Deacon Porter's Hat
And a brownie recipe that is the epitome of Gracious Living
Hello! Just wanted to let you know that I do NOT have any classified documents in my residence, nor my mouse house of a garage, or the old trunk I took to college sitting in our attic.
I have asked my cats point blank if they have taken any secret documents and hidden them, to which they responded with a disgusted “No!” Clyde then showed his displeasure with me by using the dining room carpet as a scratching pad. When questioned, Bosco the Dog just looked up at me with the giant chocolatey pools he calls his eyes and tapped my arm forcefully with his fluffy paw. So I gave him a treat and called the search off.
Seems to be a lot of “oopsy-daisy” going on with top secret documents these days.
Sheesh, I don’t even believe in secret recipes.
I think keeping a recipe for one’s self is actually a bit rude. I’ve heard of people who make dishes beloved by family and friends, and when asked for the recipe, leave out an ingredient. Talk about leaving a bitter taste in someone’s mouth.
This will surprise no one, but I am always asking for people’s (and sometimes places) recipes. For me, it’s a way to honor a person or a memory—a way to preserve history.
A few weeks ago, with my daughter home for Christmas vacation after her first semester at Mount Holyoke, I fell down a rabbit hole searching up historical recipes from the college. It’s my alma mater, as well, and I had actually good memories of the food. We typically ate family style in our dorm dining rooms as part of “Gracious Living.” (Now all the food is served from a glamorous, all-tastes-catered-for, farm-fresh, etc. central cafeteria) The food when I was there was simple but tasty homestyle cooking. It was there I had real mashed potatoes for the first time (I’d grown up in a house with a working mother obsessed with convenience foods like Hungry Jack potatoes.). And it was there I ate Deacon Porter’s hat.
Deacon Porter helped Mary Lyon start Mount Holyoke in 1837, the first college for women in the United States. He was a friend of Miss Lyon, a trusted advisor who watched over the college’s accounts. He also wore a stovepipe hat, which is why, I figure, they memorialized him in a dessert that looks like a stovepipe hat. And that’s why we eat Deacon Porter’s Hat with a large helping of hard sauce on Founder’s Day.
Lucky for you, I’m not offering up a recipe for DP’s hat, which is a molasses, raisin and spice cake steamed in a cylindrical pan, so it looks like a hat, get it? Instead I offer you a recipe for Mount Holyoke brownies I found in a New York Times article from 1961.
The recipe was shared by Mrs. Richard G. Gettell, the wife of the president of the college at the time. It is reported she served these at faculty and alumnae teas.
This is a recipe from a simpler time, when desserts didn’t have to dress up like dancers at the Copacabana to get noticed. (Have you seen the milkshakes at places like Black Tap?) These brownies are not woo-woo chocolatey either, but a polite, quietly delicious brownie. I’d say ladylike, but us Mount Holyoke alums don’t talk that way.
Mount Holyoke Brownies
adapted from Mrs. Richard G. Gettell’s recipe in the New York Times, October 13, 1961
Makes one 8 x 8 pan of brownies
What You’ll Need:
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup butter
2 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
optional:
1 cup “chopped nutmeats” (Mrs. Gettell’s addition)
1 cup chocolate chips (My addition)
What You’ll Do:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. (aka, a “slow oven”). Grease an 8 x 8-inch baking pan.
Melt the butter and chocolate together in a large heatproof bowl over a double boiler, or in 30-second bursts until melted in a microwave. Stir until blended.
In a medium bowl beat the eggs lightly. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat until light.
Add the egg-sugar mixture to the large bowl with the butter and chocolate and stir to combine.
Fold in the flour in two additions. Mix in the “nutmeats” or chocolate chips, or both if you’re really going for it.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Err on the side of less well-done if you can. Mrs. Gettell recommends cutting the brownies into 2-inch squares while still warm. My family tend to dig into the warm brownies with a spoon. Something both Mrs. Gettell, Mary Lyon and “Gracious Living” frown upon.
Did you know that alma mater translates to “nourishing mother?”
Do you have a favorite college food memory? Do you know someone who gives incomplete recipes to preserve their cooking secrets? Do you have any top secret documents you should tell the National Archives about? Let me know in the comments.
I’ve had community members hide recipes for their “secret” garam masala. It made sense when they were making and selling the Masala, not so much when they wouldn’t tell their own grandson the recipe! It’s how so many of our recipes (as a tiny community of 100,000 globally) have gotten lost.
I went to Mount Holyoke, too! I had family style dinners not the cafe. Also remember Deacon Porter’s hat. I bake constantly sometimes advertising for purchase. Thank you for the brownie recipe!