Out to Lunch: Lenten meals at St. Casimir School

Volunteers make coddies in the Kolbe Hall kitchen.

Christ removed himself to the desert to fast and pray for 40 days, and to show our appreciation of his sacrifice and suffering we get to eat crab cakes on Fridays during Lent.
Hardly seems fair, does it?

St. Casimir Home-School Association in Canton puts out 1,200 or so Lenten meals every Friday, to neighbors, workers in nearby shops and offices and hungry community newspaper reporters. The money raised goes to the school.

A crew of volunteers spends every Thursday night at Kolbe Hall on O’Donnell Street frying crab cakes and coddies, making potato salad, macaroni salad and cole slaw, and packing the lunches in boxes and bags.

No desserts. This is Lent, after all. But if you want to buy a candy bar at the reception table, they’re available, and like the Lenten foods, the money raised goes to benefit the school.

We wanted to sample the Lenten feast, so we pre-ordered two crab cakes ($5.25 each), two coddies ($2.25 each), and a pound each of potato salad, macaroni salad and cole slaw ($2 each), for a total bill of $21. We also sprung $2 each for a Kit Kat bar and some Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

You can buy your coddies and crabbies fried or for a slight discount, you can get them unfried (if you want to wait to get home and be able to serve them piping hot for dinner).

Coddies are traditionally made from salt cod, mashed potato, cracker meal, eggs and seasonings. These were large, appropriately salty and quite tasty and satisfying. The traditional way to eat a coddie is to place it on a cracker and slather it with mustard, and St. Casimir’s provides the necessaries for that.

The coddies are big — one is a large portion, and two will give you a nice feeling of fullness all day long.

The crab cakes were quite large and the ratio of crab to filler was very good indeed. They had all of the good sweet-and-fishy crab taste, with a whiff of Old Bay seasoning, parsley and pepper. You may think one is plenty for lunch, but (a) it’s hard to stop at one, and anyway (b) you will still have dinner to think about, so why not get more?

The big advantage of taking home crab cakes for dinner is thatyou can crack open a beer, which is the most fitting and traditional accompaniment to a crab cake, whatever effete New Yorkers might say about dry Chardonnay. Except that it’s Friday, and Lent. Maybe the beer (or Chardonnay) has to wait until the next day. The crabbies will taste good regardless of your beverage choice, however.

The cooked coddies and crab cakes come cool. Depending on your office microwave a minute or two should restore the cakes to steamy perfection.

The salads are delicious and homemade. We highly recommend the potato salad, which is a pint container of mayonnaise-y, oniony, mustardy goodness. The macaroni salad was no slouch either—the macaroni was perfectly cooked and the salad was dressed with mayo, pickle relish and some onion—far superior to the sweetish mac salad that comes from the bucket at the deli.

The cole slaw was made with cabbage, carrot and a little onion. It’s possible that some Baltimoreans would want more vinegar, but that’s a personal taste. It’s fine the way it is, however.

For a Friday meal, customers must order Wednesday. Call 410-342-4975 until 5 p.m. or 443-414-6784 from 5-8 p.m., or call the school at 410-342-2681. Pick up at Kolbe Hall, O’Donnell Street and Lakewood Avenue, Friday between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. The last sale is Wednesday, March 31, with orders taken through Friday, March 26. All proceeds benefit St. Casimir School.

Editor’s Note: This is the first segment in a series of articles about the Lenten food available from churches in the area. A full listing of Lenten meals is available in the Community Calendar of this issue.

by Jacqueline Watts ( (editor@baltimoreguide.com) editor (at) baltimoreguide (dot) com) and
Mary Helen Sprecher ( (newsroom@baltimoreguide.com) newsroom (at) baltimoreguide (dot) com)