Perhaps the first clue is "Philadelphia writers and cooking teachers Irina Smith and Ann Hazan seem to feel similarly, because they have co-written several intensely local cookbooks.

That says to me it is not really a local cookbook, unlike the various Junior League and club cookbooks.

EL... i have a neighbourhood cookbook from Roland Park and Poplar Hill from the 30's or so. It's spiral bound with a wood cover!

Apparently Hometown Girl in Hampden also sells it.
I googled it, and the cookbook has been around since 1991. I couldn't find a listing of recipes however.
There were lots of sites selling it, however. Ebay among them.

Okay fairfax--what was hot in Roland Park and Poplar Hill back in the 30s? I bet there wasn't much food on a stick or
snacks in boxes.

I saw a cookbook (spiral bound) from the 70's at an antiques store that had the "real" Baltimore restaurant recipes in it. ie - Haussner's strawberry pie; Sabatino's Bookmaker Salad & dressing, Hutzler's something or other... I don't think they were the Real Deal by any means but it totally captured the "flavor" of Baltimore and I'm sorry I was too cheap to lay out the $15 they wanted for it. It's part of the hunt adventure for cookbooks (spiral bound of course) - they have to be dirt cheap! Now, that wood covered one that you have Meg - I'd go higher for that! That's a keeper!

The Friends of the Canton Library has a reprint of an old neighbourhood fundraiser cookbook, spiral bound and all. It looked pretty cool. I bought it for someone else, so I never made any of the recipes, but the talk I went to, all the refreshments were from recipes in the book, and they were sure tasty.

The blog software keeps mangling my attempt to hot link the cookbook, so I'll put it in here. (It is putting in the "nofollow" bit and not closing the string properly. And now I can't get it to display at all. EL, could you please fix it? I can't.)

Haha! Not going to tell you all... I will have to blog about it soon.

I have just posted some brilliant pix of a farm where I stayed this weekend and the incredible veg that they sent back home with me!

Fairfax: You are welcome to keep the good stuff for your blog, but please answer one question. Surely there is a crabcake recipe in there. Do they include bell pepper in it?

Ditto anyone who has seen the Original Baltimore cookbook -- or, indeed, any other ancient tome.

One particularly bad habit I have is that I will always order "Maryland Crab Cakes" when I see them on a menu anywhere I travel. 99% of them include more filler than crab and the predominant flavor comes from the peppers. Surely the widespread myth about Maryland Crab Cakes comes from somewhere ... maybe one of these?

Oh, please, someone must have the Sabatino salad dressing recipe and will share. It was a sad day when the Giant stopped selling it.

RtSO--I never had the Sabatino dressing--what made it special?

The authors of The Original Baltimore Neighborhood Cookbook also wrote The Original Philadelphia Neighborhood Cookbook, for which a free preview is available at Amazon.com. Each of the 3 Philly recipes included in the preview is linked to a neighborhood (e.g., Rolled Smoked Seafood Mousse with Lemon Mayonnaise is attributed to Washington Square West), but without any explanation (the authors don’t say why this particular mousse recipe is associated with Washington Square West).

Given some of the Baltimore recipe titles mentioned in the Slashfood.com post (Szechuan Cold Noodles, Oven Baked Veal Stew), I wonder whether it’s much more than a collection of recipes with the Baltimore name slapped on the title. After all, can anybody in the Sandbox name a go-to Baltimore neighborhood or restaurant for Oven Baked Veal Stew?

I have a half-dozen or so community cookbooks from all around Baltimore, and many of the recipes seem to be indigenous because they're in every book. And, being old-fashioned, many of the recipes don't skimp on butter/mayo/eggs/sugar, etc. They're not the healthiest offerings around, but they sure do taste good!

Hey folks, Marisa from Slashfood here. I featured The Original Baltimore Neighborhood Cookbook because I try to introduce our readers to a wide variety of cookbooks available. I was actually disappointed by the lack of real Baltimore recipes in that book, but I thought it was still unique enough to garner a mention. If anyone has any true favorite Baltimore-based cookbooks (or any favorites at all) I'm always looking for new titles to write about.

Oh, and I'm totally intrigued by this talk of Sabatino dressing. Could someone describe it for me?

Dahlink and Marisa - think sort of creamy italian with lots of garlic and cheese but some "secret" thing that makes it so unbelievably good. BTW, they used to sell you an empty (clean) wine bottle full of it on site years ago, haven't been in a long time - RtSO; so you may be able to satisfy your need!

Canon... i will check this evening and let you know. I was kidding about not sharing.. i just don't have time to do a post about it now. However, I will pretty much bet that the RP cookbook doesn't have a Sabatino's dressing recipe!

