The U.S. Presidents’ Favorite Foods

Making cheese grits

From hearty steaks to sugary snacks, the culinary preferences of U.S. presidents have always fascinated the American public. That’s perhaps no surprise, as the quirks of presidential palates offer a unique glimpse into the personalities behind the Oval Office. And when it comes to comfort foods and guilty pleasures, be it FDR’s love of grilled cheese sandwiches or Ronald Reagan’s obsession with jelly beans, you might find that presidents are more like us than you’d think. Here are the favorite foods of 14 U.S. presidents.

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George Washington: Hoecakes With Honey

George and Martha Washington often hosted guests at their home at Mount Vernon, with large spreads laid out for hungry visitors. Washington’s favorite dish was surprisingly simple and reflected his farming roots: He loved hoecakes, a type of cornmeal pancake. According to Martha Washington’s granddaughter Nelly Custis, he preferred them “swimming in butter and honey,” and would regularly eat them for breakfast.

Thomas Jefferson: Macaroni

Thomas Jefferson's fondness for macaroni began during his time in France, and upon his return to America he imported a pasta machine to make his own. A recipe for macaroni written in Jefferson’s own hand still exists, and his instructions for creating something similar to modern mac and cheese is credited with popularizing the dish in the United States.

Abraham Lincoln: Apples

Abe Lincoln was known for his frugal eating habits, often to the dismay and concern of his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. Some sources note his fondness for two particular dishes: chicken fricassee with biscuits, and oyster stew. But Lincoln’s favorite food might well have been apples, which, according to his friends, he ate with gusto on a daily basis.

William Howard Taft: Steak Breakfasts

William Howard Taft, who weighed 354 pounds when he took his oath of office, remains the heaviest person to ever occupy the White House. His weight owes much to his breakfast habits. According to his head housekeeper Elizabeth Jaffray, he began each day by eating a “thick, juicy 12-ounce steak” served alongside two oranges, buttered toast, and a “vast quantity of coffee, with cream and sugar.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt: Grilled Cheese

FDR’s White House was known for serving terrible food, due in part to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s well-intentioned desire to show solidarity with regular Americans during the Great Depression. It was slim pickings for FDR, but he did very much enjoy classic grilled cheese sandwiches. He also liked hot dogs, which were infamously served to the visiting king and queen of England.

John F. Kennedy: New England Fish Chowder

JFK was particularly fond of soup, and New England fish chowder was a favorite. In 1961, a young girl named Lynn Jennings wrote to President Kennedy asking what he liked to eat. He promptly replied and passed along the recipe for his preferred fish chowder. Kennedy was also known to be a fan of waffles for breakfast; in fact, his family waffle recipe is preserved in the National Archives.

Lyndon B. Johnson: Texas-Style Barbecue

LBJ’s love of barbecue was legendary. In the 1950s and ’60s, he and Lady Bird Johnson hosted large Texas-style barbecues at their ranch along the Pedernales River in the Texas Hill Country. The president served brisket, ribs, and his favorite Texas-style chili to hundreds of guests from around the world.

Richard Nixon: Cottage Cheese and Ketchup

Richard Nixon was a cottage cheese devotee, initially as part of his diet regimen. It appears he grew to love the stuff and ate it on a daily basis, often alongside fresh fruit, wheat germ, and coffee. In one of the stranger presidential food combos, he also enjoyed his cottage cheese topped with ketchup and black pepper.

Gerald Ford: Pot Roast and Red Cabbage

Gerald Ford preferred hearty, homestyle cooking. His favorite meal was a pot roast with red cabbage, followed by butter pecan ice cream for dessert.

Jimmy Carter: Cheese Grits

Jimmy Carter's Southern roots showed in his love of grits — especially cheese grits. In 1976, his daughter Amy told The New York Times, “Daddy makes grits for breakfast, then breaks a couple of eggs into it and adds some cheese, and it's yummy.” The family dog was even named Grits.

Ronald Reagan: Jelly Beans

Ronald Reagan began eating jelly beans as part of his successful attempt to give up pipe smoking, but then his candy consumption became something of an obsession. While he was president, Reagan placed a standing order of 720 bags of jelly beans per month — that’s 306,070 total jelly beans — to be distributed among the White House, Capitol Hill, and other federal buildings.

George H.W. Bush: Pork Rinds

During his 1988 presidential campaign, George H.W. Bush expressed his love for pork rinds, which he at times enjoyed with a splash of Tabasco sauce. Sales of the fried pig skins soared, despite some sections of the media claiming his comment was nothing more than Bush attempting to appear down-to-earth, and that he actually preferred popcorn and martinis.

Bill Clinton: Jalapeño Cheeseburgers

Before his heart issues and subsequent switch to veganism, Bill Clinton was famous for his love of fast food; he even took reporters on jogs to McDonald’s. He particularly enjoyed jalapeño cheeseburgers with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, pickles, and onions.

George W. Bush: Cheeseburger Pizza

In 2007, White House chef Cristeta Comerford told reporters about George W. Bush’s fondness for a peculiar pizza topping. “For dinner,” she explained, “the president loves what we call homemade ‘cheeseburger pizzas’ because every ingredient of a cheeseburger is on top of a margherita pizza.” Soon after, the topping could be found in pizzerias across the nation.

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A Bite-Sized History of Fast Food

Diners at White Castle

The existence of ready-made food has been around for centuries, from ancient Rome’s takeout restaurants, known as thermopolia, to the bread, soup, and meat vendors that have populated the streets of metropolitan centers around the world since antiquity. However, the burgers, fries, wings, and milkshakes that constitute the typical fast-food meal today are a more recent invention — and a distinctly American one. Here’s a brief taste of how a colossal global industry took flight.

The Rise of Automats

A direct predecessor of modern fast-food service were the automats that fed urbanites in the northeastern U.S. in the early 20th century. Essentially a self-service cafeteria, the automat featured rows of windowed compartments along its walls, from which hungry customers could retrieve an array of prepared dishes by depositing a coin. Introduced in Berlin, Germany, in 1895, this new form of casual dining made its way to Philadelphia in 1902 courtesy of restaurateurs Joe Horn and Frank Hardart.

