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Top Chef: Mount Vernon Edition

hoecakes1“He rose before sunrise, always wrote or read until 7 in summer or half past seven in winter. His breakfast was then ready – he ate three small mush cakes (Indian meal) swimming in butter and honey, and drank three cups of tea without cream.”

George Washington’s breakfast habits were recorded by his step-granddaughter, Nelly Custis Lewis, providing us an intimate picture of our first president’s mornings. Nelly also recorded the recipe for mush cakes (also called hoecakes because they could be cooked on a hoe over an open fire) in a letter so we know that they consist of cornmeal, water, yeast, and egg. Hoecakes are regularly cooked at Mount Vernon’s Pioneer Farmer site, and the full recipe is on our website and in publications.

Now, having sampled hoecakes made with the Mount Vernon recipe several times, I thought, “There has got to be a better way.” No offense to the father of our nation, but where’s the sugar? The processed flour? The butter!? He must have eaten them “swimming in butter and honey” because they really do taste pretty terrible on their own (I know I will be getting some perturbed emails over this post, sigh…). As educators, we advise teachers and parents to make hoecakes with their children as a fun learning activity, but children of the 21st century are not going to be impressed with the results. Taking matters into my own hands, I used cornmeal from our own gristmill to attempt to adapt the recipe slightly. After four batches of hoecakes that still tasted the same, i.e. terrible, a very messy kitchen, and an irritated husband/test taster, I had no breakthroughs. I had so hoped to find a secret ingredient to present to our loyal GWW readers. But then I realized that someone else had already found that secret ingredient… So let me present Paula Deen’s Food Network recipe for Hoecakes!

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2 Responses to “Top Chef: Mount Vernon Edition”

  1. Laura Fox and Erik Rosas Says:

    We think it’s really cool how we have so many interesting facts about our first president. A lot of people probably don’t even care what he ate for breakfast, but we find it so awesome that his step-grandaughter took the time to recognize his habits and record them. People now don’t even care. We think his breakfast habit sounds like fun, and it sounds pretty good too, almost like pancakes. We like reading all these interesting things, not always the super important things, about George Washington.

  2. Thomas Price Says:

    The eating habits of George Washington were strangely unique considering he ate hoecakes which were mainly only found in a slave’s diet and not that of the elite planter class who ate exquiste meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But George Washington’s breakfast was the same every morning after he finished writing in his journal. His eating habits were recorded by step-grandaughter who recorded that every morning after his daily journal entries that he would three small mush cakes or hoecakes that were drowned in butter and honey which he washed down with tea without cream.His humble breakfast is simply fascinating and sound like a enjoyable snack for breakfast.

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Portraits in Schools

Kids holding George Washington Portrait

Mount Vernon recently invited K-12 schools nationwide to request framed portraits of George Washington to display in a respectful, prominent place.

The response was overwhelming: thousands of schools submitted letters! Along with the portrait, schools received curriculum materials to help explore our first president’s contributions.

Where has George Washington gone back to school? Click here to see!

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