Mary Baker Eddy's tastes in food were those of a Victorian New Englander. Boiled dinner (beef brisket boiled with vegetables) and baked beans were weekly fare, according to a notebook kept in about 1900 by her cook, Minnie Weygandt. The Christmas dinner that year included oyster stew, celery, pickles, roast turkey and cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, steamed squash, boiled onions, mince pie, rice pudding, fruit salad, fruit and plain cake, mixed fruits and nuts, crackers and cheese, cocoa and coffee and homemade candy. "Though Mrs. Eddy did not [drink coffee] herself, or any of the members of her household, she was never unmindful of the fact that her guests might wish to have it," Miss Weygandt commented.
From the collection
