Every week I do a Shaker Wednesday on my Facebook author page where I share a tidbit of Shaker history and one of the pictures I’ve taken at the Shaker villages here in Kentucky. This one was taken at South Union and shows a table set and ready the way it might have been back when the village was full of Shaker converts.
As most of you probably know, I’ve written several Shaker books set in my fictional Shaker village of Harmony Hill. While writing those stories, I did a lot of research about the Shakers to thread historical facts into my stories. I always liked coming across quotes taken from the Shaker journals in the books that I read about Shakers. I shared the following about Shakers and Thanksgiving a few years ago on my Shaker Wednesday post.
The accounts of Thanksgiving in the Shaker journals during the early years are very much the same. After saying that the day had been appointed by the governor, the journalist would outline the activities of the day. A Pleasant Hill journalist recorded this account in 1858. “We arose at half past four. Attended to cleaning up the shop, yards, and premises until half past 9 a.m. Then gathered into the dwelling and kept the day according to Order, had bitten at 11 a.m. Attended general singing meeting at the Center 1 p.m., had supper at 4, after which we went to our temporal employment til 8 p.m. when the bell rang for all to go to rest for the night.” (I’d have needed to have something else to ‘bite’ by then.)
As the years passed, the Shaker rules eased and they began to adopt some of the customs of those outside the villages by having a special Thanksgiving meal. In 1876, the South Union journalist said the spiritual manifestation was a quiet prayer meeting but “the temporal manifestation was turkey for dinner.” By 1894, a Shaker noted, “viands on the table…both rich and savory.”
One thing that remained true about the Shakers was that they ate well. So, once they started having a special Thanksgiving meal like their worldly neighbors, I’m sure the meal was bountiful and delicious. A few years ago I bought one of the Shaker cookbooks, We Make You Kindly Welcome, at the Pleasant Hill Shaker Village here in Kentucky where they have a restaurant and serve food as the Shakers made it years ago. In the cookbook was a recipe for Dressing Balls for a Thanksgiving meal.
The recipe is similar to how I make dressing although I never measure anything or sauté my celery and onion in butter. I just mix stir it all together the way my mother did. No written recipe necessary. They use poultry seasoning and seasoning salt where I use sage and plain salt. Still, the main ingredients are pretty close to the same. Here’s the Shaker recipe.
Dressing Balls
3/4 stick butter
2 1/2 T chopped celery
1 small chopped onion
2 tsp chopped parsley
1 lb stale bread crumbs (6 1/2 cups) (Note at the bottom of the recipe says using some cornbread in the bread crumbs makes the dressing good. In my dressing, I use homemade biscuits and cornbread that I crumble up. Mom always used only cornbread and my mother-in-law always used only biscuits. So I took do half and half.)
Chicken broth
1 beaten egg
black pepper
salt
seasoning salt
poultry seasoning
Saute celery, parsley and onion in butter. Add bread crumbs. Add chicken broth until consistency is right for molding (shaping into balls). Stir in egg and add seasonings to taste. Mold into 2″ balls. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Serve immediately. Makes 10 balls.
For my dressing, I do make balls, but soft ones I shape with a tablespoon. Then once I have my baking dish full, I pour on more turkey stock or chicken broth to make sure the dressing is nice and moist after it bakes.
Wishing you savory viands on your table for Thanksgiving and many blessings to count.
Do you have a favorite family recipe at Thanksgiving?
Comments 6
I always loved my Mom’s dressing. She used homemade biscuits and homemade cornbread, too. Daddy was always the taste tester and told her to use either more poultry seasoning, sage, or rarely salt. I started doing it, too, and was as good as Daddy! After he passed, I was the official taste tester. I’ve made it before, but it’s a lot of work for only one person!
Author
You’re right, Trudy. Cooking for one sometimes can keep you from going to a lot of trouble, but since I love cornbread and don’t mind making biscuits, I just cook something that is good with cornbread or biscuits the week before I make the dressing and just save it for the dressing. Can’t keep that cornbread too long, but it stays okay a day or two. And I always do a taste test too to see if it needs more sage. But stovetop stuffing is good too.
Happy Thanksgiving Ann!
We all have our special dishes that we take to the table. Everyone’s favorite has always been my aunt’s mac & cheese. Now that she’s passed on, my daughter has taken it on as her required dish at every gathering. I’m expected to bring pies (lemon, chocolate and butterscotch piled high with meringue). But my favorite recipe is the one I inherited from my great grandmother that’s been handed down for generations. It’s Rebecca Boone’s yeast rolls, made with a cup of mashed potatoes mixed in. My mother always made them at least once a week. Funny story added in here… when my brothers and I were very small Mom had a pan of rolls rising out of reach on the top of the refrigerator. That yummy aroma filled the house all afternoon. Mom took them down and removed the towel covering them. She turned her back just long enough to light the oven. When she turned back around my little brothers had pounded them all flat! Not funny at the time but we still laugh about it now.
Author
I’m guessing your mother didn’t do any smiling at the time, Lavon. Making rolls is not a simple task and then to not have them to eat, well, not good. did she try to get them to rise again or give up on that bunch of rolls? I make sourdough rolls but I like most any kind. But I think I need to come be at your dessert table. Those pies sound delicious. My mother made a really delicious chocolate pie. I’ve made it a few times, but I usually make fruit pies.
This is very similar to what I make which my mom & grandma made but we use all homemade biscuits. Happy Thanksgiving blessings dear Ann.
Author
We tend to like dressing the way our mothers and grandmothers made it, don’t we, Lucy? Mom liked a lot of sage in hers. I tone that down in mine but it does need some sage.