THE HISTORY CHEF!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Harry Truman's Food Conservation Speech and "Meatless Monday" Tuna Noodle Casserole

On October 5, 1947, Harry Truman made the first televised presidential address from the White House. In it, he asked Americans to reduce their use of grain in order to help feed starving people overseas.

At the time of his “Food Conservation Speech,” Europe was still recovering from the devastation of World War II and suffering from widespread famine. Truman asked farmers to reduce their use of grain and asked the public to avoid meat on Mondays, eggs and poultry on Thursdays, and to "save a slice of bread each day."

Within days, restaurants all over the country had pledged their support while the New York Times invited readers to write in for a free pamphlet of meatless recipes, including a “canned salmon bake topped with crushed potato chips.” Truman, for his part, lunched on a “symbolic cheese soufflé.”

Tuna Noodle Casserole was another popular "Meatless Monday" dish. If you'd like to whip up a batch, here is a quick and easy, no-nonsense recipe that has been adapted from Bess Truman’s handwritten recipe which is on file at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri.

12 ounces elbow macaroni
1 can white albacore tuna, drained
1 can cream of celery soup
1/3 cup milk
¾ cup cheddar cheese
½ cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 2 ½ to 3-quart casserole dish.

In a medium saucepan, cook the noodles until tender, about 10-12 minutes. Remove and drain well. In a medium bowl, combine the noodles, tuna, soup, and milk. Pour mixture into the prepared baking dish.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Mix together bread crumbs and butter in a small bowl, then sprinkle bread crumb mixture and cheese over the top. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the bread crumbs are slightly browned. Serve warm and enjoy!

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Saturday, May 15, 2010

Andrew Johnson Southern Hush Puppies

Hush puppies are usually made by deep frying cornbread batter in grease or lard. Although no one knows who came up with this fanciful name, some food historians say that it may have been coined during the years of scarcity following the Civil War, when cooks would toss scraps of fried batter to their hungry, yelping dogs, saying, “Hush, puppies!”

Popular in Johnson’s native state of Tennessee throughout the nineteenth century, these delectably greasy little treats were often served with fish or shellfish. Hush puppies and fried catfish is another particularly classic southern combination.

Special equipment: a deep-fry thermometer

1 cup yellow cornmeal
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon coarse salt
1 large egg
¾ cup buttermilk
Canola oil for frying (about 5-6 cups)

In a medium bowl, mix together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together egg and buttermilk, then add to cornmeal mixture and stir until well combined.

Fill a large, deep skillet with 2 to 3 inches of oil. Heat oil until it reaches 320°F on a deep-fry thermometer. Working in batches of 6, drop batter, 1 tablespoonful at a time, into the oil and fry until the hush puppies rise to the surface and are golden brown, about 3 minutes.

Transfer with a slotted spoon to a paper-towel-lined plate. Allow oil to return to 320°F between batches. Serve immediately.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Lady Bird Johnson's Home Made Barbecue Sauce

The food for most of Lyndon Johnson’s barbecues was prepared by a chef named Walter Jetton, who owned a popular catering business in Fort Worth, Texas, a few hours south of the LBJ Ranch. Calling himself “The Barbeque King,” Jetton dressed in a Stetson hat, creased white shirt and black string tie, and often had a whole headless cow rotating on a spit beside a smoldering log fire.

This original recipe for “Mrs. Lyndon Johnson’s Barbecue Sauce” was reprinted in numerous newspapers and magazines throughout the 1960s.

¼ cup butter
¼ cup vinegar
¼ cup ketchup
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and Tabasco to taste

Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add other ingredients and bring to a boil. Pour over meat to be barbecued. Yields 1 ½ cups.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Zachary Taylor Hominy and Chicken Soup

Zachary Taylor and his beloved war horse "Old Whitey" supposedly shared a love of hominy. Not wanting to request special treatment, General Taylor would let his horse roam around and "sniff out the freshest corn from among the many musty sacks of rations." After Old Whitey had chewed a hole through the sweetest-smelling sack, Taylor would reportedly ask the cooks to quickly whip up a batch since the sack had already been gnawed open! This quick and easy recipe is adapted from epicurious.com.

3 tablespoons olive oil
3 bunches green onions, sliced
4 teaspoons ground cumin
2 1/2 teaspoons paprika
8 cups chicken broth
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can tomatoes in juice
1 purchased roast chicken, meat shredded, skin and bones discarded
3 (15-ounce) cans golden or white hominy in juice
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add green onions, cumin, and paprika and sauté for 5 minutes.

Add broth, tomatoes with juice, and chicken. Puree hominy with juice in processor or blender. Mix into soup and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in cilantro. Serve warm and enjoy!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

George Washington Garlic Mashed Potatoes

So did you know that by the time he became president, George Washington had lost almost all of his teeth? Because of constant pain constant from ill-fitting dentures, George had to eat soft foods (like mashed potatoes and hoe cakes) throughout most of his adult life.

Contrary to popular belief, George did not wear a set of wooden dentures. Instead, a talented New York dentist named John Greenwood handcrafted his dentures from elephant ivory, hippopotamus tusks and parts of horse and donkey teeth. This recipe for roasted garlic mashed potatoes, taken from Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery, has been adapted for modern cooks.

4 large russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 stick unsalted butter
¾ cup heavy cream

In a large pot of cold water, bring the potatoes and garlic to a boil. Salt the water and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and return the potatoes to the pot. Mash over low heat with the butter, cream and 2 teaspoons salt. Serve warm and enjoy!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

James Monroe Virginia Spoon Bread

While serving in the Continental Army, James Monroe crossed the Delaware with George Washington, fought at the Battle of Trenton, and endured the harsh winter at Valley Forge.

Among the soldiers at Valley Forge were Benedict Arnold, Alexander Hamilton, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the future Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. Another soldier encamped there was Dr. Albigence Waldo, a surgeon from Connecticut, whose diary provides perhaps the best account we have of conditions that winter at Valley Forge:

Dec. 22nd., Lay excessive Cold & uncomfortable last Night, my eyes are started out from their Orbits like a Rabbit's eyes, occation'd by a great Cold, and Smoke. What have you got for Breakfast, Lads ? " Fire Cake & Water, Sir." I am ashamed to say it, but I am tempted to steal Fowls if I could find them, or even a whole Hog, for I feel as if I could eat one…But why do I talk of hunger & hard usage, when so many in the World have not even fire Cake & Water to eat...

After the war, Monroe returned to Virginia and studied law under Thomas Jefferson. He then served as governor of Virginia and was later appointed U.S. Minister to France. Like Jefferson, Monroe developed a fondness for fancy French cuisine but retained a taste for Virginia Spoon Bread and other simple foods of his youth.

Because it has a consistency similar to pudding, Spoon Bread is usually served straight from the baking pan with a large spoon. If you would like to make some, here is a simple recipe to try:

¾ cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons baking powder

Combine cornmeal and salt in a mixing bowl. Gradually add boiling water. Stir in melted butter.

In a small mixing bowl, beat eggs and milk. Add egg and milk mixture to the cornmeal mixture. Add baking powder and mix.

Pour into a greased baking dish. Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes, until set and lightly browned. Serve straight from the baking dish with a spoon and enjoy!

By the way, did you know that in Emmanuel Luetz’s painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware” James Monroe is depicted directly behind Washington, holding an American flag up against the storm? If you would like to see this painting (it measures 12 feet high and 21 feet long), it is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

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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.