A person can hardly turn on the television or eavesdrop on a dinner conversation without hearing “presidency,” “election,” “candidate,” “frontrunner,” “campaign” or “poll.”
It makes my head spin. Fortunately, in this column, I can talk about almost anything that pops into my head, including presidents and first ladies, as long as it is food-related, political and — I hope — fun.
I am not an early riser, but I love the first meal of the day. So as I hear and read about today’s candidates’ dawn-to- dark schedules, what popped into my head was: What did presidents eat for breakfast before there were all-night diners, fast food, microwaves and smoothies?
I thought this would be a simple list, but the more I read about presidents and their preferences, the more interesting stories and anecdotes I found. So today, I’m just talking about George Washington, but in future columns, expect to see recipes for Teddy Roosevelt’s fat rascals, John Adams’ holy pokes and huffjuffs and William Howard Taft’s bouncing babies, to name a few.
In 1755, before the Revolutionary War and his presidency, George Washington was served fried apples and bacon at a Colonial governors’ conference in the Alexandria, Va., home of British General Edward Braddock.
“Although on the opposite side during the Revolutionary War, Martha Washington did not mind borrowing the recipe,” according to “The Presidents’ Cookbook” by Poppy Cannon and Patricia Brooks and it became one of George Washington’s favorite breakfasts.
Fried apples and bacon
Peel tart apples and cut them into 1-inch cubes. Meanwhile, fry the bacon in a heavy skillet. When done, drain bacon on paper towel and keep warm. Leave 1/4 cup bacon fat in the skillet and fill it with apples. Sprinkle 2 or 3 teaspoons of sugar on the apple cubes. Cover and cook slowly until tender. Remove cover and turn, keeping the apples’ shape. Let them brown lightly, then place on a steaming platter, surround with the bacon and serve.
British Loyalist Samuel Stearns, an occasional guest at the Washingtons’ table, noted that a favorite breakfast was “three small Indian hoe cakes and as many dishes of tea.”
Hoe cakes were baked on a hoe in the open hearth and commonly served as an accompaniment to vegetable soup, which was a typical breakfast dish of the time.
The recipe, originally from a family cookbook, is modernized below. An oven and baking pan replace the open hearth and hoe. Washington put honey on them and ate them with tea.
Indian hoe cakes
Combine 1 cup of cornmeal with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add 1 tablespoon lard or shortening and enough boiling water to make a dough that is solid enough to hold a shape. Form the dough into 2 thin oblong cakes and place them in a hot, well-greased heavy pan. Bake in a preheated moderately hot oven (375 degrees) for about 25 minutes. Serve the cakes hot. Serves 4 to 6.
Toward the end of Washington’s presidency, British manufacturer Henry Wansey wrote that breakfast was the most relaxed meal of the day. “Mrs. Washington made tea and coffee, on the table there were two small plates of sliced tongues and dry toast, bread and butter, but no broiled fish, as is generally the custom, one servant only attended who wore no livery.”
Rice waffles, an old Virginia classic, were a specialty of George Washington’s