The concept hit its stride after Horn and Hardart debuted their service in the busy New York City neighborhood of Times Square in 1912, and then expanded to more than 80 locations across the Big Apple and Philly. However, the popularity of the automat began to decline as city dwellers increasingly migrated to the suburbs after World War II, and the service slowly fizzled out over the following decades (though it saw a comeback amid the COVID-19 pandemic).

White Castle Introduces the Hamburger Chain

As described in Adam Chandler's book Drive-Thru Dreams, a cook named Walt Anderson began churning out batches of small, square hamburgers from his stand in Wichita, Kansas, in 1916. Although Americans were leery of ground beef following the exposé of the meatpacking industry that featured in Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle, Anderson eased those concerns by preparing his food in public view. Locals quickly took to the compact 5-cent burgers, later known as "sliders," and Anderson soon opened two more stands. In 1921, he teamed with real-estate broker Billy Ingram to open a fourth location in a building that resembled a small castle, a look that partly inspired the new eatery's moniker, "White Castle."

As burger stands began popping up with increasing frequency throughout the decade, Anderson and Ingram sought to distinguish their chain through the comfort of uniformity. Regardless of location, diners enjoyed burgers and coffee that were prepared in accordance to exact instructions, amid interior dining areas marked by white-painted walls, stainless steel counters, and identically dressed servers.

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Drive-Ins and Drive-Thrus Cater to Cars

At the same time that Kansans were familiarizing themselves with the White Castle brand, Texans were being introduced to a new form of dining service. Visitors hankering for a pork sandwich or other barbecue fare from the Dallas-based Pig Stand didn't even have to leave their vehicles, as they were greeted by smiling carhops who were ready to order and retrieve meals for them. As mentioned in Drive-Thru Dreams, considering the number of cars on American roads grew from 9 million in 1920 to 23 million in 1931, it was only natural that drive-in restaurants became a staple across the American landscape in the following decades.

The next phase in driver-oriented dining came with the emergence of the drive-thru restaurant in the late 1940s. Although it's unclear exactly where this service first originated, credit is often given to Red's Giant Hamburg on Route 66 in Springfield, Missouri, in 1948. That year also brought the drive-thru to Southern California with the very first In-N-Out Burger, which began expanding to other regional locations in the 1950s.

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McDonald's Changes the Game

Meanwhile, another change in the industry was underway. Richard and Maurice McDonald built a successful burger drive-in restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940, but eventually sought enhanced efficiency for their business. By 1948, the brothers had gotten rid of carhops and short-order cooks, divided food preparation into individual stations, simplified their menu, and replaced dishes and glassware with disposable versions. This "Speedee Service System," as it was called, enabled the brothers to rake in even larger profits, and directly inspired competitors such as Keith G. Cramer, who opened the chain that became Burger King in 1953.

Around that time, the development of the Interstate Highway System and migration to the suburbs that hastened the demise of automats also ignited a fast-food boom that was no longer primarily centered on hamburgers. Colonel Harland Sanders, who began experimenting with a pressure cooker at his gas station eatery in the 1930s, started franchising his Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe to restaurants in 1952. Brothers Dan and Frank Carney introduced the first Pizza Hut in Wichita in 1958. Glen Bell switched from burgers to tacos in 1954, before launching Taco Bell in Downey, California, in 1962. And 17-year-old Fred DeLuca teamed up with nuclear physicist Peter Buck to open the sandwich chain that became Subway in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1965.

With so many options for consumers to choose from, fast-food entrepreneurs sought to expand their businesses both nationally and overseas. Early pioneers in the international space included KFC, which brought the colonel's secret recipe to Canadain 1955 and Mexico in 1963, and A&W, which cracked the Asian market with shops in Malaysia and Japan in 1963.

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Innovative Advertising

As the 20th century pressed on, the fast-food industry's major players pursued various marketing and promotional techniques to reel in more customers. The now-defunct Burger Chef was the first to offer a burger, fries, and drink combo meal after the franchise launched in the late 1950s. Burger Chef also proved ahead of the game with the debut of their food-and-toy "Fun Meal" for kids in 1973, although they were unsuccessful at blocking McDonald's from nationally rolling out the Happy Meal in 1979.

While the mid-Atlantic chain Rays Kingburger claims it became the first fast-food restaurant to offer breakfast in 1972, McDonald's had already been selling breakfast items at select locations. The fast-food giant then upped the ante by introducing the eggs Benedict-based Egg McMuffin sandwich in 1972, before unveiling its national breakfast menu in 1977.

Following the onslaught of advertising between McDonald's, Burger King, and upstart Wendy's that marked the "burger wars" of the 1980s, Wendy's created a model for smaller chains to follow by introducing a 99-cent value menu in 1989. McDonald's also established a menu trend in 1987 with the introduction of "supersized" meals that provided bigger portions, before discontinuing the option in 2004.

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A Turn to Healthier Choices

The death of the supersized meal was partly due to shifting public tastes that sought healthier choices for quick dining. While the innovators at Burger Chef offered salads as far back as 1974, and Wendy's debuted a salad bar in 1979, the major franchises largely delivered the same high-sodium and high-calorie content until the 2001 satirical film Fast Food Nation and Morgan Spurlock's 2004 documentary Supersize Me called attention to rising obesity rates and environmental problems caused by the production and consumption of this type of food.
While most fast-food joints opted not to follow Burger King’s introduction of a vegetarian patty in 2002, an examination of 20 popular chains between 2004 and 2015 revealed industry-wide efforts to add healthier items to menus, particularly for children. And the rise of franchises such as CAVA, Veggie Grill, and Native Foods provided diners with an array of genuinely nutritious options for quick-service meals. Today, regardless of whether consumers seek a lower-calorie grilled chicken wrap or the old standby of burgers and fries, fast food remains as popular as ever, with this American contribution to the culinary industry accounting for $978 billion in global sales in 2023.

