Week 50: Tradition #52Ancestors

One of my family traditions involves desserts. Lucky me!

Last week, I wrote about my maternal grandmother, Catherine (Spencer) Maier, who was a fabulous cook. Everything she made was delicious: pie crust (with lard, of course), pot roast, soups, etc. I am fortunate-enough to have inherited (aka, stole) her box of recipe cards.[1] I love seeing her handwriting (beautiful), although some of her instructions require a “modern” translation. For example, what is a “moderate oven”? How much, exactly is a “lump of butter”? What is “top milk”?[2]

Nana’s specialty was dessert. She had recipes for “Thanksgiving Cake” with orange icing, “Chocolate Chip Torte,” “Spiced Nut Cake” [from someone named “Grandma” – hers??], and “Cottage Cheese Cake.” I’d estimate that 90% of her recipe cards are for desserts. She must have had some sweet tooth. One issue with this collection of recipes is that my mom added hers to the box and their handwriting is so similar that determining which ones are Nana’s and which ones are my mom’s is a challenge. Nana’s are likely the ones written in fountain pen and the ones with the “antiquated” instructions. Because both of them also clipped recipes from newspapers and glued them onto a card, it will be another challenge to figure out who clipped which one.[3]

Two little treats I found in the recipe box were tiny little recipe books for cocktails. One is a little 3x2 inch calendar/address/note book for 1946-47 put out by Calvert Distillers Corp. of NYC. I know this because at the bottom of each page, it says “Clear Heads Choose Calvert.” Random pages in the book have cocktail recipes for drinks like an Old Fashioned and Whiskey Sour. My favorite is the “Calvert and Cola”: “Here’s the latest from Havana – and how they hated to part with it.” Of course, the nerd in me compelled me to research Calvert Distillers. 

Calvert Distilling opened in 1933 right after Prohibition as the “Maryland Distillery.”[4] Apparently, Seagrams bought the distillery in 1939, renaming it Calvert.[5] Segrams sold this line to a Montreal-based conglomerate in 1991 and they sold it to Diago, a Birtish company in 2001.[6] The original plant in Baltimore shut down in 2015. Calvert-labeled whiskey, bourbon, and gin are now being made in Kentucky by St. Louis-based Luxco.[7]

The other little cocktail book was printed by Laird and Company, which still exists and is America’s oldest distiller.[8] What a great little story they have to tell! The first commercial sale for Robert Laird’s “Apple Brandy” was in 1780 in Scobeyville, New Jersey. Robert was the grandson of William who immigrated from Scotland in/around 1698.[9] The Laird website claims that George Washington wrote to Laird around 1760 asking for his “applejack” recipe and that their family provided the American troops in the Revolutionary War with said applejack.[10] I located records for Robert Laird, who served with Smock’s Company of Light Dragoons, 1st Regiment of the Monmouth, N.J. Militia. However, I haven’t been able to verify the family stories involving the Washington or the war. Perhaps another unproven family legend?

While this was a nice side-trip into distilling history, I really should get back to Nana’s desserts.

As a kid, I remember the only desserts we had for holidays or Sunday meals were Nana’s Coconut Cream Pie, her Lemon Meringue Pie, and the world’s best dessert, “Blitz Torte.” Makes my mouth water just to think of them. My memory is that my oldest brother, Jay, ate an entire Coconut Cream Pie once and became so sick that he could never eat that pie ever again (sad for him, more for us).

When Thanksgiving came around, we always had one or more of these family-favorites. What? No pumpkin pie, you ask? Yes, true. I remember having an unfounded prejudice against pumpkin: it was squash after all. When I was in Jr. High, my home ec. class made fresh pumpkin pie. We deseeded, cooked, and pureed the pumpkin and made pie. OMG, how yummy! I marched home that afternoon and confronted my mother with the travesty of her holding back one of the greatest desserts of all time. We were robbed! My mom simply shook her head and wondered (again) what was wrong with me. Nevertheless, while we still had our traditional “Nana desserts” for holidays, I did manage to add a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. 

I mentioned my Nana’s “Blitz Torte.” In addition to her being as tough as nails, I think it was this dessert that convinced me she had German heritage.[11] What could be more German than a dessert with such a name?  Apparently, there are other names for this cake and similar cousins, such as, Berliner Luft Torte, Himmelstorte, Tausenblättertorte, Jesnen Torte, and Schimmbadtorte.[12] Despite all these German-sounding names, I’ve read that it might be an American invention (I suppose that makes sense since Nana wasn’t really German). One story I found was that this was an old cake recipe that became popularized in the 1920s, even making its way into the Betty Crocker cookbook in 1926.[13] Since my Nana was married in 1921, it makes sense that this might be a recipe she found at that time and made it into a family tradition.[14]

 There are 100’s of blitz torte recipes on line most following a similar theme: yellow cake, meringue topping and whipped cream middle, sometimes with fruit. Allegedly, they are named “Blitz” because they are fast to make, although some of these recipes are more complicated than others. I’d say Nana’s falls in the middle. 

I wouldn’t go on and on about this cake without giving you the recipe. No fear, I’ve attached it to the blog. Enjoy!

[1] Note to my niece, Becca: I promise all of them to you as soon as I get them scanned. No promises on the date when this will be done.   

[2] A “moderate: oven is between 350° and 400°. A lump of butter is just enough to cover the pan. “Top milk” is cream.

[3] Although I am not sure why I care. 

[4] Heather Norris, “Diago bottling plant closing marks the end of an era,” The Baltimore Sun, 17 June 2015; digital image (https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-county/ph-at-diageo-memories-0616-20150617-story.html : viewed 14 December 2019).

[5] Kim Clark, “Seagram distillery get sobering news, Liquor lines sold; layoffs expected,” The Baltimore Sun, 2 November 1991; digital image (https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1991-11-02-1991306067-story.html : viewed 14 December 2019). 

[6] Norris, “Diago bottling.”

[7] Ibid. “Meet the Family,” Luxco (https://www.luxco.com/brands/ : accessed 14 December 2019).

[8] “Our History,” Laird and Company (https://lairdandcompany.com/our-history/ : accessed 14 December 2019). Distillery operations ceased during Prohibition, but apple production continued. 

[9] Frank J. Prial, “One Family’s Story: Apples to Applejack,” The New York Times, 4 May 2005; digital image (https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/dining/one-familys-story-apples-to-applejack.html : accessed 14 December 2019).

[10] Ibid.

[11] Of course, she was not and it was pretty silly of me to think that. In my defense, I didn’t know anything about genealogy then.

[12] Oma Gerhild Fulson, “Oma’s German Blitz Torte,” Quick German Recipes (https://www.quick-german-recipes.com/german-blitz-torte-recipe.html : accessed 14 December 2019).

[13] “1926 Blitz Torte,” Betty Crocker, The Vintage Chiffon Cake Site (https://vintagechiffoncake.neocities.org/bettycrockerblitztorte.html : accessed 14 December 2019).

[14] St. Columbia’s Church, Newark, New Jersey, 27 April 1921, Certificate of Marriage, Charles Maier and Catherine Spencer; citing Marriage Register of the church.