Did you know that March 24th is World Tuberculosis Day? Each year the World Health Organization (WHO) commemorates World Tuberculosis (TB) Day to “raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of TB, and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic. The date marks the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB, which opened the way towards diagnosing and curing this disease.”

Mount Pleasant Patient Dormitory, founded in 1910 by Jacob Epstein, owner of the Baltimore Bargain House as a tuberculosis sanitarium for Jewish patients. JMM 1991.53.3a. Check out Archivist Lorie Rombro’s post “The Mount Pleasant Jewish Home for Consumptives – a Personal Connection” to learn more about the sanitarium.
Banner for the “Hebrew Tuberculosis Society,” c. 1920s. The Hebrew Tuberculosis Society, formed in 1900, was continuously in operation through the 1970s, and helped people suffering from respiratory problems. JMM 1999.70.1a.

Below is a digitized copy of an oral history interview with Dr. Herbert Goldstone, recording with Helen Sollins on July 22, 1982 to discuss his life history and medical career. He talks a short while near the end of the interview about  the closes he came to “making a world-shattering discovery- the cure for tuberculosis.” You can also download a full transcript of his oral history here.

We can’t thank all our entrants enough for sharing their delicious homemade soups with us. We can’t help but feel healthy after all that chicken soup!

And, of course, a very special thank you to our amazing judges, Sam Gallant of WTMD, Tom Lovejoy, executive chef for Eddie’s of Roland Park, Tony Gambino of Ciao Bella Restaurant in Little Italy, and Marvin Pinkert, JMM executive director.


Best Chicken Soup in Maryland: Betsey Kahn’s “Good Old Fashioned Chicken Soup”

1  Roasting chicken

3 Carrots, sliced

4 Celery stalks, sliced

3 medium Onions, sliced

2 large Cloves of garlic

½ large Lemon, juice and rind

1 Tsp Pepper

1 Tbsp Salt

1 Tbsp SeasonAll

6 C Water

1 ½ C medium Barley

2 pkts Chicken HerbOx

2×32 oz Chicken broth

16 oz Frozen corn

16 oz Frozen peas

Place the chicken, either whole or cut up, in a 4 qt. pot. Put celery, carrots, onions, and garlic in the pot. Add 6 cups of water, salt, pepper, lemon juice, lemon rind, and SeasonAll.

Cover the pot and bring the liquid to a boil, turn the heat down and cook for at least 2 hours. The chicken will be “fall off the bone” at that time. With a slotted spoon, remove the chicken from the pot to a plate and remove the skin from all the parts.  BE CAREFULL TO REMOVE ALL BONES FROM THE BROTH.

Add as much of the pulled chicken as you want in the broth. Add the barley to the broth and cook for another ½ hour.

Add frozen corn and peas to the broth as well as the 2 packets of HerbOx and (2) 32 ounce boxes of chicken broth. Continue cooking for another ½ to ¾  of an hour.

ENJOY EATING MY GOOD OLD FASHION CHICKEN SOUP!


Best Traditional Chicken Soup: Mary Brady’s “Schmaltzy Soup”

Take a chicken, young or “stewing” (e.g., OLD). This recipe does not discriminate.

Discard the neck and Chop up the giblets.

Cover the chicken in cold water in a BIG pot. Boil that devil for a few minutes and then simmer it for an hour, until the meat falls off the bones.

For each chicken, shred a pound of carrots, celery and shallots. Saute the shredded vegs and giblets in schmaltz for Kosher version; butter for non-Kosher version.

Add Minor chicken base to the stewing chicken (this is the top-knotch chicken stock; available at BJ’s; if you can’t get it use any chicken stock.) Add vegetable stock, as well – about a quart of stock for each bird.

Pick out anything you don’t want to eat, e.g. bones and giant pieces of skin. Leave some skin in. Combine the sautéed vegs and the meat and simmer all for an hour.

Cool in the fridge overnight and then take off most of the fat – leave about a third. Bring to a boil – add a pound of Maneschevitz curly egg noodles – cook until the noodles are al dente.

Enjoy!


Best Alternative Chicken Soup: Adam Yosim’s his “Tom Kha Chai”

Broth:

3 lb chicken wings

1 large onion, quartered

1-2 garlic cloves, smashed

3 quarts water

salt & pepper.

Cook in crockpot 4-5 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low. Strain.

Soup:

2-3 quarts chicken broth

1 T each ginger & garlic, chopped

1/4 cup red curry paste

1 large onion, thinly sliced

2 cups shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1 red pepper, sliced

1 can coconut milk

1 lb boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces

2-3 T fish sauce

Garnish:

cilantro, scallions, lime wedges.

Cook garlic, ginger & curry page for 5 minutes over med heat, add chicken thighs and stir 2 min.

Add vegetable, cook 3 min.