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How Did Salt and Pepper Become the Two Most Common Seasonings?

Salt and pepper shakers

Spices have been central to human history since antiquity, influencing trade routes and economies along the way. But despite the rich array of flavors that have traveled the world, salt and pepper have emerged as the most popular seasonings in the Western world. Salt, an essential mineral, was once coveted for food preservation; pepper, a spice derived from dried peppercorn plant berries, used to be worth its weight in gold. Their popularity and ubiquitous inseparability have even led to their names being used as an adjective, as in “salt-and-pepper” hair. Here’s a look at how necessity, global trade, and culinary innovation helped salt and pepper become the two most common food seasonings.

A Dash of Salt

Salt’s journey to dinner tables is rooted in its importance to human life. The natural mineral is crucial for maintaining hydration, nerve function, and muscle control in the body, among other things. Given salt’s essential role in survival, it’s no surprise that humans developed a taste for it. Early human diets were heavy in meat and naturally provided sufficient salt. But as nomadic hunter-gatherers settled into agricultural societies and diets started including more grains, supplementing salt became important. The resource, though naturally abundant, wasn’t always easy to obtain, and it became a highly sought-after commodity throughout expanding civilizations.

In ancient Rome, the production and transport of salt evolved into a major industry. Salt was highly valued and was even used as currency, with soldiers sometimes receiving their salarium, or wages, in salt — a practice that gave rise to the English word “salary.” (Sal is the Latin word for salt.) As European empires expanded and trade routes grew, so did salt’s reach, though it largely remained a necessity of food preservation and was used as a seasoning only by the wealthy. Throughout the Middle Ages, upper-class hosts even made sure their guests of honor were seated next to elaborate, expensive salt cellars at the dining table.

A Pinch of Pepper

Around the same time, black pepper was experiencing peak popularity in medieval Europe. Native to India’s Malabar Coast, pepper was used in local cooking as early as 2000 BCE, but as trade networks expanded, the spice became highly prized in the Roman Empire, where it was as valuable as gold. Like salt, it remained a top commodity and a luxury for centuries throughout Europe due to difficulties importing it from tropical regions — as well as for its supposed medicinal properties. Black pepper was believed to aid digestion, ward off diseases, and treat ailments such as arthritis and gout.

By the mid-17th century, however, these medical beliefs were waning, and the spice trade shifted significantly as new imports such as coffee, chocolate, and tobacco entered the scene. Food preferences also changed, reflecting refinements in regional cooking, especially in France.

A New Culinary Concept

Historians trace the most likely implementation of salt and pepper into everyday cooking to the rise of French haute cuisine in the 17th century. French chefs such as François Pierre La Varenne, who contributed to the influential 1651 cookbook Le Cuisinier Francois (The French Cook), began reducing the amount of spices used in cooking, instead aiming to emphasize ingredients’ natural flavors. This style of cooking also introduced a clear separation between savory and sweet dishes in a meal. Salted foods were served first to stimulate the appetite, while sweet dishes were saved for the end to satisfy it. Pepper, one of the few spices that flavored food without overpowering the taste, didn’t work well with sweets — but it did pair well with salt, and both were relegated to a meal’s savory servings. This shift in French cuisine was a major influence throughout Europe, especially after the cookbook’s first English translation in 1652.

Everyday Essentials

Much the same way pepper proliferated in Europe via land and sea routes, the spice and its culinary uses were introduced to the Americas through European colonizers. Salt, of course, was naturally occurring, but was made more easily available in the Americas with the arrival of colonial settlers and an influx of goods from European imports. Following the American Revolution, New York and Virginia became hotspots of domestic salt production, while Massachusetts emerged as an early-19th-century pioneer in the North American pepper trade. Both were in easy abundance for the early citizens of the United States.

By the early 20th century, most U.S. homes had refrigerators, and salt’s role as a food preservative had diminished — its primary role was in cooking. After anticaking agents such as magnesium carbonate were added to salt in 1911, salt shakers became practical and widely used. Salt and pepper had long been habitually used together, so pepper shakers appeared shortly after, and the pair’s status as everyday cooking essentials was cemented.

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What Did Ancient Romans Eat?

Ancient Roman feast

The mere mention of ancient Rome conjures up a multitude of powerful images: the assassination of Julius Caesar, legionaries marching in perfect unison, the alliance of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, gladiators fighting in the Colosseum. It was a time of power and conquest, of low scheming and high culture. It was also a time of feasting — something the Romans were known for, especially during Bacchanalia festivals, in which food and wine would flow with fervor. But what exactly did the Romans eat? Here are some of the most common foodstuffs that fed the hungry denizens of the Roman Empire.

Bread and Porridge

Cereal grains, particularly wheat and oatmeal, were part of almost every meal in ancient Rome. These grains were typically used to make bread, biscuits, or porridge, and were eaten by the common folk, the upper crust, and soldiers in the Roman army. Roman porridge recipes survive to this day, including one in Cato the Elder’s De Agri Cultura, a treatise on agriculture written around 160 BCE, which happens to be the oldest remaining complete work of prose in Latin. The simple recipe, which isn’t dissimilar to modern counterparts, suggests soaking wheat in boiling water before adding milk to create a thick gruel — a staple dish that anyone in Rome could have prepared.

Vegetables and Beans

Seasonally available and locally sourced vegetables and beans were often served as accompaniments to Roman meals. Common vegetables included lettuce, cabbage, turnips, and leeks, while wealthier Romans could afford asparagus, mushrooms, and artichokes. Legumes such as broad beans, chickpeas, and lentils also played an important role in the Roman diet, providing substantial amounts of calories, protein, calcium, and iron to a diet that wasn’t nearly as meat-heavy as our diets today. A recent study found that Roman gladiators were mostly vegetarian, eating primarily wheat, barley, and beans.

