Mary Baker Eddy Library > From the Collections > Cooking with Minnie Weygandt

Cooking with Minnie Weygandt

November 4, 2015

Image description: Photograph of a weathered cookbook with a brown cover. The text on the cover reads "Young Housekeeper’s Friend" in ornate lettering.
The Young Housekeeper’s Friend (Boston: Thompson, Brown & Co., n.d. ). B00152.

 

(Updated November 16, 2025)

From 1899 to 1907, Minnie Weygandt worked on Mary Baker Eddy’s household staff at Pleasant View in Concord, New Hampshire. While she performed some domestic duties with the help of her sister, Mary Weygandt, most of her time was devoted to preparing food for both Eddy and other staff members.

Image description: Collage of two side-by-side photos. From left to right: Black and white photo of Minnie Weygandt, relaxing in a chair on a wooden porch, with a view of the house's lawn and trees/greenery in the background. Color photo of the book The Young Housekeeper’s Friend, open to a blank weathered page near the beginning. A written inscription on the page, in Mary Baker Eddy's handwriting, reads: "My cooking shall be done according to this cook book. M. B. G. Eddy."

Minnie Weygandt on the porch at Pleasant View, n.d. P01779; The Young Housekeeper’s Friend, inscribed by Mary Baker Eddy. B00152.

When she arrived, Weygandt brought all of her cookbooks with her. This included The Young Housekeeper’s Friend, first published in 1845. Eddy had used this cookbook when she was keeping house herself, possibly while she was living in Lynn, Massachusetts. One day Eddy asked for the cookbook and brought it down to the kitchen awhile later. She had marked some pages and had written this on the flyleaf: “My cooking shall be done according to this cookbook. M.B.G. Eddy.”1

Beginning on Easter Sunday, April 15, 1900, Weygandt started recording in a notebook the meals she served. She kept at this for the rest of that year and into 1901. It was a good way to track the menus, so there would not be too much repetition, and it makes for fascinating reading.

Image description: Color photo of a notebook with weathered pages, open to a page covered in slanted cursive writing. A header at the top of the page says "Thanksgiving Dinner."

Thanksgiving menu at Eddy’s home, November 29, 1900. Subject File, Eddy, Mary Baker, Meals of.

One of the meals noted in Weygandt’s notebook was for Thanksgiving Day—November 29, 1900. The dinner that afternoon featured a variety of offerings, including:

mock bisque soup; celery; pickles; roast Rhode Island turkey; cranberry sauce and jelly; white and sweet potatoes; steamed squash; boiled onions; mince and lemon pie; plum pudding; fruit and almond cake; assorted fruits and nuts; and homemade candy.2

On a holiday or other special occasion, such as when visitors or students were visiting Pleasant View, Eddy would sometimes plan the meals. She also had her own favorites, including a boiled dinner (a traditional New England meal consisting of corned beef or ham with vegetables such as potatoes, parsnips, carrots, and onion); onion salad with vinegar and sugar; salt-cured pork; lemonade (especially for after Eddy’s carriage rides); oyster soup; oranges and mush; creamed clams (finely chopped cooked clams with cream or milk, egg, and spices, served over toast on a platter); candy; and ice cream.

The menus at Pleasant View were abundant and varied. Along these lines, Weygandt recalled this:

There was no excuse for anyone going hungry in that house, for there was always plenty of excellent food, generously served and in as practicable variety as then seemed possible. There was often a choice of meats, and invariably several vegetables, and two or three kinds of desserts, so that everyone was sure to find something he could enjoy.”3

Image description: Collage of two side-by-side photos. From left: Black-and-white photo of a large 1800s-era stove, with eight burners and a hood. Minnie Weygandt stands in the doorway next to the stove in the background, clad in a white frock. Black-and-white photo with a simple decorative border, depicting Minnie in profile, standing in the kitchen in front of a large sink and wearing an apron over her skirt.

 

Minnie Weygandt and the new stove at Pleasant View, c. 1906. P06301.1; Minnie Weygandt in the kitchen at Pleasant View, standing next to the sink, n.d. P01778.

 

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  1. Minnie B. Weygandt, “Reminiscences of Miss Minnie Bell Weygandt and of Miss Mary Ellen Weygandt,” n.d., 30–31.
  2. Weygandt, Reminiscence, 35–36.
  3. Weygandt, Reminiscence, 34.