Add broth, coconut milk, fish sauce, bring to boil, simmer 20 min.

Serve with garnishes.


Director’s Choice: Lan Pham Wilson of Morestomach Blog‘s “Lemongrass Chicken Soup”

Homemade stock:

1-2 kosher chicken carcasses

3 large carrots, trimmed & rough chopped

3 stalks of celery, rough chopped

6 lemongrass stalks, trimmed & slightly bruised

2″ knob of ginger, slightly smashed

3-4 garlic gloves, whole but slightly smashed

handful of kefir lime leaves

1 med onion, quartered

3-4 red thai chilis, whole and scored

palm-full of whole black peppercorns

water.

In a crock pot, add all the stock ingredients in and add water till it covers everything. lid, turn on low and walk away, 4-8 hours. Strain.

Soup:

2-3 carrots, washed, peeled & diced

2 celery stalks, diced

1 small onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

meat of kosher rotisserie chicken, shredded

1/2 cup rice

1/8-1/4 cup kosher fish sauce

1 T oil.

 

Extra flavoring:

2-3 lemongrass stalks, slightly bruised

1″ knob of ginger, slightly smashed

1-2 garlic cloves, slightly smashed

1/2 small onion, cut in half

1-2 red thai chilis, whole and scored

splash of neutral oil

In small frying pan gently warm a splash of oil and sauté all the ingredients. Keep on low & every so often move the ingredients around so they don’t feel neglected and burn.

Garnish:

limes, chopped cilantro, chopped red chili

In a big pot, heat oil & saute diced onion until softened.

Add in minced garlic, carrots & celery, mix thoroughly. Pour in the stock. Add in the extra flavoring & shredded chicken, and bring to a boil.

Lower to simmer, add rice, stir, put on lid & simmer 15 min.

Season with fish sauce, to taste.

Serve with garnish. BAM!


Best “Free From” Chicken Soup: David Guy-Decker’s “No Chicken Chicken Soup”

½ medium white onion

2 T grated fresh ginger

2 cups each diced parsnip & celery

1 head diced celery

1 cup parsley

1 small head Chinese cabbage

16oz extra firm tofu

as needed: extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt, crushed peppercorns.

Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking inspired Americans to embrace more “sophisticated” cuisine in the 1970s. While dinner-party hosts fretted over soufflés, a health food movement emerged from the hippie subculture, championing granola, yogurt, and carrot cake (vegetables were in, but fats were not necessarily out).

THE MENU

Beef bourguignon

Lettuce wedges with creamy dressing

Quiche lorraine

Carrot cake with cream cheese icing

 

Beef Bourguignon

French in origin, beef bourguignon is a stew, featuring red wine, beef broth, garlic, and onions.

It was made famous by chef Auguste Escoffier when he published the recipe for beef bourguignon in the early 1900s. Source: https://www.frenchtraveler.com/boeuf-bourguignon

Lettuce Wedges with Creamy Dressing
Lettuce is low in calories and fat, and it up to 90% water! The oldest recipe for lettuce wedges was published in 1916 in Salads Sandwiches and Chafing Dish Recipes by Marion H. Neil. Source & Photo.

Quiche Lorraine
Quiche Lorraine is a French dish made of cream, eggs, and ham or bacon. Traditional quiche Lorraine does not contain any cheese! Cheese was added to more modern versions of the recipe. Source. Want to try your own? Check out the classic recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
The origins of carrot cake are unknown, but many historians believe that it descended from carrot pudding that was made by people in Medieval Europe. Though the earliest known recipe for carrot cake is from 1892, the use of cream cheese icing in American recipes didn’t appear until the 1960s! Source.

Want to truly get “That 70s Feel”? Why not throw a retro dinner party! CNN Travel has plenty of suggestions for the perfect menu!

 

As Thanksgiving Approaches, Advice on Gluttony From Maimonides

A new article in Moment Magazine explores the future of genetic testing for particular Jewish communities.

For the Jewish community, perhaps the biggest success story in genetic testing is Tay-Sachs: The disease is carried by one in 27 Ashkenazi Jews (who come from Eastern Europe), and nearly always has been fatal. Today, among Ashkenazi Jewish populations, it has been almost entirely eradicated. Most of the diseases that have become household names—like Tay-Sachs—affect Ashkenazi Jews. But while Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews are also at risk for a host of genetic diseases, the research hasn’t kept up.”

Read the rest here.

One of the great outcomes of our Beyond Chicken Soup exhibition was making friends and creating partnerships with institutions outside of the usual orbit of the JMM. Our friends at MedChi (the 218-year old Maryland State Medical Society headquartered in Baltimore) wrote to express support after our campus suffered some anti-Semitic graffiti over the weekend. We are grateful for their message.