Fruits and Nuts

As the empire expanded, the Romans discovered and embraced many varieties of fruits and nuts. The humble apple tree, for example, was introduced to many parts of the world after the Romans found it growing in Syria. They also cultivated pears, plums, apricots, and figs, as well as nuts — which were considered expensive treats — including chestnuts, walnuts, almonds, pistachios, and hazelnuts. Then, of course, there were grapes, which were eaten fresh, or — more importantly — turned into wine. The Romans loved to drink wine, which they diluted with a little water. Drinking wine neat was considered uncivilized, but not as uncouth as drinking beer, which was seen as simply barbaric.

Milk and Cheese

The Romans did not typically drink milk, and doing so was largely frowned upon. They saw excessive milk drinking as evidence of barbarism, and even considered butter fit only for treating burns. (The Romans believed their ubiquitous olive oil to be far superior for cooking purposes.) They did, however, use goat and sheep milk to make cheese. Many farms produced cheese, and some wealthier homes had dedicated cheese kitchens. Roman soldiers were also familiar with the cheese-making process, including the use of rennet, and could produce the food while deployed abroad. The Roman author Pliny the Elder was indignant when considering the lack of cheese-making in what he saw as lesser civilizations, writing, “It is a remarkable circumstance, that the barbarous nations which subsist on milk have been for so many ages either ignorant of the merits of cheese, or else have totally disregarded it.”

Meat and Fish

Meat and fish were both considered luxuries in ancient Rome, and were primarily reserved for wealthier citizens. Pork was the most common meat, either cooked fresh (stewed or roasted) or turned into bacon. Fresh fish and seafood included tuna, eels, sea urchins, and other shellfish. During feasts, wealthy Romans sometimes ramped up their culinary creations to a whole different level. Dishes served at these extravagant events included pickled sow’s udders, stuffed dormice, bull’s testicles, and hares decorated with wings to resemble Pegasus.

Garum

Special mention has to go to one standout ingredient of ancient Roman cuisine: a fermented fish sauce called garum. Pliny the Elder described garum as “a choice liquor consisting of the guts of fish and the other parts that would otherwise be considered refuse.” Despite this unappetizing appraisal, he nonetheless called it an “exquisite liquid.” The Romans mass-produced garum in dedicated factories. Three common varieties were manufactured: a dark-colored condiment that was high in protein, a cooking sauce similar to Vietnamese fish sauces, and a milder version called muria. Roman diners sprinkled garum on all manner of savory dishes, providing a pungent umami to even the blandest of meals.

Roman Desserts

Sweet-toothed Romans, especially those with money to spend, could indulge in a variety of desserts. Baked goods such as honey cakes and fruit tarts were common, as were homemade sweets known as dulcia domestica, which included stuffed dates. One common dessert eaten throughout Roman society was libum, a type of honey cheesecake. Libum wasn’t only a tasty treat; it was traditionally made as an offering to the household gods, after which it could be enjoyed by all the family.

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7 Things People Used To Eat for Dessert

Tomato soup cake

Much like fashion trends, culinary tastes have changed over time, and once-common dishes have given way to new ingredients, easier preparation methods, and more refined recipes. Desserts, in particular, have seen a rise in popularity over the centuries. Originally served alongside savory items on the dinner table, sweet dishes were moved to the final course of the meal in 17th-century Europe, and cookbooks dedicated to dessert recipes started appearing around the same time.

The affordability and availability of sugar during this era was largely responsible for this culinary shift, due to the work of enslaved people on colonial plantations in the Caribbean. As chocolate, coffee, and tea were introduced to Europe, demand for the sweet stuff increased as well. Sugar, which had previously been used sparingly as a preservative or to sweeten savory dishes, became the main ingredient in new recipes, leading to an endless array of possibilities for cakes, pies, and other sweet treats.

Here are seven old-fashioned desserts that were once commonly served, but are rarely seen today. While some of these foods may seem familiar as the recipes have been updated over the years to accommodate modern tastes, others are reminders of different times in history when people made do with what they had.

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Mincemeat Pie

Dating back to Europe’s medieval era, mincemeat pie (or mince pie) was a finely chopped mixture of meat — traditionally mutton — along with dried fruit and spices. The spices and natural fruit sugars helped preserve the food as well as overpower the flavor of meat on the verge of spoiling. By the end of the Victorian era, the primary ingredients of mincemeat pies were fruit, spices, and beef suet, a hard animal fat. While they’re not very common in the U.S. today, mincemeat pies are still a popular Christmas dessert in the U.K., and vegetarian pies are readily available.

Tomato Soup Cake

The earliest recipe for tomato soup cake dates back to 1922, and some accounts say the dessert was popular among Irish immigrants in New England. The can of condensed tomato soup the recipe calls for yields a moist red-orange cake that doesn’t taste like tomatoes at all, thanks to the cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg in the mix. This unusual spice cake was popular through the 1930s and 1940s, when Depression-era and wartime shortages called for culinary creativity. People sought out affordable substitutes that could stand in for pricier ingredients (such as tomatoes) without sacrificing flavor. In the 1940s, the Campbell Soup Company began experimenting with variations on the tomato soup cake recipe and, in 1960, printed a version on its tomato soup label — the first recipe to appear on a soup can.

Shoofly Pie

Shoofly pie is a molasses-based pie with a crumbly, streusel-like topping. No one knows for sure how the pie got its name, but it might be from the fact that its sweet and sticky surface tends to attract flies, or from an early brand of molasses called Shoofly Molasses. According to some sources, the recipe for shoofly pie dates to 1876, originating with a crust-free molasses cake called centennial cake that was served to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. Other sources attribute the recipe to the German immigrants of Pennsylvania Dutch country in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who may have used molasses in a variation of an older British recipe known as a treacle tart. This sweet and crumbly pie is still popular among the Amish and Mennonite communities of Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Carrot Pudding

Before carrot cake, there was carrot pudding. A recipe in the 1591 English cookbook A Book of Cookrye describes carrot pudding as a savory pudding made of chopped liver, breadcrumbs, spices, dates, and sugar that is then stuffed inside a hollow carrot. By the 18th century, carrot pudding had evolved into a sweet dessert baked in a pastry shell, similar to pumpkin pie. Another variation called steamed carrot pudding was made with shredded carrots and potatoes and steamed in a gelatin mold.

