THE HISTORY CHEF!: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Mysterious Origins of Country Captain Chicken

Monday, April 25, 2011

Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Mysterious Origins of Country Captain Chicken

Although they may have become accustomed to elegant State Dinners while living in the White House, many American presidents have enjoyed a wide variety of simple dishes prepared with chicken. James Madison was reportedly fond of Chicken and Okra Soup, James Monroe retained a childhood taste for Chicken Pudding with Fried Rice, and it has been said that Woodrow Wilson frequently requested that Chicken Salad be put on the White House luncheon menu during his two terms of office.

But that's not all. John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie were reportedly fond of Poulet a l'Estragon (Chicken Tarragon); Richard Nixon enjoyed daughter Tricia's homemade Chicken Divan; Bill Clinton was, and perhaps still is, partial to chicken enchildas made with a cheese similar in texture and taste to Velveeta; and one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's favorite dishes was reportedly Country Captain Chicken, a curried-chicken dish with mysterious origins.

In her nineteenth-century cookbook, Eliza Leslie claimed that the dish got its name from a British officer who brought the recipe back from his station in India. Others maintain that the dish originated in Savannah, Georgia, which was a major shipping port for the spice trade. In Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes, Paterica Bunning Steven puts forth another other theory about the origins of this slightly spicy chicken dish:

According to an oft-repeated story, a sea-captain sailed into Charleston harbor with a shipload of spices from India. Entertained by the hostesses of a city noted for its graciousness, he repaid their kindness by teaching their capable cooks to make a delicious dish of chicken and curry. Alas for legend!

A virtually identical dish is known in England, where it goes by the very same name. The captain, if there ever was one, must have been a British officer stationed in the back country of India. An English writer has noted that "country captain" is also an Anglo-Indian term from the captian of a...ship...from a foreign country. Just how or if that fits into the puzzle would be difficult to say. Another suggestion is that Country Captain may be only a corruption of "country capon."

Although no one knows exactly who created and named this dish, we do know that it has been popular throughout the south for centuries. If you'd like to try it someday, here is a simple and delicious "30-minute Recipe" from the Food Network's ever-peppy Rachel Ray:

2 3/4 cups water
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 cups white and wild rice or long grain rice
2/3 cup flour, eyeball it
1 rounded tablespoon sweet paprika
4 pieces, 6 ounces each, boneless, skinless chicken breast
3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
2 tablespoons butter
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 or 3 large cloves garlic, smashed
1 tablespoon curry powder or mild curry paste
1 cup chicken stock
1 can diced tomatoes in puree or chunky style crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup golden raisins or currants, a couple of handfuls
2 ounces, 1 small pouch, sliced almonds, lightly toasted
3 scallions, chopped, for garnish

Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add butter and rice and return water to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cover the pot. Cook rice 20 minutes or until tender. Turn off heat and fluff rice with a fork.

Combine flour and paprika in a shallow dish. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Cut each chicken breast and thigh in 1/2 on an angle. Coat chicken pieces in paprika seasoned flour. Wash your hands and chicken work surfaces thoroughly.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil to the pan. Brown chicken pieces, 3 minutes on each side, and remove from the skillet. Add butter to the pan, then stir in peppers, onions and garlic. Season the veggies with salt and pepper and saute them 5 to 7 minutes to soften.

Add curry, stock, tomatoes and raisins. Slide chicken back into the skillet and simmer over moderate heat for 5 minutes to combine flavors and finish cooking the chicken through. Place skillet on a trivet and serve the chicken from the pan. Garnish the Country Captain's chicken with sliced almonds. Transfer rice to a serving dish and garnish with chopped scallions.

FOOD FACT: So now that we know which presidents liked to eat dishes prepared with chicken, it seems only fair that we consider what chickens like and need to eat for their well-being. According to experts, chickens need grains; greens (like grass, green vegetables and weeds); protein (from bugs, worms, milk and meat); calcium (from Oyster shells); as well as Vitamins A and D, and salt. And because a chicken's weight is made up of more than fifty percent water, they need a constant supply of fresh water to "drink."

