An April 25 article in the Food section incorrectly said that Louisville schools are closed for Derby Day. That is a Saturday, when schools are not in session. They are closed on Oaks Day, the day before the Kentucky Derby, when the Kentucky Oaks race occurs.
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On Race Day, They're Off and Eating
The critical components of Louisville native Jennifer Ahearn's annual Kentucky Derby party: clockwise from lower right, a Hot Brown, Kentucky Bourbon Balls, Benedictine and the indispensable Mint Julep. At right, Ahearn prepares to broil a batch of Hot Browns.
(Photos By Len Spoden For The Washington Post)
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Now working in Washington and living in Annapolis, Ahearn has a recipe repertoire that includes mint juleps, beer cheese, Benedictine (a spread of cucumber, cream cheese and seasonings) and Hot Browns, Louisville's famous hot open-faced sandwiches of turkey, tomatoes, bacon and peppery Mornay sauce.
This year, with the assistance of her fiance, fellow Louisvillian Keegan Mills, she might make Benedictine tea sandwiches and cut the Hot Browns into smaller pieces.
Mills's other big job is smashing bags of ice with a hammer in preparation for mint julep making.
For dessert, Ahearn makes killer bourbon balls, dipped in chocolate and topped with a pecan half.
Ahearn fills her house with red roses, symbolic of the blanket of 554 roses draped over the Derby winner. Some roses will go in the sterling silver Derby cup she got as a college graduation gift. (She says Kentucky couples register for a set of silver Derby cups as a wedding present.) Guests arrive in the mid-afternoon, eat, drink, bet and watch the race, then eat and drink some more. "The Hot Brown," she says, "is a good way to sop up alcohol."
Scott Attman, 30, is planning a race-day party, too, but he is focused on the second jewel of the Triple Crown, run on the third Saturday in May.
He grew up in Baltimore but now lives with his wife and a lot of transplanted Baltimoreans in Bethesda. He has been working for years to build Preakness awareness in his neighborhood.
Attman's party has grown so big that he hired a caterer this year. He chose RSVP Catering of Fairfax because owner Larry Abrams is from a Baltimore family. "He grasped the idea that we wanted to bring Baltimore to Bethesda," Scott says.
Rather than roses, Attman's house will be filled with black-eyed Susans, the Maryland state flower, which also gives its name to the drink on Abrams's menu. The Black-Eyed Susan involves Cointreau, rum, vodka, pineapple juice and orange juice. No offense to Maryland, but make mine a mint julep.
He will serve the drink with crab bisque, crab puffs and Maryland fried chicken that is spiked with Old Bay seasoning and coated in cornmeal. Most authentic of all, for dessert they'll have chocolate snowballs (shaved ice) with vanilla ice cream on the bottom and marshmallow sauce on top, a Baltimore original. Sounds weird, tastes wonderful. It's a bite of Baltimore summertime.
"Everybody has Super Bowl parties," Attman says. "But not many people have plans around the Preakness. It's something different and has come to be something people look forward to."
Maybe by the time he sells his house, the party will convey.
Bonny Wolf, NPR commentator and author of "Talking With My Mouth Full: Crab Cakes, Bundt Cakes and Other Kitchen Stories," can be reached atfood@washpost.com. Her Kitchen Stories column appears the fourth Wednesday of every month.
