I grew up on pit beef and Berger cookies.
My grandfather, Joseph Dennis Grace, owned Town & Country Caterers for over 50 years. My earliest childhood memories is sitting on the kitchen counter with slices of roast beef, maraschino cherries and a Berger cookie on a paper plate watching my parents cater bull and oyster roasts with my grandfather; and let me tell you, I am spoiled now because of it. I remember watching my grandfather and his brothers Jerome and John dry rub rounds of beef with dry mustard, pepper, salt and oregano, rosemary and thyme and slow cook them on spits outside “the Hall” occasionally spraying them with red wine vinegar. I always took for granted that everyone knew what bull and oyster roasts were and that the only way to eat pit beef was on a Kaiser roll with raw white onions and horseradish sauce. I also took for granted that they HAD to have Berger cookies all over the world, because they were coveted in lunchboxes and kitchens almost everywhere I turned.
As I grew older and ventured outside of the Baltimore bubble, I began to realize that these things were just not true. There were no Berger cookies on the west coast (or UTZ for that matter…) and my friends from up north did not know what real pit-beef was, let alone that it usually came from an outdoor location.
I have learned that pit beef is actually a traditional Baltimore delicacy, with recipes popping up all over the internet for “Baltimore Pit Beef.” Apparently, Baltimore pit beef is the top- or bottom-round cut of beef, dry rubbed and slowly cooked over an open flame, usually cooked rare or medium rare. The tradition of pit beef supposedly comes from working class neighborhoods in east Baltimore, such as Rosedale and Essex. The round cuts of beef are inexpensive and become tough when overcooked or dry, so pit beef was the perfect solution to a delicious steak dinner for less. Bull and oyster roasts were also an easy, cheap and local solution to a large celebration.
Now, onto Berger cookies. Those delicious but sinfully caloric Baltimore confections.
In 1835, brothers George and Henry Berger immigrated to Baltimore from Germany. Henry Berger, a baker, settled into East Baltimore and opened a bakery; eventually, he had three sons, two of whom (Otto and George) opened their own bakeries while Henry the younger took over their fathers. Now back then, most food was purchased in “open air markets” and the public markets in Baltimore. All three brothers kept stalls in these markets and their name became quite popular in the baking business, especially with one of their products: a vanilla wafer cookie topped with chocolate fudge. Eventually, the brothers combined the bakeries under a single name in the late 1800’s.
When the Berger brothers eventually grew old and passed away, the remaining brother George sold the bakery to Charles E. Russell and his family. Charles Russell Jr., the current owner, still makes sure the bakery uses the same recipes and ingredients as in the 19th century when the bakery first started producing Berger cookies.
Berger cookies and pit-beef, like a lot of other Baltimore institutions I have written about, have blue-collar origins and/or is a product of immigration to Baltimore. Although it is repetitive, it does present a theme: Baltimore is a working-class, melting pot city. Many food items Baltimoreans know and enjoy come from this immigrant, working-class background, even if they are sometimes dressed up and presented as a high-class culinary confection (take fried soft-crabs for example). Many of these foods were marketed or eaten out of necessity or enjoyed in lieu of more expensive things by people with little means (see snowballs, first entry). The accessibility of these foods to the lower-, working- and middle classes made these foods popular and well known, eventually leading to them becoming cultural delicacies in our beautiful city and elsewhere. Pit beef was even an institution in my family; my grandfather made his living off of it and eventually became very well-known in the area for his simple but delicious food. My family is still in the restaurant business and no one forgets that we had our roots in plain old, working class, southwest Baltimore culture. All I know is that there aren’t many ways to dress up pit-beef or Berger cookies, but I like it like that. Plain, simple, and oh-so-Baltimore, hon.
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Today, while running around Arbutus getting all hot and sweaty, I got a whiff of pit-beef cooking and instantly I had to have it. I loaded up my sister, brother and cousin Annie in the car and drove to a small but well-known red trailer parked on the side of Rt. 1 by the Home Depot. Two women (with distinct Baltimore accents I might add) took down our order for 2 pit-beef and 2 barbeque beef sandwiches. Almost immediately 4 hot, tinfoil wrapped packages were handed to us. Attached to the trailer is a little condiment table. I loaded my sandwich up with raw white onions, salt, pepper and spicy horseradish sauce, just like my grandfather does. On the way home, Maureen (trying to redeem herself for previous blog failings) ran into 7-11 for some Berger cookies, because who can have that delicious beef without some dessert? On her part, it was a good move. In the June heat, they were slightly gooey and a delicious compliment to the rich, rare, flavorful beef on (naturally) a fresh white Kaiser roll. What a perfect summer lunch.
agreed mo!
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