FROM THE FOUNDING TABLE TO YOUR KITCHEN
POTUSPLATETHE PRESIDENTIAL TABLEHISTORY IS SERVED.
Presidents/Across a growing nation

PRESIDENT 14 · 1853–1857

At the table with
Franklin Pierce.

A New Hampshire politician and the fourteenth president.

Choose a dish ↓
New Hampshire apple hand pies — a painted table

THE HISTORICAL TABLE

New Hampshire apples in a hand-sized pie

Family or White House tradition

Pierce family culinary traditions lead to New Hampshire’s plain cooking, including fried pies made with dried apples. Drying preserved the harvest and made an apple filling possible beyond the fresh-fruit season.

Our home version uses fresh apples and an oven instead of a pan of frying fat. The small folded pastry keeps the spirit of an individual pie, while the updated method makes it easier to prepare a whole tray. Eat one warm enough for the apple scent to escape when you break the crust.

Behind this story

Pierce family and regional food traditions in presidential culinary histories.