Got Duck? Crab? Possum? Make Some Gumbo

According to “The Southern and Southwestern Cookbook,” a booklet issued by the Culinary Arts Institute, Gumbo “is a Choctaw Indian word for okra …” There is some dispute. Many sources say it is an African word of the same meaning, okra. You can find support for either and for both.

   Some say you cannot have gumbo without okra, and that's

Hometown Favorites: Booyah, Conch, Picadillo

Okay, so gather up 30 pounds of chicken, 30 or so pounds of potatoes and an ox tail, you are on the track of a crowd-pleasing kettle of Booyah.

That’s one of the stewy dishes mentioned in the Food Editors’ Hometown Favorites Cookbook, a gathering of special recipes provided by dozens of food editors from around the country.

My copy of the book was issued as a promotion by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) in the 1980s. It is still available at online sites such as eBay. I found it informative and entertaining, a keeper.

I cannot find a current listing for the Newspaper Food Editors and Writers Association to ask permission so I won’t copy out their recipes, instead will link to similar others available on line.

So let’s start with Conch Chowder. Conch is a popular Florida treat despite restrictions on harvesting. In 1985, the harvesting of the conch

On Being Merry in Maryland

Are we having fun yet? Edward Tunis illustrator.

Some of the advice in this great old-time cookbook could get you killed. In particular I would mention the assertion that poisonous mushrooms will turn a silver spoon black in the cooking process. Not so, according to an army of researchers. An old wives’ tale, and one wonders how the wives grew old if they abided by that advice.

   Other than that, though, I thoroughly enjoyed “Eat, Drink and Be Merry In Maryland,” first issued in the 1930s under authorship of Frederick Philip Stieff. It has since been purged of racial insensitivities and reissued as a historical treasure by Johns Hopkins University Press. It lists at a hefty price on Amazon,