Needed: the recipe for Marconi's chopped salad
I really don't want to turn Dining@Large into the Internet equivalent of Recipe Finder, but I got the following e-mail from a very polite reader whose family has been subscribing to the Sun for over 50 years, so I want to help him out:
I would dearly love to have the recipe for Marconi's signature chopped house salad. They are no longer in business, of course, and there is little hope of their resurfacing, so the secret should be open at this point. I am not a professional cook, just missing the salad for my family. ...
I looked for it in our computer archives, which go back to 1990, and I found two requests for the salad in two different Recipe Finder columns, but no one ever came up with the recipe. I hope it didn't disappear with the restaurant.
For those of you who don't remember Maison Marconi, it was one of those Baltimore institutions that finally closed in 2005.
Anyway, I'm putting the request out here, and if anyone has the recipe, please post below or e-mail it to me.
Comments
I'd like to have the recipe for Marconi's chocolate sauce.
Posted by: Anonymous | February 7, 2009 10:37 AM
Marconi's chocolate sauce
It would be an act of great charity to find and publish that. I know you gave us a chocalate sauce, but, Marconi's chocolate sauce: Ummers.
Posted by: Robert (the Single One) | February 7, 2009 2:33 PM
I searched all of my fundraiser cookbooks to see if I possibly had even a version of this salad (and the chocolate sauce), but no luck. Hopefully, someone who worked in the kitchen will see this and come forward with the goods!
Posted by: Joyce W. | February 8, 2009 9:57 AM
Alice Medrich, the author of several James Beard Cookbook of the Year chocolate cookbooks, concocted THE best hot fudge recipe. She calls it "a pretty adult sauce" because the chocolate flavour is less encumbered by the other ingredients, which means you get the best results using the best chocolate. Price is not always an indication - it pays to google around if you're really into having the most intense chocolate experience. The depth of any sauce is dictated by the percentage on the chocolate bar and her recipe calls for 70 percent bittersweet. For those umfamiliar with the terminology, the article accompanying the recipe explains:
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/life/article_1567180.php
BTW, I'm happy to answer questions on cooking/baking with chocolate.
Posted by: Donna Beth Joy Shapiro | February 8, 2009 11:02 AM
Here's a link for Marconi's chocolate sauce:http://www.baltimoremd.com/food/restmarconi.html
I guess the chopped salad recipe is going to someone's grave...can't find it anywhere! Aarrgh! There must be a Marconi's 'archivist' somewhere! LOL!
Posted by: John | March 28, 2009 12:28 PM
I used to eat at Marconi's in the 70's. Still rememer tht salad!!!! Won't someone please post it. Please.
Posted by: Tim Mannello | June 13, 2009 9:31 AM
Hey I tried to search it up in Google and couldn't find it. But I found this joke:
Q: How many Baltimoreans does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: All of them. One to put in the bulb, and the rest to talk about how much better the old bulb was.
Posted by: Bucky | June 13, 2009 9:39 AM
Hmmm. The Outlander demonstrates his restraint and fine breeding by omitting the slur, "Baltimorons". Now what did I just hear him say about Minnesotans?
Posted by: Laura Lee | June 13, 2009 10:24 AM
I appreciate the assumption of fine breeding, but I just copied and pasted it the way it was.
I thought it was funny, from afar.
Posted by: Bucky | June 13, 2009 10:26 AM
"from afar"
Truer words were never spoken, Bucky. When I heard there was a grown man in this great land of ours who had never eaten yogurt before, I too thought it was funny, from afar.
Posted by: Laura Lee | June 13, 2009 10:32 AM
Zing, Laura Lee.
Posted by: Amanda C | June 13, 2009 1:10 PM
I tried to search it up in Google
Good one, Buck!
Posted by: Eve | June 14, 2009 7:58 PM
As far as salads, and Marconi's, I remember being first underwhelmed and then magically transported by the simplest salad I have ever had. It was a lettuce heart cut into quarters and the dressing was a home-made mayonnaise, lightly salted. I've made home-made mayonnaise following the Joy of Cooking recipe and it was a fair approximation.
Posted by: stephenstec | June 22, 2009 2:05 PM
As far as salads, and Marconi's, I remember being first underwhelmed and then magically transported by the simplest salad I have ever had. It was a lettuce heart cut into quarters and the dressing was a home-made mayonnaise, lightly salted. I've made home-made mayonnaise following the Joy of Cooking recipe and it was a fair approximation.
Posted by: stephenstec | June 22, 2009 2:07 PM