The Baltimore Harley's Sandwich Shop Burger

      I won't go through the history of the Harley's Sandwich Shop chain as I have it all laid out in the tuna salad article, just suffice it to say that Harley's was THE fast food chain in Baltimore long before Gino's and McDonald's.  Harley's restaurants were open all night and so were a favorite of the night shift crowd and police officers.  These burgers were always simmering in Harley's secret sauce ready to be served to hungry customers.

Little Tavern Sliders Recipe

     There are many places that sell sliders, or little burgers usually steamed on a griddle and sold in multiples.  White Castle, Crystal and even Burger King with their burger shots but in Baltimore you had 2 locations that advertised for you to "Buy them by the sackful," Little Tavern and White Tower.  Both of these chains were found in the Baltimore - Washington area and their flavor was quite different from the Northeast's White Castle chain.  Opened in 1927 in Louisville, Ky, Little Tavern eventually made their way over to Baltimore opening 13 locations.  Their menu was simple, sliders, drinks and a tasty coffee served in a heavy mug.

Baltimore Coddies Recipe

     The coddie is a purely Baltimore tradition. Go outside of the city and talk about coddies and you'll get sideways looks from people who ask if you mean cod cakes.  Nope, cod cakes are a different animal entirely.  Coddies were once to be found everywhere in Baltimore and it's environs and although the customer base has shrunk over the years, they are still to be found at places like Faidley's Seafood, Pappas Crab House and other venerable Baltimore eateries.

On Top of Old Meatball, All Covered With Cheese...

     Sub shops were everywhere when I was growing up in Baltimore.  Serving everything from cheesesteaks to pizza subs, cold cuts and meatball subs it was good food at great prices.  While never touted as health food it was what it's loyal customers wanted, a quick filling lunch or something to settle the stomach after a night of drinking.  I have firsthand experience with this, queasy stomach from too much alcohol?  Nothing settles things down like greasy food which makes no sense but who am I to question alchemy?

Chesapeake Bay Seasoning For Seafood

     For Marylanders there is nothing like seafood, especially crabs, that much we can all agree on.  What we can't agree on is what seafood seasoning is the best to use with those steamed crabs... or crab cakes, fish, tuna salad, french fries, potato chips, ice cream... you get my drift, we put seafood seasoning on everything. Ask anyone what their favorite seasoning is and I hope you've got time on your hands for the answer.  Of course Old Bay is the overwhelming favorite but you'll also hear J.O. and Wye River mentioned along with a few like me who make their own.

Diner Style Hashed Browned Potatoes

   I love writing about diner style and old sub shop recipes.  Part of it is the thrill of reconstructing a recipe that may have been lost to time had I not saved it, the other part is because this is the world I grew up in.  Being almost 43 I am allowed to have a hindsight perspective on life.  The world we live in now is not the world I grew up in and I'm not entirely sure we've progressed while marching to the never ending tune of progress.

Adult Tartar Sauce

   
     I made this recipe while playing around one day trying to come up with something better than regular old tartar sauce.  I consulted a couple of my old recipe books for ideas and revisited some of the better ingredients in my remoulade  recipe I wrote oh so long ago.  I like remoulade, it's just a pain to make and involves tarragon which goes brown quicker than an avocado in a heat wave.  Dried tarragon has no flavor because it doesn't dry well so it was off to come up with something that has the flavor of remoulade but not the headache.

White Coffee Pot Maryland Fried Chicken

     Like the Harley's Sandwich Shops I've written about before, White Coffee Pot was a restaurant chain that was purely Baltimore.  Unlike Harley's and Little Tavern, White Coffee Pot dished up real home cooking with a smile in a diner atmosphere complete with jukeboxes at the tables.  Unfortunately time and circumstance caught up with this venerable brand and put and end to the best cup of coffee in Baltimore.

A Chicken Salad Recipe to Rule Them All

     When I set out to create a chicken salad recipe it was for an idea I've been tossing around for some time, a sandwich/sub shop modeled after the ones that used to be in every neighborhood of Baltimore when I grew up.  This is not high end food, this is not hipster food, this is not $100 hamburgers.  What this is is just good old fashioned working man's food eaten for lunch or after a good time at the local bar.

Harley's Sandwich Shop Tuna Salad & a Double TT Diner Club

     Harley's Sandwich Shops were a landmark in Baltimore from the 1940's to the 1980's when they were bought up by Shane's.  I was really young when this happened, maybe 8 or 10 years old but I do remember the couple times I went with my grandparents to Harley's.  He was well known for his subs and his burgers simmered in a secret sauce, a recipe I'll get to another time, but it was his jazz show on local Baltimore radio that really made him famous.

Green Goddess Dressing Recipe

Green Goddess dressing can be traced back to 1923 when it was adapted from an original recipe dating back to the 1600's.  It was created and named in honor of a play by the same name featuring the actor George Arliss and enjoyed a revival in popularity in the 1970's when the dressing maker 7 Seas re-introduced it to the American market.  As with most things culinary it has been on a roller coaster ride of popularity tempered with indifference ever since.

Crab House Maryland Crabcakes

Even though I live in Jacksonville I'm from Maryland originally, as a matter of fact most people in Jacksonville are from somewhere else.  Being from Maryland I do love crab cakes but the ones you see in stores and restaurants around here go from mildly passable to pathetic and everything in between.  The problem lies with a few things, over reliance on expensive crab meat, the use of too much fillers, i.e. bread crumbs, and the wrong seasoning.  Every true Marylander knows that to make the perfect crab cake you shun the Special and Jumbo Lump Crab meat at $21 to the pound and buy claw at $10 to the pound.  Claw meat is the most tender, most delicate and has the best flavor.  In the recipe you use just enough crab meat to bring the pattie together but never enough to make a bready cake.  And as for the seasoning, Old Bay, that ubiquitous seafood seasoning that can be found everywhere from frontier Alaska to Davao City, Philippines, has too much ginger in it to make it respectable crab seasoning.  For the authentic Maryland flavor you Phillips Seasoning¹ or Wye River Seasoning.²