalwarts in Baltimore: Faidley’ s Seafood in Lexington Market, which has been doling out seafood specialties since 1886, and Attman’ s Delicatessen near the Inner Harbor and in Harbor Point, an authentic Jewish deli founded in 1915 that is also known for its corned beef and hot pastrami.
Maryland Fried Chicken
The origins of Maryland Fried Chicken, a Southern-style dish that is both pan-fried and steamed then smothered in cream gravy, are an enduring mystery. For one, there’ s some confusion about its name, with the meal also being referred to as“ Fried Chicken Maryland Style” or“ Chicken à la Maryland,” Harris says. And even the inventor of this iconic dish is unknown.
BALTIMORE. ORG 27