November Thrifty Finds - Week#1 ~ Another White House Cookbook

The President’s Own White House Cookbook – Bicentennial Edition, published in 1976.  Published by the Culinary Institute of America, this book has 258 recipes from President Washington to Ford.  The author collected recipes from his own research, libraries and historical societies. Not many people realize the President and family pay food their own food and the government pays the tab for all state functions.

Most of the dishes are attributed a president or his spouse, with the remaining recipes gleaned from menus from various functions with a few revised for contemporary cooks.  There is an illustration of each president with a short biography scattered throughout the chapters.  The only photographs in the book are in color and depict a few pieces in the Presidential China collection.

The recipes run the usual gamut - soups, breads, cheese, entrées, vegetables, salad & dressings and of course desserts.  A few stand outs include Mamie Eisenhower's Million Dollar Fudge - which I have found in many a community cookbook, Jackie Kennedy's Gateau Saint-Honoree a very complicated dish best made by very experienced bakers - it's a very fancy dessert made with cream puffs, crème patisserie and Amber Toffee syrup.  Representing the Colonial era is Thomas Jefferson's Calf's Foot Jelly.