Fruitcake

Fruitcake dates back to the ancient Romans, who made a mash of barley, dried fruit, honey, and wine to sustain their soldiers in battle. During the early medieval era, it evolved into European yeast breads such as stollen and panettone, which were packed with candied citrus and alcohol-infused dried fruits. The cakelike version that became popular in the U.S. arrived with the British colonists. Preserving fruits for winter fruitcake involved cutting fruit into small pieces, boiling it in sugar syrup, tossing it in granulated sugar, and allowing it to dry. These candied fruits could then be baked in a spiced cake batter. There are dozens of variations on fruitcake, with some recipes calling for the cake to be baked weeks in advance and then brushed weekly with liquor or simple syrup. Though fruitcake is still around, it’s rarely made anymore and ranks as one of the least popular holiday desserts.

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Jumbles

Also known as “jumbals” or “jumballs,” jumbles are a type of butter cookie that predates the modern sugar cookie. Historians believe the recipe originated in the Middle East and may have been introduced to Europe by Muslims in Spain and Portugal before it was brought to the New World by 16th-century explorers. Made from butter, sugar, eggs, and flour, jumbles were flavored with rosewater or spices, and then shaped into thick rounds or knots before being baked or boiled. Because they traveled well and could be stored for months, they remained popular for centuries, with dozens of recipe variations. Four jumble recipes, including “lemon jumbals” and “almond jumbals,” are included in Martha Washington’s family cookbook, Booke of Cookery.

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Vinegar Pie

Though it was a popular Depression-era dessert, vinegar pie dates back to the 19th century. Mimicking the tartness of lemons, this sweet and tangy pie could be made all year long by substituting apple cider vinegar for citrus, which was expensive when out of season. As one of several so-called “desperation” or “make-do” pies, vinegar pie could be made from a handful of staples that home cooks usually had on hand. Other desperation pies included buttermilk pie, chess pie, and even water pie.

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We Made Thomas Jefferson’s Ice Cream

Ice cream ingredients

Thomas Jefferson’s complicated legacy encompasses his roles as an American founding father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third President of the United States. Jefferson was also an enthusiastic foodie, with a willingness to try new cuisine and an interest in kitchen gadgets. He particularly enjoyed ice cream, a dessert he likely encountered during his time in France from 1784 to 1789. And while Jefferson did not introduce the young United States to ice cream — the frozen treat was served in the American colonies as early as 1744 — he certainly helped popularize the dish, and he is the first known American to write down a recipe for it.

Jefferson’s ice cream recipe is one of only 10 surviving recipes in his handwriting. It’s unlikely that the President created the recipe himself; the original source was likely his French butler, Adrien Petit. Still, Jefferson was fond enough of the creamy dessert to write down the recipe and ship pewter ice molds back from France.

While the founding father’s ice cream recipe is simple to make, the tools used in the early 19th century aren’t in common use today. For instance, the “sabottiere” ice cream maker (also spelled “sabotiere”) that Jefferson references was a lidded metal bucket within a larger wooden bucket. Today’s ice cream makers have similar components, but are easier, faster, and less laborious to use. Likewise, the ice cream molds that Jefferson had shipped from France are mostly obsolete today, replaced by silicone popsicle molds and pint- or quart-sized containers.

The website for Jefferson’s Virginia home, Monticello, includes both Jefferson’s original ice cream recipe and an updated version by Jefferson historian Marie Kimball. To make Jefferson’s ice cream, my son and I stuck as close to the original recipe as possible, improvising when necessary. For instance, to bring the ice cream mixture to boiling, we used a large skillet on a gas stovetop rather than an open fire. And instead of straining it “thro’ a towel,” we used a metal sieve.

Though the process took considerably longer than we expected — and longer than Jefferson himself suggested (see the note at the end of the article) — the end result was rich, creamy, and delicious!

Jefferson's Ice Cream Recipe

2 bottles of good cream.
6 yolks of eggs.
1/2 lb. sugar

mix the yolks & sugar
put the cream on a fire in a casserole, first putting in a stick of Vanilla.
when near boiling take it off & pour it gently into the mixture of eggs & sugar.
stir it well.
put it on the fire again stirring it thoroughly with a spoon to prevent it's sticking to the casserole.
when near boiling take it off and strain it thro' a towel.
put it in the Sabottiere
then set it in ice an hour before it is to be served. put into the ice a handful of salt.
put salt on the coverlid of the Sabotiere & cover the whole with ice.
leave it still half a quarter of an hour.
then turn the Sabottiere in the ice 10 minutes
open it to loosen with a spatula the ice from the inner sides of the Sabotiere.
shut it & replace it in the ice
open it from time to time to detach the ice from the sides
when well taken (prise) stir it well with the Spatula.
put it in moulds, justling it well down on the knee.
then put the mould into the same bucket of ice.
leave it there to the moment of serving it.
to withdraw it, immerse the mould in warm water, turning it well till it will come out & turn it into a plate.

(Modern version here, adapted by historian Marie Kimball)

Gathering the Ingredients

First we gathered our ingredients and supplies. Jefferson’s recipe calls for just five ingredients: sugar, egg yolks, a pinch of salt, cream, and vanilla. But the ice cream-making process requires a number of kitchen supplies, as well as ice and salt, which lowers the freezing/melting point of water. To duplicate Jefferson’s process, I needed to purchase a metal pail, a larger wooden bucket, a large fine sieve, and ice cream “molds,” which were silicone ice cream containers. I also bought a large container of rock salt, as it reacts better with the ice than table salt.

