Munching on a piece of yellow cornbread, I tried to find its story as food historian Joyce White might.

Native people ate hoecakes, made from stone-ground corn and water cooked on a flat surface. English settlers gobbled them up, replacing mortar and pestle with water-powered mills on the Chesapeake Bay.

As they were supplanted by industrial mills, parts of the grain and a lot of the flavor got left on the factory floor, pouring tons of cheaply produced, bland cornmeal into Maryland kitchens.

“So what happens is people start adding flavor in, usually in the form of sugar. It becomes popular among people who are poor because it’s cheaper. … So, there’s controversy there,” White said. “Do you put sugar in it or not? Depends on your socioeconomic background.”

White has made a career out of understanding the stories on our plates, studying how what we eat came to be. A museum educator, she’s developed programs for historic sites and museums across the region for 25 years.

Now, she’s going further with her first book, “Cooking Maryland’s Way: Voices of a Diverse Cuisine.” She’ll launch it this weekend in Annapolis with the first in a series of lectures and demonstrations.

The 250-page cookbook complements “Maryland’s Way,” a 1963 fundraiser for Hammond-Harwood House, a National Historic Landmark. The original was more than its authors intended, rescuing centuries of early American recipes that today could be called farm-to-table. Over the years, reprintings have sold more than 100,000 copies.

“I always loved that book, but I always felt it needed something more,” White said. “It needed more of a guide because the recipes are just there. There’s no context. There’s no explanation.”

In “Cooking Maryland’s Way,” White celebrates the origins of Maryland food and the people who made it.

“This book talks about Native American, African American and Pennsylvania Dutch food, as well as British and Jewish, which is somewhat related to the Pennsylvania Dutch, as well,” White said.

Leafing through the index recently, White rattled off all the dishes she’s made during her research.

“Made this fried chicken, the beaten biscuits, Mr. Boardley’s Christmas pie, Mr. Paca’s oyster soup. I guess I’ve made a lot of these. I’ve not made the muskrat, but I have tried muskrat.”

She hasn’t made terrapin soup, either. The species is protected. But she has made mock turtle, complete with a calf’s head. Then there was kidney stew — “disgusting.”

She’s investigated words, too. Calling cream cheese on your bagel a schmear is a nod to German immigrants and their schmierkäse, spreadable cheese that we call cream cheese and cottage cheese. It went into recipes for smearcase, a Baltimore-style cheesecake somewhere between British and German desserts and the ubiquitous New York-style cheesecake.

There are cooks she rediscovered, like Sybbe Grant, Joseph Peterson, Shinah Solomon Etting and Lucy Smith.

A free woman, Smith became the first Black woman to lease a stall at the Annapolis Market House. From 1810 to 1816, she paid $7 a year to sell baked goods. Whatever she made (no record remains) sold well enough for her to open Aunt Lucy’s Bake Shop at the corner of Main and Green streets and later buy a house on Prince George Street that’s still standing today.

“It’s those kinds of stories that are brought together here,” White said. “I really would hope that other people reading this would be like, ‘Oh, hey, I have a story from my historic site or my family ‘and then that will start generating more stories.”

White will sign copies of “Cooking Maryland’s Way” from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday as part of the 250th anniversary celebration of the historic landmark. A copy is $36 plus tax. Admission is free. Profits will support research at Hammond-Harwood House. A second signing follows Wednesday at the William Paca House and Garden.

Now, about that cornbread. It was cornmeal, water and salt. No sugar. According to White, that makes it genuine.

“Cornbread, true Maryland cornbread, does not contain sugar.”

Here are other great things to do in Annapolis in the coming days.

Fair days ahead

5-10 p.m. Thursday

The Anne Arundel County Fair kicks off Wednesday and continues through Sept. 15 with a full music schedule, competitions and plenty of food. $10 admission for ages 10 and up, carnival rides and games tickets are extra.

Fall productions begin

8 p.m. Friday

The Colonial Players premieres its fall production, “Tiny Beautiful Things,” a play based on the book by Cheryl Strayed about an unpaid, anonymous advice columnist. Performances continue through Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, plus 2 p.m. Sundays. General admission is $26, or $21 for seniors 65 and older, full-time students, or active military with ID, plus taxes and fees. Opening weekend tickets come with a buy-one, half-off-the-second promotion.

Arts-fundraiser

6-10 p.m Friday

Arts Alive, Maryland Hall’s annual big fundraiser, includes food from Annapolis restaurants, an auction and raffle with prizes that include vacations to Napa Valley, New Orleans, Iceland and Nashville. Music will be provided by the Naptown Brass Band. $250 per person. Sponsorships available. This year’s event is dubbed “The Great Party” and sponsored by the beer distributor Katcef Brothers.

Comic book signing

11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday

Comic book author James T. Tynion IV, known for his work at DC Comics, will be at Third Eye Comics, Games and Hobbies to sign copies of his new work with Álvaro Martínez Bueno, “Nice House by the Sea.” It’s a sequel to their 2021 “Nice House by The Lake” horror anthology. Free admission.

Gnome lessons

1-3 p.m. Sunday

Learn to create a gnome garden of your own at an ArtFarm adult arts class. $95.

Return appearance

7 p.m. Monday

Chesapeake Bay storyteller Ray Weaver was a popular singer-songwriter in the Baltimore-Annapolis area. Today, he lives in Denmark but is back in the United States for the Annapolis Singer-Songwriter Festival later this month.

Monday, he’ll perform “A Father’s Heart with Ray Weaver,” featuring songs and stories based on his 2016 book at Killarney House. Half of the ticket proceeds will benefit EMBOLC, a nonprofit supporting people with mental illness. $40.

He’ll round out his visit with performances at Brian Boru in Severna Park and Galway Bay in Annapolis.