What are you reading now?

[RJNorton]

(06-11-2014 01:04 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  I remember reading from more than one source about AL's fondness for chicken fricassee with biscuits but I can't remember where-very frustrating!

Toia, I am not sure if this is where you read it, but I found this in A Treasury of White House Cooking by Francois Rysavy [G. P. Putnam: New York] 1972 (p. 250):

"Abraham Lincoln dined in a spartan fashion...He would rather nibble fruit. His wife Mary tried everything to make Abe eat but has frustrated time and time again to see the finest foods left all but untouched on his plate. One of the few entrees that would tempt Lincoln was Chicken Fricassee. He liked the chicken cut up in small pieces, fried with seasonings of nutmeg and mace and served with a gravy made of the chicken drippings. Mary Lincoln set a table at the White House, which included such food as Aspic of Tongue, Pate de Foie Gras, Turkey stuffed with Truffles, and all sorts of wild game, such as venison, pheasant, or canvasback duck. But all too often the President merely picked at his food."

I do not believe I have seen this description in any Lincoln book. I do not know the author's source.

Regarding Lincoln's eating habits, Sarah Bush Lincoln said, "Abe was a moderate Eater and I now have no remembrance of his Special dish: he Sat down & ate what was set before him, making no complaint: he seemed Careless about this. I cooked his meals for nearly 15 years."

Leonard Sweet, wrote, "I never in the 10 years of circuit life I knew him heard him complain of a hard bed or a bad meal of victuals."

John Hay wrote, "When he lived in the country at Soldiers Home, he would be up and dressed, eat his breakfast (which was extremely frugal an egg, a piece of toast Coffee &c) and ride into Washington, all before 8 o'clock....At noon the President took a little lunch — a biscuit, a glass of milk in winter, some fruit or grapes in summer. He dined at fr. 5 to 6. & we went off to our dinner also...He was very abstemious - ate less than any one I know. Drank nothing but water - not from principle, but because he did not like wine or spirits."

However, William H. Crook wrote, "Mr. Lincoln was a hearty eater. He never lost his taste of the things a growing farmer’s boy would like. He was particularly fond of bacon. Plentiful and wholesome food was one of the means by which he kept up his strength which was taxed almost beyond endurance in those days."

Go figure.