Blending the Eggs and Sugar

In a large bowl, we whisked six egg yolks, then added 1 cup of sugar and a pinch of salt, creating a thick, bright-yellow mixture.

Heating the Cream and Vanilla

Jefferson’s recipe calls for a “stick of Vanilla,” referring to a vanilla bean, from which we get the more familiar vanilla extract. I made a slit in the vanilla bean before heating it with the cream in order to release those tiny seeds that give vanilla ice cream its speckled appearance. (It also smells amazing!)

The recipe also calls for “2 bottles of good cream,” but doesn’t specify the quantity in the bottles. For this step, we relied on Marie Kimball’s updated version of the recipe and used 1 quart of heavy whipping cream (which is the same as heavy cream).

Pouring the Hot Cream and Vanilla Over the Egg and Sugar Mixture

Once the cream and vanilla reached boiling, we took the pan off the stove and slowly poured the cream over the egg and sugar mixture. Then we gently stirred it until the ingredients were well blended before returning the mixture to the pan.

Boiling the Ice Cream Mixture

Kimball’s version of Jefferson’s recipe calls for using a double boiler to heat the ice cream mixture, but we stuck with a single pan, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. After a few minutes, the mixture began to thicken, taking on a custardy texture that smelled like vanilla cake. Once the mixture reached boiling, we took it off the heat.

Straining the Ice Cream Mixture

For the straining step, I intended to use cheesecloth to simulate Jefferson’s towel method, but due to the potential for a literal hot mess, I opted to use Kimball’s recommendation for a fine sieve. Straining the ice cream mixture like this allowed us to catch the small bits of egg and vanilla bean, leaving the ice cream mixture silky smooth.

Putting the Mixture Into the Ice Cream Maker

In place of Jefferson’s “sabottiere,” we poured the strained ice cream mixture into a lidded metal pail, filled the whiskey barrel with an ice and rock salt mixture (per Kimball’s instructions), and then turned the pail at regular intervals, stirring the ice cream mixture occasionally as it slowly began to cool and freeze.

Molding the Ice Cream

After two hours, the ice cream had cooled and thickened to a milkshake consistency. Jefferson’s recipe calls for the ice cream to be packed into ice molds, which were hinged pewter containers in the shape of flowers, fruit, and other decorative objects, but we used a quart-sized silicone ice cream container instead. In retrospect, I wish we’d used popsicle molds, as the smaller containers would have made the ice cream freeze faster.

Once the ice cream was in the container, it took another two hours to thicken to soft-serve consistency. We could have eaten it then (and we did taste test it!), but we wanted the ice cream to hold its shape when scooped. Since most of the ice in the whiskey barrel had melted at this point, we decided to put the container in our modern freezer overnight.

The Final Result

After freezing overnight, the ice cream was hard-packed and scoopable! Creamy, pale-yellow, and speckled with vanilla bean, it was the richest ice cream we’d ever tasted.

Note: One line of Jefferson’s recipe reads, “Then set it in ice an hour before it is to be served.” The actual time to freeze using his method took several hours just to get to soft-serve consistency. This could be due to the size and shape of the containers we used, but it still seems unlikely that it could be done in an hour, even using Jefferson-era ice molds.

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Grocery deliveries may be a modern convenience, but the service hearkens back to a bygone era when clinking glass bottles signaled the arrival of the milkman. The milkman (or milkwoman, though the job was usually held by men) is a cherished fixture of American history, as a prominent part of much of the 19th and 20th centuries. While milk remains a staple of the American diet, changes in consumerism and technology have made the once-ubiquitous milkman a relic of the past.

Credit: Smith Collection/Gado/ Archive Photos via Getty Images

Cattle farming was a common means of sustenance in the early United States, beginning with the colonial era in the 16th century and continuing for the next few centuries. Many farming families produced milk, butter, and cheese for themselves and their local community. By the 19th century, the U.S. saw a rapid transformation due to industrialization and urbanization; people moved from rural areas to urban centers where better employment opportunities awaited. Owning a cow and making milk was much more impractical for these new city folk, but the demand for dairy remained.

The concept of the milkman emerged around the late 18th century. The earliest providers filled large metal barrels with fresh milk right from the cow, carrying them by horse-drawn cart to customers’ homes. Milk was ladled into whatever containers were available, including pitchers, jugs, or pails. This often meant that the milk was contaminated by debris — anything from hair to dirt to insects. The advent of the now-iconic glass milk bottles in the late 19th century was a major advancement for both the convenience and the hygiene of milk delivery. Early bottles often had glass lids held on with metal clamps and were embossed with the name of the dairy that used them. Glass bottles were replaced by single-use, wax-coated containers in the 20th century, but to this day, glass milk bottles remain a niche, nostalgic emblem of another time.

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In 1911, Yale University purchased four clay tablets that had been unearthed from Mesopotamia, the ancient valley between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates (around modern-day Iraq). The tablets were inscribed in the cuneiform Akkadian language, and scholars estimate that three of them date back to around 1730 BCE. Since Akkadian is an extinct language, the actual content of the cuneiform was a mystery at the time the university acquired the tablets. It wasn’t until 1933 that any conclusions were made as to the contents of the script — and even then, the curator of the Yale Babylonian Collection misinterpreted the texts as recipes for medicinal remedies.

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Case of TaB soda

Vintage soft drinks are some of the most nostalgic pieces of cultural ephemera. These mundane everyday items seem to take on a certain mystique once they become unfamiliar relics of the past — there are even organizations dedicated to identifying and recording information about forgotten and discarded bottles. Here are five beverages that are in various stages of acquiring antique appeal, as their onetime popularity has significantly waned, or disappeared entirely.

Moxie

Moxie was developed by physician Augustin Thompson in 1876 as a medicinal syrup. It was made from gentian root extract, an ingredient with a polarizing flavor that is commonly used in aperitifs such as Suze, Salers, and Avèze. Originally called “Moxie Nerve Food,” the strange-even-for-the-19th-century latter part of the name came from Thompson’s belief that the tonic “cured anything caused by nervous exhaustion. It restored nervous people who were tired out mentally or physically.” Between 1884 and 1885, Thompson trademarked the name “Moxie Nerve Food,” mixed the syrup with carbonated water, and bottled it as a soft drink.

