Customer Reviews

Seasoned with Grace: My Generation of Shaker Cooking (Shakers)

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When I looked at Eldress Bertha Lindsay's Seasoned with Grace: My Generation of Shaker Cooking, I had the impression it was primarily a cookbook, with additional context given through details of the Canterbury Shaker community. Because of that, I ended up being somewhat disappointed with the book. If, instead, you're looking for information about how the Canterbury Shaker community lived and ate during Eldress Lindsay's lifetime (1905-1990), I think you'll find this a very handy and fascinating book.

With the Shaker emphasis on living separately from the 'World,' I had expected to find that the recipes would represent a simpler, vegetables-and-meat type of fare. Thus I was quite surprised to find quite a few recipes that were much closer to what I remember as stereotypical pot-luck fare when I was growing up: casseroles using concentrated cans of cream of mushroom soup; brownies; and 'salads' made of vegetables and fruit suspended in gelatin.

It's really a matter of expectations. If you know in advance that this is a book meant to relate twentieth-century Shaker life, giving you the chance to sample a few recipes along the way, I think you'll find it's just what you're looking for. If you're expecting the kind of book you probably picture when you hear of a Shaker cookbook, however, you'll likely be disappointed.

Truly satisfying work is sometimes centered in old methods, values and attitudes. Recipes laced with a gentlewoman's confidence.