MD Cannon, most 'local' crab cake recipes (even Mrs. Tawes, as I remember it) tend to be variations of the recipe on the side of the Old Bay container. Bell pepper doesn't play a part. I don't think any of the 'best' listed under the crab cake threads have bell pepper.

As Joyce W describes the Sabatino dressing, I would agree. Its good enough to suffer the other Sabatino food.

I googled Sabatino's dressing and found this:
½ cup Salad oil
½ cup Red wine vinegar
½ pounds Romano cheese; grated
Salt & pepper to taste
Oregano to taste
Accent to taste

could this be it?
Joyce said something about it having garlic in it, so maybe that is the accent?

My Cecil County bred wife inherited a cook book titled "Eat, Drink and Be Merry in Maryland," by Frederick Philip Stieff (an old Maryland surname). It's real "old Maryland" in many respects, including some racist jokes and cartoons that lead me to keep our copy in an inconspicuous place.(However, the Pratt has two copies, published in 1956, that may have been expurgated. Ours is the fifth edition (!) published in 1932.)
It has a tremendous range of recipes, both Maryland and Baltimore specific. Many dishes have two or three versions. (Two crab cakes, neither with bell peppers though one with chopped parsley. The other uses no mayonnaise but a full cup of bread crumbs.) The recipes are all attributed to various hosts, hostesses and hotels, which often produced the finest dining in Baltimore.
The book has an interesting forward by the author, discussing Maryland food in general. It's dedicated to Oliver Wendell Holmes, who described Baltimore as "the gastronomic metropolis of the Union." It's also got a long letter from Emily Post, apparently a native Marylander, and another from Baltimore Mayor Howard W. Jackson, a noted gourmet (gourmand?) of his time who is reputed to have fallen off the wagon by lacing his terrapin with too much sherry.
Book was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons in New York.

Accent is essentially MSG.

Isn't Accent like MSG? Sort of a umami taste?

Rob - could be - but this stuff is super emulisified, don't know if you could get that with just oil and vinegar... Accent could be that "secret" ingredient though - you never know!

With a little archeological dig in my frig I found a bottle of Sabatino's dressing, from the Giant. When you get past all the various chemical additives, the fundamental ingredients are as listed, except they have corn syrup after Parmesan cheese (not Romano). Interesting stuff listed: dehydrated cheddar cheese (for thickening?) and MSG. So when the recipe says Accent, it means Accent. The dressing is not a creamy dressing, but is it thick and an off white shade. Truly super emulsified. A blender or blender stick would be a must.

Thank you Mr. Florida and Ms. W.

"Robert"--are you a new Robert or one we already know and love?

Opps. I was over complaining about bottled water for dogs at Mutts and dropped the ID. I assumed they wouldn't know me and think tSO was odd.

I have Bonnie Rapoports Dining In - Baltimore from 1981 & 1988 and the recipe she has for Sabitino's dressing is identical to the one above.

I also have a copy of the cookbook, Wartime by BG&E and they have a recipe for stretching butter (good to know in these economic times) - I did a post on it at my blog ....just follow the linke http://diningdish.blogspot.com/2007/05/wartime-menus-substitutes-cooking.html

You are quite welcome RtSO. I was surprised I was able to find it. I'm glad you clarified things.

Canon... in the interest of getting on the fast track to heaven, I checked the Roland Park cook book for you. It's actually from the Lake Roland Garden Club, and was published in 1935.

Amazingly, it doesn't have a recipe for crabcakes at all! It does have crab and chicken hash, and several recipes for crab imperial, but none for cakes.

in my cookbook collection, I have a couple of local fundraiser cookbooks from the 60's that have terrapin soup recipes, and one even has a recipe for possum stew, but the crab cake recipes are all pretty much "side of the Old Bay can", as a matter of fact, IMHO; I think green peppers and/or onions in crab cakes are kind of an outside of Baltimore phenom.

Going back to trying to answer Marisa's query, is there a more "authentic" Baltimore or Maryland cookbook that the Sandbox is willing to recommend? What about the Junior League's Hunt to Harbor cookbook? Or is that too limited to, um, the Roland Park crowd?

I'm kinda embarrassed to admit that I've never eaten anything by John Shields, nor really watched him on tv, but would his cookbooks be more "authentic" to Maryland?

I worked for Sabs for years...that recipe is close, but its wrong!

well, chef, you gonna come clean with the recipe?

Joyce W., doesn't Shields hail from the Eastern Shore originally?

Dahlink -- John Shields is a native of Baltimore, at least according to his bio on the Coastal Cooking TV show website.

John Shields is from Baltimore. West side, I think.

Actually, I take back the "west side" part. I was thinking of the annoying Steve Reichlen.

Shields is from Baltimore, though.

Hal, annyoing Steve is from Pikesville. And every man woman and child in Baltimore co knows that! He's like our local boy who made it big. sorta.