The drink was an immediate success, but just how much of a success is lost to history: Though Moxie is frequently referenced as having sold 5 million bottles in its first year, Thompson’s tendency to exaggerate numbers and make spurious claims (such as Moxie having “cured 200,000 drunks” in Lowell, Massachusetts) casts some doubt on the truth of that company data. But in the years after the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 required the company to shorten the name (as unfounded health claims in advertising were outlawed), Moxie became an indelible part of early-20th-century pop culture: Calvin Coolidge publicly called it his favorite drink, and observed his 1923 inauguration in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, with a bottle purchased from a nearby general store. The author E.B. White once wrote, “There is a certain serenity here that heals my spirit, and I can still buy Moxie in a tiny supermarket six miles away. Moxie contains gentian root, which is the path to the good life.” Legendary baseball player Ted Williams also endorsed the drink, and the word “moxie” itself became a slang word for vigor, boldness, and determination that has entered the dictionary.

Today, Moxie is obscure except in the New England region: As the birthplace of Thompson, the state of Maine has hosted a Moxie Day festival since 1984. The soda was also named Maine’s official state soft drink in 2005.

Nehi Sodas

Nehi sodas were a line of fruit-flavored soft drinks introduced in 1924 by the Chero-Cola company, which was founded by pharmacist Claud Hatcher and named after the cherry cola drink he developed. The Nehi line included flavors such as grape, peach, orange, and root beer, and was successful enough that the company changed its name to the Nehi Corporation four years later. (This came after a period of waning Chero-Cola sales due to a lawsuit from Coca-Cola; the lawsuit prevented use of the word “cola,” and mandated the drink be renamed “Chero,” causing a loss of brand recognition.)

Nehi soda’s success was short-lived, however. Sales declined in 1930 with the onset of the Great Depression, and Hatcher died in 1933. The following year, company president H.R. Mott reintroduced a cola called Royal Crown, and it was so successful that it overshadowed Nehi in both sales and branding: Royal Crown sales were 10 times higher than Nehi sales, and by 1959, the company changed its name to Royal Crown Cola Company (also known as RC Cola).

Nehi, meanwhile, can still be found in limited distribution, and it endures as a nostalgic pop culture emblem. Grape Nehi was depicted as the favorite drink of the character Radar in the 1970s TV series M*A*S*H, and the leg lamp in the 1980 film A Christmas Story was based on vintage Nehi advertisements.

Credit: PhotoQuest/ Archive Photos via Getty Images

TaB

TaB wasn’t the first diet cola, but it was the first developed by Coca-Cola. Before its introduction in 1963, other diet drinks, such as No-Cal and Diet Rite, were stocked on the over-the-counter medicine shelves at stores or pharmacies, and had a reputation for poor flavor. Coca-Cola sought to take advantage of the emerging diet drink market by creating a product with improved flavor, which would be stocked in beverage sections along with conventional drinks.

Like No-Cal and Diet Rite, TaB was formulated with the artificial sweeteners cyclamate and saccharin. But after the FDA banned cyclamate in 1970 due to concerns that it was a carcinogen, TaB was reformulated using only saccharine. Its flavor was described by devotees as clean, with hints of lemon and bubble gum, and its (very dated) advertising was aimed at women. Though it took some time to catch on, by the 1970s, TaB was the most popular diet drink in the U.S. But when saccharine was implicated in the National Toxicology Program’s 1981 Report on Carcinogens, and Coca-Cola introduced the aspartame-sweetened Diet Coke the following year, TaB began a long and steady decline that saw it reduced to 1% market share by 2001. Even still, TaB had a persistent cult following up until it was finally discontinued in 2020.

Credit: Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg 11+/ Alamy Stock Photo

Odwalla Fruit Juices

Odwalla was founded in 1980 by entrepreneur Greg Steltenpohl, along with members of his jazz band, as a way to help financially support the band. The company started out as a homespun operation, selling fresh-squeezed orange juice around the San Francisco Bay Area out of the band’s Volkswagen van, until eventually it caught the attention of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Jobs commissioned the company to juice apples for him on a one-off basis, which led to an agreement to stock the Apple cafeterias with Odwalla apple juice. It was the start of a massive period of growth that led to Odwalla juices being the trendy health-conscious beverage of the late 1980s and early 1990s: In 1991, annual sales reached $6 million and saw a growth rate of approximately 30% each year. In 1992, Odwalla introduced juice blends with nutrition-pun names such as C-Monster, Mo’ Beta, and Femme Vitale. High-profile cultural leaders were seen with Odwalla drinks, and the company went public in 1993, projecting $90 million in sales over the next few years.

Then, in 1996, lowered safety standards led to an E.coli outbreak in Odwalla apple juice that sickened dozens of people. The company nearly went bankrupt in the fallout, but rebounded in the late ’90s and eventually sold to Coca-Cola in 2001. Ultimately, changing consumer tastes, particularly around sugar content, led to a more gradual decline for the brand. By 2020, Coca-Cola discontinued production of Odwalla juices.

Credit: Barbara Alper/ Archive Photos via Getty Images

Original New York Seltzer

As a line of flavored carbonated water drinks, Original New York Seltzer was a predecessor to the present-day sparkling water trend. The company was formed in 1982 by Alan Miller as a sort of revival of the family business — his grandfather sold bottles of flavored seltzer on the streets of Brooklyn in the 1900s. Miller’s business was also intended as a way to give his 18-year-old son Randy some direction, as he was made president of the nascent company.

