Enfield Shaker Recipes

Shaker meals were ample, healthful, and delicious, as both Shaker and visitor accounts throughout the 19th century confirm. In Sisters in the Faith: Shaker Women and Equality of the Sexes (2011), Glendyne Wergland writes, “A typical breakfast at the New Lebanon Church Family [about 1856] included rye-and-Indian bread, wheat bread, tea, milk, potatoes, meat, butter, applesauce, pickles, salt, and water. A visitor [in 1843] described a meal of ham, potatoes, squash, kidney beans, preserved fruit, beets, white and brown wheat bread, Indian pudding, pie, and ‘by far the finest butter’ he had ever tasted.” In all Shaker villages, the spaces for food preparation and consumption were large and well planned out.

The dining room in the Great Stone Dwelling (1841) at the Enfield, NH Shaker community (shown above in a stereoview from about 1880), measured 58 feet in length and 30 feet in width and held four tables, each 21 feet 6 inches long. Twenty small dining chairs fit under each table, so 80 Shaker sisters and brothers could be fed at mealtimes. The adjacent kitchen measured 40 feet in length and 24 feet in width. It was spotless, with walls painted pure white and closet/cupboard interiors painted sky blue. The cast iron cook stoves were each 20 feet long. The running water was decades ahead of its time. And as one might imagine, the kitchen sisters were a power unto themselves.

The following recipes are attributed specifically to the Shaker community at Enfield, New Hampshire:

Enfield Shaker Potato Pie with Buttered Crumb Top >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Sour Cream Potatoes >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Potato Salad (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Cream Salad Dressing (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Graham Bread (Rosetta Cummings) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Cracked Wheat Bread (Rosetta Cummings) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Bran Gems (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Nice Cheap Cake (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker No Egg Cake >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Nut Cake (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Raised Cake (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Apple Pie >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Lemon Pie (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Lemon Meringue Pie (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Maple Pie >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Sour Cream Pie >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Plain Doughnuts (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Sour Milk Doughnuts (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Bristol Cookies (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Ginger Cookies (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Plain Ginger Cookies (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Lemon Cookies (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Bird’s Nest Pudding (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Bread Pudding (Rosetta Cummings) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Coconut Pudding (Martha Wetherell) >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Sour Cream Prune Whip >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Hot Maple Sauce >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Creamy Egg Nog >See Recipe

Enfield Shaker Chicken Cheese >See Recipe

Coming soon: More Enfield Shaker cakes, muffins, and puddings.

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“On a particular occasion, Mother Ann spoke to Zeruah Clark as follows, “Be faithful to keep the gospel; be neat and industrious, keep your family’s clothes clean and decent; see that your house is kept clean, and your victuals prepared in good order, so that when the Brethren come in from their hard work they can bless you, and eat their food with thankfulness, without murmuring, and be able to worship God in the beauty of holiness. Watch, and be careful, don’t speak harsh, nor cast reflections upon them; but let your words be few, and seasoned with grace.”

Source: Shakers. Testimonies of the Life, Character, Revelations and Doctrines of Mother Ann Lee and the Elders with Her, Through whom the Word of Eternal Life was opened in this day, of Christ’s Second Appearing, Collected from Living Witnesses, in Union with the Church. Second Edition. (Albany: Weed, Parsons & Co. Printers, 1888), p. 207.

Enfield Shaker Museum
447 NH Rt 4A
Enfield, NH 03748
603-632-4346