Satisfying a Ranchman's Appetite
Theodore Roosevelt’s Favorite Foods
by Rachel Lane
Theodore Roosevelt was a man of strong likes and dislikes—and food was no exception. We are fortunate to have many sources from Roosevelt himself to those around him who could speak to his eating habits.
One of the most comprehensive lists comes from a 1903 newspaper article in which an assistant chef in the White House, Harry Benoit, listed out all of Roosevelt’s favorite foods in different food categories, noting at the beginning of the article: “He prefers plain, wholesome food to the most elaborate menu.”
Meat and Seafood
Fried chicken was a Roosevelt favorite. He made it himself as well as enjoyed it in the homes of others. While we sadly don’t have a copy of his recipe, we do know he liked to eat it smothered with white gravy. Archie Butt, Roosevelt’s personal military aide, mentions this in a July 24, 1908 letter to his mother: “[T]he fried chicken was covered with white gravy, and oh, so good! The President said that his mother had always said it was the only way to serve fried chicken; that it gave the gravy time to soak into the meat, and that if the gravy was served separately he never took it.”
In a 1905 letter to Kermit, Roosevelt describes the meal he and Edith had of fried chicken, cherries, wild strawberries, biscuits, and cornbread. It seems like perhaps Edith did not always enjoy fried chicken—or did not often eat it, as Roosevelt wrote, “To my pleasure Mother greatly enjoyed the fried chicken, and admitted that what you children had said about the way I fried chicken was all true.”
As far as eating fried chicken made by others, one example was a meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and peas at Kansas Governor Walter R. Stubbs’s house in March 1911, which Roosevelt praised.
Bacon was a Roosevelt staple. He not only used it often in his cooking, including his fried chicken and beefsteak but also would eat it by itself with some eggs for breakfast as he relates in the 1905 letter to Kermit.
When he ate game meat, Roosevelt preferred quail and venison—according to assistant chef, Harry Benoit. His favorite fish was salmon, particularly that which was sent from New York’s Adirondacks to the White House.
He also loved oysters, which were often on the White House menu served in different ways. According to Benoit, Roosevelt’s favorite way was “served on the half shell, with the plain vinegar or a dash of lemon and pepper.”
Fruit and Vegetables
Peaches were Roosevelt’s favorite fruit—and one of his favorite foods in general. As a thirteen-year-old, Roosevelt ate twenty-four peaches during a train ride to Lenox, Massachusetts. And his love for this stonefruit continued into his adulthood.
His valet, James Amos, remembered that peaches and cream were one of Roosevelt’s favorite foods for breakfast. He would pile the plate so high that cream would be spilling out over the sides.
As Amos wrote in his biography about Roosevelt, Hero to His Valet, “I have a plate [at] home in which Mr. Roosevelt used to have his peaches and cream served. It’s a good, generous dish, about the size of an ordinary soup plate. And his idea of a dish of peaches and cream was this plate well piled up with the fruit.”
In fact, Roosevelt saw peaches as an essential component of a breakfast for a “strong man.” Several days after he was shot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1912 and while he was recovering in the hospital, Roosevelt expressed dissatisfaction at being served three soft-boiled eggs for breakfast: “That’s nothing for a strong man. I want some fresh country sausage and peaches. Plenty of them too.”
Roosevelt also detailed other fruits he enjoyed in a 1915 article for Ladies’ Home Journal when he compared fruits he liked and disliked to books he liked and disliked: “I like apples, pears, oranges, pineapples and peaches. I dislike bananas, alligator pears and prunes.” (If you aren’t familiar with the terminology of “alligator pear,” it’s an avocado!)
As far as vegetables, the well-loved starchy vegetable—potatoes—were a Roosevelt favorite. He regularly made them—cooked in bacon fat—while camping out west, including during his time in Dakota Territory in the 1880s, or camping trips with his sons and nephews in Oyster Bay, New York. His sons and nephews remembered his campfire meals of beefsteak, onions, and potatoes fondly. As Archie described them, “Um-m! [Y]ou ought to taste my father’s beefsteak! He tumbles them all together,—meat, onions, and potatoes,—but, um-m! it is good!”
Roosevelt occasionally mentioned enjoying other vegetables in correspondence. For example, in an April 1868 letter to his father, nine-year-old Roosevelt wrote, “I liked your peas so much that I ate half of them.”
Bread, Pastries, Cakes, and Desserts
Fond of sweet things, Roosevelt enjoyed desserts. He was known to gobble up cookies as fast as they could be plated. He liked pumpkin pie, lemon pie, apple pie, sand tarts, fat rascals (similar to scones), plum pudding, and the famous Roosevelt spice cake, which became one of the most popular cakes in the United States at the turn of the century.
Roosevelt also regularly received baked goods from people—often women—across the country, including Betty Lyle Wilson’s presidential fruit cake, or enjoyed baked goods in homes he visited during his travels, such as Nancy Baker’s gingersnaps or Lenora Stubbs’s salt-rising bread—similar to a sourdough bread. Roosevelt was effusive in his praise for these treats.
As for breads, he had “a preference for graham bread,” according to Benoit. Named for the man who popularized brown bread to those who weren’t poor in the Victorian era—Sylvester Graham—graham bread was marketed as a healthy alternative to white bread bought in the bakery, made from bleached whole wheat flour. Made with coarsely ground whole wheat, called graham flour, and sometimes sweetened with molasses or honey, graham bread has a slightly sweet, nutty flavor.
While you might have been surprised by some of Roosevelt’s favorite foods, his favorite meal probably wouldn’t shock anyone: “a sirloin steak, medium done, with a dish of blood red gravy and a large mealy potato.”
Each year on TRs birthday I host a lunch serving his favorite spice cake and sand tarts. This October I will add peaches and cream, my all time favorite as well.
Dr. Hansard, do you have any educated guesses about the recipe for the “white gravy” that was served with the Roosevelts’ fried chicken?