Original New York Seltzer was positioned as a preservative-free and “naturally flavored” soft drink that occupied a new category: more flavorful than sparkling mineral water, but not as sweet as soda, though unlike much of today’s flavored sparkling water, Original New York Seltzer was sweetened with sugar. It was available in 10 flavors: vanilla cream, blueberry, raspberry, cola & berry, black cherry, orange, peach, root beer, lemon-lime, and Concord grape. The company did not use any coloring in its formula, making each flavor as clear as sparkling water.

The product was a resounding success, reaching $100 million in sales in just three years, and becoming a quintessential touchstone of flamboyant 1980s pop culture. As a publicity (and actual) stunt, Randy Miller jumped off a 10-story hotel and onto a cushioned pad bearing the company logo. He was profiled on an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, with footage of the stunt, and clips of the bengal tiger he liked to bring to the office. Beverage giant Anheuser-Busch came calling with an offer to buy the company, but was turned down.

After the novelty wore off (and perhaps as consumers realized that Original New York Seltzer still contained a not-insignificant 25 grams of sugar per 10-ounce bottle), the company entered a decline, and the Millers quietly discontinued production in the early ’90s. But the brand was revived under different ownership in 2015, and the drinks are once again available in limited distribution.

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What Did People Eat for Dinner in the 1920s?

Upside-down cake, 1920s

Family dinner has been a mainstay of U.S. households since the mid-19th century, when men increasingly began to work and eat lunch — once considered the main meal of the day — outside the home. By the 1920s, the food rationing of World War I was a thing of the past, and the “Roaring ’20s” brought economic prosperity for many Americans.

When families sat down for dinner in this era, they could expect a menu typically consisting of a meat, a starch, and a side dish. The 1920s also saw an increase in the availability and variety of foods, including canned fruits, as well as innovations such as iceboxes and, later, refrigerators, which began to make their way into family homes over the course of the decade.

All of these factors played a part in what was served for dinner. From hearty mains to unique salads and decadent desserts, here’s a peek into dining rooms across America in the 1920s.

Credit: Harold M. Lambert/ Archive Photos via Getty Images

Baked Ham

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby focused on the wealthy elite of New York’s Gilded Age, describing buffet tables overflowing with hors d’oeuvres and spiced baked hams. But meats weren’t just for the rich, and in the 1920s, a baked ham or other large cut of meat was a common sight at family meal time, especially during holidays or as the centerpiece of a Sunday dinner.

A popular glazed ham recipe involved studding the outside with cloves, canned pineapple rings, and maraschino cherries. With the invention of Wonderbread and the proliferation of sliced bread in the same decade, leftover ham sandwiches were also a lunchbox fixture.

Chicken à la King

The origins of this recipe, like those of many classic food and drink concoctions, are unclear, but its regular appearance on dinner tables in the early 20th century is an undisputed fact. At its most basic, the dish consists of cubed chicken and mushrooms in a creamy white sauce, garnished with pimentos and served over toast, pasta, or flaky puff pastry pieces.

The rich sauce, made with cream, butter, and flour, was also often seasoned with sherry or other spirits for added flavor. Over time, ingredients such as green peppers or peas also began appearing in recipes. The beloved comfort food grew even more popular in later years, reaching its peak during the 1950s. While it fell out of favor in subsequent decades, it can often still be found as a canned or frozen entrée in grocery stores.

Stuffed Celery

Hors d'oeuvres enjoyed immense popularity in the 1920s. The Prohibition era fostered more informal social gatherings and cocktail parties at home, where finger foods were often served. Stuffed celery was a regular choice not only for entertaining, but also as a side at the dinner table.

The recipe began appearing in cookbooks and women’s magazines in the early 1900s and gained popularity throughout the ’20s and ’30s. The basic premise remained simple: chilled celery stalks filled with cream cheese, which was mixed with toppings such as tuna, lobster, crab, or, more commonly, olives and pimentos. Olives and pimentos were also used in cheese and olive salad, which was served on leaves of lettuce.

Waldorf Salad

Originally created in 1893 at New York’s prestigious Waldorf Hotel by the executive chef Edouard Beauchamp and maître d’hôtel Oscar Tschirky, this timeless salad was a staple of family dinner menus in the early 20th century, when sweet salads became a favorite.

The first recipe was published in 1986 in Tschirky’s own The Cook Book, by “Oscar” of the Waldorf. This original incarnation called only for diced apples and celery to be “dressed with a good mayonnaise.” Over time, the salad evolved; throughout the 1920s, recipes also began calling for walnuts and seedless red grapes. As recently as 2017, the Waldorf — short for the Waldorf-Astoria — still featured an elevated version of the salad on the menu, made with Granny Smith and Fuji apples, halved grapes, and candied walnuts.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Thanks to advancements in canning and a boom in the Hawaiian pineapple industry, canned pineapple enjoyed newfound popularity in the U.S. in the 1920s. The sweet golden rings were used not just as a garnish for baked hams, but in baked goods, too — most notably, in the pineapple upside-down cake.

The all-American dessert was an adaptation of already-popular skillet cakes, previously made with fruits such as apples or cherries. It gained a new audience after Dole — then known as the Hawaiian Pineapple Company — held a pineapple recipe contest in 1925.

Dole received 2,500 recipes for pineapple upside-down cake alone, and the published recipe, which appeared in a Dole cookbook as well as in magazines, helped it find a whole new audience. The syrupy-sweet tropical dessert has remained a family dinner favorite for decades, through the 1960s and beyond.

Icebox Cake

This no-bake dessert was named for the then-ubiquitous icebox, a precursor to the electric refrigerator that held a large ice block and was often made of wood and lined with tin. Iceboxes helped preserve fresh food in a way that canning or drying could not, and in the case of the icebox cake, it helped soften it to decadent perfection.

To start, crisp wafers or cookies were layered in a dish with whipped cream. After being left to sit in the icebox for a few hours or even overnight, the cookies softened and melded with the creamy filling. While the simplicity of the dessert was part of its appeal, other ingredients such as custard, fruit, gelatin, or chocolate were sometimes used as well.

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Thomas Jefferson: Macaroni

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