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Sam Smith - I was a little disappointed that the Review's normally well informed readers could not come up with an explanation for why I was recently suddenly inspired to put butter and maple syrup on my crab cakes.
Jesse Walker, a man of Reason (magazine), writes that "maybe it was divine inspiration. Keep having those visions, ,and you could write the first combination holy book and cookbook.".
Tom Puckett sent the item to a co-worker who lives just over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Stevensville and "who regularly uses his crabbing license to get his daily bushel or whatever it is during the summer." He wrote back that he had never heard of such a thing, but that it "sounds kinda of gross." Puckett gently adds that "there may be a clue for you in the Walter Cunningham Jr. dinner scene in To Kill A Mockingbird." This is described thusly in one synopsis: "Jem invites him over to dinner and Walter thinks that the food is like at home where it tastes awful and tries to drown the flavor with syrup. Scout asks him what he's doing and he feel embarrassed."
In fact, one finds mention on the web of maple syrup as a glaze or cooking ingredient in a number of recipes for fish. My own suspicion is that it has southern roots (because it clearly comes from my childhood in then quite southern DC) or that it was related to the increased use of maple syrup during the World War II when regular sugar was rationed. In any case, it really is good and I plan to keep it on my menu
Jesse Walker, a man of Reason (magazine), writes that "maybe it was divine inspiration. Keep having those visions, ,and you could write the first combination holy book and cookbook.".
Tom Puckett sent the item to a co-worker who lives just over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Stevensville and "who regularly uses his crabbing license to get his daily bushel or whatever it is during the summer." He wrote back that he had never heard of such a thing, but that it "sounds kinda of gross." Puckett gently adds that "there may be a clue for you in the Walter Cunningham Jr. dinner scene in To Kill A Mockingbird." This is described thusly in one synopsis: "Jem invites him over to dinner and Walter thinks that the food is like at home where it tastes awful and tries to drown the flavor with syrup. Scout asks him what he's doing and he feel embarrassed."
In fact, one finds mention on the web of maple syrup as a glaze or cooking ingredient in a number of recipes for fish. My own suspicion is that it has southern roots (because it clearly comes from my childhood in then quite southern DC) or that it was related to the increased use of maple syrup during the World War II when regular sugar was rationed. In any case, it really is good and I plan to keep it on my menu
3 Comments:
Maybe you just like it. I put peanut butter and hot sauce in my oat meal because (I think) I like it. It never occured to me to sociologically contextualize it.
Instead of asking why you were "suddenly inspired" to put maple syrup on your crab cakes, you should ask yourself (and your readers) why this has merited a couple of blog posts.
Correction on the To Kill a Mockingbird analysis: Walter Cunningham didn't pour molasses (most certainly not maple syrup, which was no doubt nonexistent in Maycomb) on his food because his mother was a bad cook. The Cunninghams and lots of other Southerners used it as a cheap, abundant, nutrient-rich addition to the low-quality meals they suffered throughout the Depression. Scout was punished because she had insulted his poverty, not his culinary tastes.
This is what Nika Hazelton writes in American Home Cooking (1980):
"Mrs. McGowen, my wartime Maryland cook (who always wore a hat, made this for Sunday breakfast." N.H. then describes crabmeat heated and stirred in a whole lot of melted butter. It was finished off with salt and a dash of cayenne, and served it with Spoon Bread and broiled tomatoes. She says "grits would be good too." From this I form the idea that you were served crab cakes with spoon bread or grits and put syrup on the latter which naturally made its way onto the crab meat and the rest is history.
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