WILD ABOUT MARYLAND’S WILD RICE

By Joyce M. White

You might be surprised to find wild rice popping up more than once in the iconic Maryland’s Way: The Hammond-Harwood House Cook Book (1963). It appears in a simple boiled rice recipe, as the star in Baby Broilers with Wild Rice Stuffing, and paired with pork in Pork Chops with Wild Rice. At first glance, wild rice in a Maryland cookbook might seem a bit out of place – after all, the grain is typically associated with the Ojibwe people and the lakes of the Upper Midwest. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll discover that the marshy edges of the Chesapeake Bay once teemed with wild rice.

The native variety found in Maryland is Zizania aquatica, an annual freshwater grass that produces edible seeds. It’s a close cousin of the more widely sold Midwestern type, Zizania palustris. Long before cookbooks entered the scene, Indigenous communities in the Chesapeake region were harvesting wild rice by canoe – bending the stalks over and tapping them with sticks so the seeds would fall gently into the boat.

Wild rice wasn’t just a side dish – it was a staple. Native peoples pounded it into flour to bake bread and used it in stews and other hearty meals. Dennis Watt, Rnd, author of The Complete Native American Cookbook, notes that native rice was often “cooked and eaten plain or combined with other wild plants and meats to [make] a type of stew.” That tradition continues today. In 2016, the Appalachian American Indians of West Virginia published a cookbook featuring wild rice in a variety of creative forms – tossed into corn soups and venison stews, folded into savory pancakes, or chilled in a salad. Closer to home, the Nanticoke people of Maryland’s Eastern Shore share a delicious recipe for Wild Rice with Hazelnuts and Blueberries in their 2013 collection.

Wild rice didn’t just appeal to Indigenous cooks. The Pennsylvania Dutch, who settled in Maryland’s Frederick region beginning in the 1700s, also embraced the grain. Food historian William Woys Weaver notes that they called it wasserhawser (meaning “water oats”) and used it extensively. One colonial-era dish, black mush, was a kind of porridge made from buckwheat, cornmeal, fennel seed, cayenne pepper, cheese – and yes, wild rice. Once considered “poverty food,” it was a winter breakfast solution when meat supplies ran low.

Unfortunately, wild rice is no longer a common sight in Chesapeake Bay wetlands. Overharvesting and the spread of invasive marsh plants (thanks, colonization!) have severely diminished native populations. By the late 1800s, the decline was already being felt. In 1861, wild rice still grew thick along the south side of Elkton in Cecil County, luring thousands of reed and rail birds – and hunters – to the area. But by 1879, the local supply had dwindled so much that conservationists had to import wild rice seeds from Wisconsin to reintroduce the crop along the Susquehanna River.

So while wild rice may seem like a culinary transplant, it has deep roots in Maryland’s food history – and it’s high time we bring that legacy back to the table.

Joyce M. White, a food historian, can be contacted through www.atasteofhistory.net.

Baby Broilers with Wild Rice Stuffing
Recipe from Araby, Charles County

• ½ cup wild rice
• 1 heart celery
• 2 onions
• 2 baby broilers
• salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp. chopped parsley
• 3 tbsp. butter
• 1 carrot
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• 1 tbsp. brandy
• watercress
  
  Wash rice and cook in boiling salted water until tender but not mushy.
  
  Drain well, add celery chopped with one of the onions, salt, pepper and parsley.
  Stuff birds with this and skewer or sew up.
  
  Melt butter in a heavy roasting pan.
  
  Slice carrot and other onion fine and brown lightly in butter. Add birds and brown them carefully by rolling over and over. When they are a delicate brown, add bouillon cube dissolved in water, or a little very strong stock. Season and cover tightly.
  
  Cook slowly in the oven for ½ hour. Remove juice and pour brandy over chickens and light it. Reduce juice by simmering slowly on top of stove. Pour reduced juice over birds and serve.
  
  Garnish with watercress.
  
  Cornish Rock Hen or Squab may be dressed in this way.