And, by the way, they added the exciting news that their nineteenth-century volumes (65 of them, totaling some 40,000 pages!) of the Maryland Medical Journal have been digitized! Now anyone can explore these volumes at https://archive.org/details/themarylandmedicaljournal using simple (and advanced) keyword searches.

The Maryland Medical Journal debuted as a weekly publication in May, 1877. While sometimes technical, these pages can be entertaining for the non-medical browser. Descriptions of 19th century procedures, medical mysteries, For example, look for instructions on readying cobweb poultices for use: wash them, dry them in the sun, etc. They are a trove, not only for medical historians and other scholars, but also for genealogists. Have a physician ancestor in the family? Find out about their scientific interests, and also their activities in their professional society.

I checked out the name Friedenwald, of course. Dr. Harry and Dr. Aaron Friedenwald are found regularly among the volumes. In 1877, Aaron Friedenwald was elected one of the Society’s examiners for the Western Shore area of Maryland. Dr. Abram B. Arnold—Jewish doctor in Baltimore since 1849—was elected president of the Society, and also contributed a paper on Bright’s Disease (disease of the kidneys). Dr. S.W. Seldner, newly appointed consulting physician to Baltimore’s Hebrew Hospital, also contributed a paper, this time on a patient’s unusual (unfortunately fatal) case of progressive paralysis.

Take a look yourself, and let us know what you learn about your great-great grandfather the doctor (or the patient—they are sometimes named!) 19th century medical practice in Maryland.

Post by curator Karen Falk. This post has also been published on the Jewish Museum of Maryland blog.

Bookplate designed for Dr. Julius Friedenwald, son of Aaron. The inscription reads “Wise words from the healer.” Collection of MedChi.

In 1799, Paris was the place to get a modern medical education, inoculation against smallpox was finally gaining widespread acceptance (having first been discovered nearly fifty years earlier), most drugs were made from herbs, and Marylanders usually tended their sick at home, sometimes with the help of a doctor. Also in 1799, as new ideas about health and medicine were percolating throughout the western world, the Medical and Chirurgical [surgical] Faculty of Maryland was organized in an attempt to regulate and support the medical profession throughout the state. One of a handful of such societies in the United States at the time, its papers of incorporation stated its mission to “prevent the citizens (of Maryland) from risking their lives in the hands of ignorant practitioners or pretenders to the healing art.”

Dr. Abram B. Arnold, c. 1890. Collection of MedChi; photograph by Meg Fielding.

Now known as MedChi: The Maryland State Medical Society, the 215-year-old association—celebrating its anniversary this week—has notched some significant achievements. MedChi directors founded Maryland’s first medical school (1807), the world’s first college of dental surgery in the country (1839), and a school of pharmacy (1857)—all are now part of the University of Maryland.

Entrance to MedChi’s headquarters, built in 1909. Image courtesy of MedChi; photograph by Meg Fielding.

While this is very impressive, its trove of state medical history is the source of its interest to the JMM.  Collections of medical instruments, portraits of board members and other Maryland physicians, antique medical journals, and the papers of the Society are housed in its early 20th century campus in mid-town Baltimore.  JMM Curator Karen Falk and Board Member Dr. Robert Keehn were lucky enough to visit behind the scenes at MedChi last week for a first-hand look at these riches.

Dr. Joshua I. Cohen, c. 1865. Image courtesy of MedChi.

Three early Jewish physicians in Baltimore were among the directors of MedChi: Joshua I. Cohen, a member of one of Baltimore’s earliest Jewish families, was an ear specialist, audiologist of some renown, and president of MedChi in 1857-58; Abram B. Arnold received his MD from the Washington University Hospital of Baltimore (the hospital where Edgar Allen Poe died, later known as Church Home and Hospital) around 1850, published a Manual of Nervous Disorders in 1855, and served as president of MedChi  in 1877-78; and ophthalmologist Aaron Friedenwald, a University of Maryland Medical School graduate (1860), Jewish communal activist, and president of MedChi 1880-90. There is even an “Aaron Friedenwald Room” in the current MedChi building, complete with portrait, dedication plaque, and personal objects from the Friedenwald family.

Dr. Aaron Friedenwald, c. 1900. Collection of the JMM; photograph by Shelby Silvernell.

Aaron Friedenwald, his sons Edgar, Julius and Harry, and grandson Jonas formed a dynasty of physicians in Baltimore that will play an important role in our upcoming exhibition on “Jews, Health and Healing,” planned to open in fall 2015. Many thanks to Meg Fielding at MedChi for taking us on a tour of the collections, providing images for this post, and for responding enthusiastically to our exhibition project.

Library stacks of the MedChi archives. Image courtesy of MedChi; photograph by Meg Fielding

 

This post was written by curator Karen Falk and originally published on the Jewish Museum of Maryland blog on January 27, 2014.