Knowing that the 19th century was when pumpkin pie became more closely associated with Thanksgiving meals, I was curious to learn more about what other dishes would have appeared on a 19th century Thanksgiving table in New England. So I checked our collections for something that might provide some insight into what a 19th century New England Thanksgiving spread may have looked like.
A New England Boyhood by Edward Everett Hale reminisces what made Thanksgiving dinner special in early 19th century New England:
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| A New England Boyhood by Edward Everett Hale. Little, Brown, 1898. |
“Had we children been asked what we expected on Thanksgiving Day we should have clapped our hands and said that we expected a good dinner. As we had a good dinner every day of our lives this answer shows simply that children respect symbols and types. And indeed there were certain peculiarities in the Thanksgiving dinner which there were not on common days. For instance, there was always a great deal of talk about the Marlborough pies or the Marlborough pudding.”
Hale goes on to write old New England families made Marlborough pie, “a sort of lemon pie,” using traditional methods. While Hale does say there were other occasions for serving Marlborough pies, his family always served them on Thanksgiving Day along with four other sweet pies, a plum pudding and a chicken pie.
Another passage from A New England Boyhood creates a vivid picture of a Thanksgiving feast:
Another passage from A New England Boyhood creates a vivid picture of a Thanksgiving feast:
“This was one of the marvels to us children, that it was possible to be at dinner two hours. There was no desire to slip down from the chair and go off to play. There was no soup dreamed of, and I think to this day, that there never should be any at a Thanksgiving dinner. Neither did any fish follow where no soup led the way. You began with your chicken pie and your roast turkey. You ate as much as you could, and you then ate what you could of mince pie, squash pie, Marlborough pie, cranberry tart, and plum pudding. Then you went to work on the fruits as you could.”
While looking for an answer to my initial question, I stumbled upon a pie that I had never heard of before: Marlborough pie. This mystery pie definitely piqued my culinary curiosity. Where did it come from? And most importantly what was the filling?
My initial theory was that the pie originated somewhere in Marlborough, Massachusetts where colonists had settled in 1657. Or as its other name, Deerfield pie, suggests possibly Deerfield, Massachusetts which was founded in 1673. It turns out, however, that the dessert most likely originated in Marlborough, England!
An English cookbook published 1660 by Robert May called the The Accomplisht Cook is the first known published recipe of Marlborough pie. According to the Atlas Obscura website and the New England Historical Society, 136 years later in 1796 Marlborough pie makes an appearance in Amelia Simmons’ American Cookery. If either Amelia Simmons or American Cookery rings a bell, it’s because her cookbook contains an early recipe for a custard-style pumpkin pie (referred to as “pompkin pudding”) similar to the pumpkin pies we make today. In England and in early New England pies with a custard-style filling were often referred to as puddings instead of pies.
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| American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. First edition: Hartford, 1796. Printed by Hudson & Goodwin. |
The New England Historical Society quotes the recipe from the 1796 edition of American Cookery as being:
“take 12 spoons of stewed apples, 12 of wine, 12 of sugar, 12 of melted butter and 12 of beaten eggs, a little cream, spice to your taste; lay in paste no. 3, in a deep dish; bake one hour and a quarter.”
For this blog post I looked at the pie and pudding sections in a digitized 1796 edition of American Cookery. Unfortunately, the copy of the first edition digitized by Archive.org did not contain a recipe with the exact wording as what was quoted by the New England Historical Society, but it did have a recipe for an apple pudding similar to Marlborough pie:
“One pound apple sifted, one pound sugar, 9 eggs, one quarter pound of a pound butter, one quart sweet cream, one gill rose-water, a cinnamon, a green lemon peal grated (if sweet apples,) add the juice of half a lemon, put on to paste No. 7: Currants, raisins and citron some add, but good without them.”
The version I found in this particular digitized copy of American Cookery harkens back to Robert May’s version of Marlborough pudding from The Accomplisht Cook which is simply titled “A dish made of butter and eggs”:
“Take the yolks of twenty four eggs, and strain them with cinamon, sugar, and salt; then put melted butter to them, some fine minced pippins, and minced citron, put it on your dish of paste, and put slices of citron round about it, bar it with puff paste, and the bottom also, or short paste in the bottom.”
"Paste" in the aforementioned recipes refers to the pastry dough in which a filling was baked. In American Cookery (1796) there is a separate section of the book giving guidance on how to create different pastry doughs. The American Cookery recipe for an apple pudding calls for paste no. 7 or “a paste for sweet meats” which contains a pound of lard, 1/3 of a pound of butter and 2 pounds of flour, adding water as necessary.
In Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt Book (1846) by Catharine Esther Beecher Marlborough pudding is an alcohol-free dessert with the ingredients for the filling being listed as tart apples, sifted sugar, butter, eggs, grated lemon peel and lemon juice. Beecher insists: “It is much better to grate than to stew the apples for this and all pies.” The instructions provided by Beecher mention “some persons grate in crackers, and add rose water and nutmeg.” The omission of wine reflects the growing influence of the temperance movement in the United States. And although the book contains advice on how to create a healthy pie crust using sour milk or cream instead of butter, Beecher recommends in her recipe instructions for Marlborough pudding “a rich paste” for baking.
Marlborough pie—a lemony apple custard pie—at some point faded into obscurity after the 19th century in the United States. Food historians think part of the pies waning popularity was due to the temperance movement since Marlborough pie recipes often traditionally included wine or sherry. Another theory is that Marlborough pie was a practical way to use up apples past their prime in colonial days and the early United States rather than to waste them; however, with the advent of refrigeration and better ways to ship produce in modernity this meant apples in great condition were readily available year-round and using older apples wasn’t really as much a necessity as it had been. A third reason the pie might have gone out fashion is that it is a particularly labor-intensive pie where the apples need to be stewed first and then either strained or grated, and the custard needs to be just the right texture and consistency.
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| Woman Working in a Kitchen. 1880–1900. Courtesy of Historic New England. |
Whatever the reason for dessert’s disappearance from most American tables, it can be found at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. And if you want to try your hand at making Marlborough pie for Thanksgiving, the historical recipes section on the Old Sturbridge Village website has a modernized Marlborough pudding recipe adapted from American Cookery. Their website also includes a demonstration video of how Marlborough pie was made historically. For a more detailed modernized recipe for Marlborough pie (including notes on which apple varieties to use) visit Atlas Obscura.
Emily Crawford
Technical Services Librarian
The accomplisht cook: or, The art & mystery of cookery by Robert May (1685) can be checked out through Libby and a digitized 1678 edition is available at Archive.org.
American Cookery: The Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry, and Vegetables by Amelia Simmons (1796) can be checked out through Libby and a digitized copy of the 1796 edition is available at Archive.org.
Miss Beecher's domestic receipt book: designed as a supplement to her Treatise on domestic economy by Catharine Esther Beecher (2013 reprint of 1861 edition) can be requested via interlibrary loan. A digitized 1846 edition is available at Archive.org.
A New England Boyhood by Edward Everett Hale (1898) can be read in our Reading Room. A digitized 1893 edition is available at Archive.org.
Women in the Kitchen: Twelve Essential Cookbook Writers Who Defined the Way We Eat, from 1661 to Today by Anne Willan (2020) is on our shelf.
Articles from the web
Boissoneault, Lorraine. “How the Formerly Ubiquitous Pumpkin Became a Thanksgiving Treat.” Smithsonian. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-formerly-ubiquitous-pumpkin-became-once-year-treat-180970860/
Chaki, Rohini. “Marlborough Pie: A custardy twist on apple pie finds delicious use for fruit reaching spoilage.” Atlas Obscura. https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/marlborough-pie
Galarza, Daniela. “What is Marlborough Pie?” Eater. https://www.eater.com/2015/10/10/9435439/what-is-marlborough-pie
“Marlborough Pie: An Old-Time New England Recipe – Association of Rollinsford Culture and History.” Association of Rollinsford Culture and History. https://www.paulwentworthhouse.org/marlborough-pie-an-old-time-new-england-recipe/
Stavely, Keith and Kathleen Fitzgerald. “What America’s First Cookbook Says About Our Country and Its Cuisine: An 18th-century kitchen guide taught Americans how to eat simply but sumptuously.” Smithsonian. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-americas-first-cookbook-says-about-our-country-its-cuisine-180967809/
Boissoneault, Lorraine. “How the Formerly Ubiquitous Pumpkin Became a Thanksgiving Treat.” Smithsonian. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-formerly-ubiquitous-pumpkin-became-once-year-treat-180970860/
Chaki, Rohini. “Marlborough Pie: A custardy twist on apple pie finds delicious use for fruit reaching spoilage.” Atlas Obscura. https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/marlborough-pie
Galarza, Daniela. “What is Marlborough Pie?” Eater. https://www.eater.com/2015/10/10/9435439/what-is-marlborough-pie
“Marlborough Pie: An Old-Time New England Recipe – Association of Rollinsford Culture and History.” Association of Rollinsford Culture and History. https://www.paulwentworthhouse.org/marlborough-pie-an-old-time-new-england-recipe/
Stavely, Keith and Kathleen Fitzgerald. “What America’s First Cookbook Says About Our Country and Its Cuisine: An 18th-century kitchen guide taught Americans how to eat simply but sumptuously.” Smithsonian. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-americas-first-cookbook-says-about-our-country-its-cuisine-180967809/
“What Killed the Marlborough Pie?” New England Historical Society. https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/what-killed-the-marlborough-pie/
