[jfengel]

I live in Maryland and have an interest in food history, and I'm not actually sure I've ever seen this dish in any cookbooks from Maryland. I have a feeling it got named because somebody felt Maryland was "exotic", but they'd never actually been here.

We certainly have shallow-fried chicken, but that's hardly unique to Maryland. It's a very common Southern dish, and not unknown to New England either. It's easier to accomplish than deep frying.

[ytdytvhxgydvhh]

Maryland: A Guide to the Old Line State, the state’s entry in the Depression-era American Guide Series, mentions it:

> Old-fashioned fried chicken, Maryland Style, has attained nation-wide fame, though discriminating Free Staters often have difficulty in recogniz- ing the concoction of that name foisted on a gullible public outside the State. The standard recipe calls for a young chicken, cut into pieces, floured, and fried in deep fat. According to the oldest custom it is served on a layer of fried cornmeal mush or a crisp johnnycake with cream gravy poured over the cornbread but not over the chicken.

[jfengel]

Thanks for digging that up! Those "America Eats" projects are an absolute treasure trove.

[davepeck]

I always think of Tom & Ray's in Damascus, MD as being the most legit Maryland fried chicken I've had. Granted, it's also the only place I'd ever heard the term until today. :-)

(I gather T&R recently changed ownership so I don't really know what its current status is or whether its fried chicken is precisely as legendary as this 90s kid remembers.)

[fourmii]

I used to live in DC, and discovered a great diner in Grasonville called Holly's. I love my fried chicken and to this day, my favorite was from Holly's. Sadly, it closed a few years back. Fond memories of not only great fried chicken, but finished with some of the best milkshakes going around...

[kuhewa]

My childhood friend down the road was crazy about their catfish. I only have vague memories of Holly's but cool to see the motherland get a mention.

[matthewdgreen]

It names two random restaurants in Baltimore, apparently using the "let's type this menu item into Google" strategy. One of them (Gertrude's) is run by a knowledgeable chef and is right next to my job. Going to demand a detailed accounting of this dish next time I eat there.

[qingcharles]

All the Brits on the Titanic would have been pronouncing it wrong. In England people pronounce it like it is written - Mary Land.

[palmfacehn]

Mare-ryl-und

[Kon-Peki]

> I have a feeling it got named because somebody felt Maryland was "exotic", but they'd never actually been here.

In the pre-WWI UK, absolutely no monarchist, status-conscious first-class-traveling Englishman would have thought of Maryland as exotic.

[giantg2]

Yeah, I was hoping the article would say what made MD pan fried chicken unique from other pan fried chicken.

[schott12521]

I was expecting Old Bay Fried Chicken

[jfengel]

Old Bay is much more recent. It's based on a lot of spice blends dating to the mid 19th century but Old Bay in particular is only from the 1930s.

It was originally for crabs, and that particular dish really is a distinctive local tradition. Applying it to everything and calling it "Maryland" really only dates to the 70s.

[panzagl]

Lawry's Seasoned Salt for chicken.

[giantg2]

The local spice tends to be JO.

[teej]

Yep, sort of how a Baked Alaska is called that because Alaska is cold.

[wannacboatmovie]

Next do scrapple.

[jfengel]

I think of scrapple as more Pennsylvania than Maryland, though it definitely bleeds over the border a bit. We get a lot of "Amish markets", even though they're usually Mennonite rather than Amish. They bring scrapple with them.

Scrapple really is a local food, though it's not that different from other kinds of head cheese. The thing that makes it "scrapple" is the addition of cornmeal (maize), which helps it crisp up nicely when fried.

Americans get weird about off-cuts and organ meats. But if we called it "terrine de porc à la semoule de maïs" and served it with microgreens they'd sell it for $28 as an appetizer.

[panzagl]

Probably best if we don't...