Presidential Menus

It's interesting to see what all the U.S. Presidents have preferred to eat in this list of Presidential menus. There is a decided preference for Southern or country style foods, among those who had a preference ... and some decidedly oddball diets, as well. I am personally pleased as punch that FDR liked fried mush with maple syrup, one of my favorite breakfasts growing up. Why did this New York Yankee have a hankering for that low-down Southern peasant's breakfast dish, I wonder?

JimInLoganSquare wrote:It's interesting to see what all the U.S. Presidents have preferred to eat in this list of Presidential menus. There is a decided preference for Southern or country style foods, among those who had a preference ... and some decidedly oddball diets, as well. I am personally pleased as punch that FDR liked fried mush with maple syrup, one of my favorite breakfasts growing up. Why did this New York Yankee have a hankering for that low-down Southern peasant's breakfast dish, I wonder?

Maybe all that time spent in Arkansas hot springs?

Regards,

JimInLoganSquare wrote:I am personally pleased as punch that FDR liked fried mush with maple syrup, one of my favorite breakfasts growing up. Why did this New York Yankee have a hankering for that low-down Southern peasant's breakfast dish, I wonder?

Fried cornmeal mush, especially with maple syrup, is Yankee food too. The Yankee Cook Book, a classic from 1939, devotes a couple pages to Hasty Pudding. "Today it is more often called Cornmeal Mush. … Any pudding that was not eaten was turned into a bread pan, sliced and fried for breakfast." The variety of recipes for fried cornmeal cakes in the book is impressive: ranger pancakes, Indian cakes and several types of johnnycakes. Butter and maple syrup are often the recommended accompaniments. Many of the Presidential favorites consist of some sort of cornmeal cake, perhaps the most American of foods. Here are a couple plates of fried mush eaten in the Midwest.

Fried mush with tomato gravy (and headcheese) at Village Inn, Middlebury IN


Fried mush and ham at D&J Café, Springfield IL

Growing up I had fried cornmeal mush for breakfast, frequently. I loved it, and so did my Dad, to whom, a Canadian, it was entirely foreign. My Mom grew up in Granite City IL, which in those days was a distinctly Southern town, even tho' it was right across the river from St. Louis. My grandmother was Polish, but was a first-generation Illinoisian, so she knew all the local Madison County recipes.

We couldn't afford real maple syrup, but Log Cabin went just fine.

Man, has this brought back some deeply buried memories... Tnx folks!!

Geo

FDR actually had a house in Georgia called that's called the Little White House in Warm Springs -- he actually spent quite a bit of time there. When I lived in Georgia as a kid, we had a field trip there and it made an impression.

Link if you're interested. http://www.warmspringsga.com/warmsprings.asp#LWH

So -- cornmeal mush and other southern delights were probably a local delicacy. <Grin>

Geo wrote:We couldn't afford real maple syrup, but Log Cabin went just fine.

Likewise in my family, Geo, and I don't think real maple syrup improves fried mush noticeably, although I wager the Yankee mush contingent would say otherwise. I doubt fake syrup ever crossed FDR's lips, at least not willingly. We also used margarine rather than genuine butter for the same cost-consciousness reasons, and I bet if they eat mush in Wisconsin and one of them just read that, a spit take has resulted.

And earthlydesire, I also visited the Little White House in Warm Springs, and it made quite an impression on me, too, mostly revolving around the disclosures about Lucy Mercer. If they mentioned mush or any food at all, I cannot say the memory stuck so well.

Well, Jim -- i was 8 or 9 at the time -- so I wasn't really looking for Lucy Mercer info. I just though it was pretty and very serene.

earthlydesire wrote:Well, Jim -- i was 8 or 9 at the time -- so I wasn't really looking for Lucy Mercer info. I just though it was pretty and very serene.

So was I ... my only visit was in the early 70s. That's why that piece of - too much - information stuck out, and then stuck in my memory; like you, as a young child, I was not seeking out dirt on FDR and Lucy Mercer, but they brought it up in the tour narrative. It was funny they felt the need to point that out to a tour group that probably mostly consisted of fans of FDR. And more importantly, I agree ... it's a lovely place, it is extraordinarily pretty and serene, and I can see why FDR made it his retreat. I am sure any fried mush consumed there was doubly relished along with the setting.

A couple of months ago, a physicians' group made the news by issuing a petition demanding that Pres. Obama stop eating hot dogs in public. Few of the media reporting on the matter bothered to note that the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a vegan advocacy group.

I am going to have to go through my mother's files. Due to dad, they were at many private WH dinners from JFK through Nixon. I was very young at the time and semi-remember a couple.
My mother disliked JFK with a passion (many stories) but liked the food the best since they were from the same area.

LAZ wrote:A couple of months ago, a physicians' group made the news by issuing a petition demanding that Pres. Obama stop eating hot dogs in public. Few of the media reporting on the matter bothered to note that the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a vegan advocacy group.

Interesting. I almost titled this thread "Presidential Secret Menus," because these were the menus served at private meals, not public functions (although there might have been some degree of overlap). The foods listed here were the personal favorites of the Presidents in question, and therefore the menus might be found to provide some insights into the upbringing, tastes, and private, unaffected food preferences of these greater than life public and political personalities. Presidential comfort food. Presidents have fewer private moments now than before TV and, even moreso, the Internet, constantly observed and subject to any and all criticism over even seemingly the most trivial of personal choices, such as the public consumption of a hot dog.

Two things I heard about Nixon:

1. He really did like cottage cheese with ketchup on it;

2. He used to refill fancy wine bottles with plonk. (An American historian whom I trust told me this. I have every reason to believe it.)

Geo