Credit: Chicks Feeding, oil on canvas by Lucy Ann Leavers

George Washington (1789-1797)

John Adams (1797-1801)

On November 1, 1800, John Adams arrived in the new federal city of Washington, DC and moved into the President’s House. The next day, while sitting in a damp, unfinished room, John wrote a letter to his wife Abigail which included a blessing for the new house and its future inhabitants. This is what he wrote: "I Pray Heaven to Bestow THE BEST of BLESSINGS on This House and All That Hereafter Shall Inhabit It. May None but Honest and Wise Men Ever Rule Under this Roof." More than a century later, in the final year of World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had these words inscribed in gold just under the mantle on the fireplace in the State Dining Room -- and Adams' words are still there today!

James Madison (1809-1817)

Legend has it that in the 19th century, a freed slave named Sallie Shadd went into her family’s catering business in Delaware. Sallie supposedly achieved fame among the free black population there for a new dessert sensation she created with frozen cream, sugar, and fruit. When Dolley Madison heard about it, she supposedly travelled to Delaware to try it, and must've loved it because a “magnificent pink dome of ice cream” was served at President Madison’s second Inaugural Ball in 1813, and ice cream often appeared as the official dessert on the White House menu during her husband's two terms of office!

James Monroe (1817-1825)

In June 1817, two and a half months after he took office, President Monroe embarked on a "Goodwill Tour" of the United States. Paying expenses out of his own pocket, the new president was greeted by cheering crowds and treated to celebratory picnics, dinners, and receptions in every city he visited. After touring New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, Monroe stopped in Boston, where a newspaper hailed his visit as the beginning of an “ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS.” Despite this phrase, there were some bad feelings during this era, too. Free-states in the North and slave-states in the south were finding less and less to like about each other. The economy was also unstable and the nation slid into a serious depression in 1819.

John Quincy Adams (1825-1829)

John Quincy Adams’ four years in office were not easy ones. Although his intelligence, family background, and experience should have made him a great president, he did not have the charisma needed to build a base of loyal supporters. Nevertheless, he and his wife Louisa hosted many dinners at the White House, as required. But John’s cold personality had a chilling effect on others and guests seated near the president at dinner often said that he had a hard time engaging in casual conversation. Aware of his inability to make small talk, Adams chastised himself for his deficiencies in “the art of dinner conversation.”

Martin Van Buren (1837-1841)

Having witnessed the chaos of Jackson’s levees first hand, Martin Van Buren prohibited all food and drink from public receptions. Privately, however, Van Buren hosted many extravagant dinner parties at the White House. Using gold plated spoons that James Monroe had purchased years earlier in France, Van Buren added the finest quality cut crystal wine glasses, water bottles, and goblets. Before the election of 1840, Charles Ogle, a Whig Congressman from Pennsylvania, rose to speak in the House of Representatives and launched into a three-day attack on Van Buren’s luxurious lifestyle.

James Polk (1845-1849)

In 1848, Polk signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the Mexican American War and gave most of present-day Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, California, Wyoming, and Utah to the United States. The addition of these vast tracts of lands introduced many Native American, Mexican, and Spanish foods to the United States, like Chile Rellenos, Tamales, and Sopaipilla. Of course, the addition of these lands also intensified the debate over slavery and moved the nation to the brink of civil war.

Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)

In 1854, President Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and allowed settlers in those territories to determine if they would allow slavery within their boundaries. The Act outraged many northerners who believed he was supporting slavery in the new southwestern territories and old southern states. Politically disgraced, Pierce became the first president to hire a bodyguard after having been attacked by a detractor with a hard-boiled egg!

Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)

At the end of the Civil War, the South lay in ruins. Southern plantations and entire cities had been destroyed. Without food, many southerners starved to death, and those who survived lost everything they owned. As a result, the government had to figure out how to rebuild the south. As president, Johnson took charge of the first phase of Reconstruction. But his attempt to quickly readmit the former Confederate states into the union and his vetoes of important civil rights bills outraged Radical Republicans in Congress. The House of Representatives later voted to impeach Johnson, but he was acquitted by a single vote in the Senate. Historians say that Johnson’s victory "marked the beginning of an ambitious series of receptions, dinners and children’s parties that would turn the last nine months of his term into an ongoing celebration."

Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)

The menu for Ulysses S. Grant’s second inaugural ball reflects the opulence of the Gilded Age. A New York Times article dated March 5, 1873, contains a mind-boggling list of dishes served. Among other provisions were 10,000 fried oysters; 63 boned turkeys; 150 capons stuffed with truffles; 15 saddles of mutton; 200 dozen quails; 200 hams; 250 chickens; 400 partridges; 25 stuffed boar’s heads; 3,000 head cheese sandwiches; 8,000 pickled oysters and 2,000 pounds of lobster. But the best laid plans can go awry, even for a president. The weather that evening was freezing and the temporary ballroom had no heat. Guests danced in their hats and overcoats, the food was cold, they ran out of coffee, and, worst of all, most of the decorative caged canaries (which were supposed to be sweetly singing) froze.

Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)

Benjamin Harrison’s presidency began with a dramatic, three-day centennial observation of George Washington’s inauguration as the first president of the United States. The festivities began on the evening of April 28, 1889 with a reception in the Executive Mansion, followed by a reenactment of Washington’s crossing of New York Harbor by barge under a fuselage of gun salutes and fireworks. The festivities were capped with a lavish banquet, featuring “thirteen wines and thirteen toasts” in honor of the original thirteen colonies.

Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)

On June 30, 1906, President Roosevelt signed into law the Pure Food and Drug Act which prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated food products. The Act arose in part from articles and exposés written by muckrakers, such as Upton Sinclair, whose 1906 novel THE JUNGLE contained hair-raising descriptions of the way in which meat was produced in Chicago slaughterhouses and stockyards. Sinclair described how “dead rats were shoveled into sausage-grinding” machines; how bribed inspectors “looked the other way” when diseased cows were slaughtered for beef, and how “filth and guts were swept off the floor” and then packaged as “potted ham.”

William Taft (1909-1913)

President Taft kept a family dairy cow named Pauline Wayne on the White House lawn. For two years, Pauline supplied Taft and his family with fresh milk. When Taft left office in 1913, Pauline was shipped back to her former owner in Wisconsin. After that, pasteurized milk replaced raw milk at the White House. A New York Times article dated February 2, 1913, announced the departure of the Taft’s beloved cow this way: “Pauline Wayne, President Taft’s famous Holstein cow, will follow him into retirement March 4.”

Herbert Hooover (1929-1933)

During World War I, Herbert Hoover encouraged Americans to voluntarily modify their eating habits so that more food would be available to ship to our troops and allies overseas. Colorful posters and signs appeared in public areas with the slogan, “FOOD WILL WIN THE WAR!” In its first year of operation, Hoover’s program managed to reduce American food consumption by 15 percent without the need for rationing. At war’s end, the New York Times named Hoover one of the “Ten Most Important Living Americans.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)

When FDR moved into the White House in 1932, the United States was in the depths of the Great Depression. Just as Hoover had done in World War I, President Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor encouraged Americans to grow their own Victory Gardens. From California to New York, Americans plowed, seeded, watered, weeded, and harvested victory gardens in backyards, parks, baseball fields, and schoolyards. The idea was to grow enough vegetables through the summer to feed family and neighbors. Any extra vegetables would be preserved for eating during the winter and early spring when the next year's produce was ready to eat.

John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)

In an October 1962 speech in Houston, Texas, President Kennedy reaffirmed America's commitment to landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Seven years later, on July 20, 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission, astronaut Neil Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module (nicknamed the “Eagle”) and became the first man to walk on the surface of the moon. The first American astronauts had to eat bland, bite-sized cubes, freeze dried powders and semi-liquids stuffed in aluminum tubes. By the time of the Apollo program, the quality and variety of space food had greatly improved. Apollo astronauts were the first to have hot water, which made rehydrating foods easier and improved the food's taste.

Richard Nixon (1969-1973)

George H.W. Bush (1989-1997)

As a boy in Massachusetts, George Bush dutifully ate broccoli every day, along with oatmeal and a soft-boiled egg. At a news conference in 1990, President Bush told reporters, “I do not like broccoli and I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it and I'm President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli.” Needless to say, broccoli growers got a little “steamed” by the president’s comment. Within a week, broccoli growers in California had shipped ten tons of the flowery, green vegetable to Washington D.C. where it was donated to homeless shelters to feed the hungry.

Bill Clinton (1993-2001)

In a nationally televised interview during the 1992 presidential campaign, Hilary Clinton said, “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas. But what I decided to do was pursue my profession.” At the time, many Americans interpreted her comment as a criticism of women who had chosen to stay home to raise their children. In a light-hearted gesture, Mrs. Clinton later served cookies at a press conference and had thousands of cookies distributed at the 1992 Democratic National Convention.