Hoecake breakfasts, punctual dinners, post-prandial Madeiras, and other details about dining at Mount Vernon

On July 31, 1797, as rain darkened the early afternoon sky, George Washington dashed off a quick note to his secretary, Tobias Lear, who was arriving at Mount Vernon from Washington, D.C., late that evening. “Unless someone pops in unexpectedly,” the recently retired president remarked, “Mrs Washington and myself will do what I believe has not been [done] within the last twenty years by us, that is to set down to dinner by ourselves.” Indeed, dining and hospitality went hand in hand for the residents of Mount Vernon, where the endless stream of guests once led George Washington to compare his home to “a well resorted tavern.”

While the constant company may have occasionally exasperated the most celebrated of the founding fathers, the breathless accounts of starry-eyed visitors shed valuable light on the food and customs of the Washingtons’ table. At the same time, Mount Vernon plantation records introduce the army of workers—most of them enslaved—who labored behind the scenes to place impressive meals on the Mansion’s dining room table. These sources paint a vivid picture of 18th-century dining practices, tailored to the Washingtons’ particular tastes and preferences.

The first meal of the day in the Mount Vernon household began at 7 a.m. Even at this early hour, George Washington would have generally been awake for some time, reading and attending to correspondence in his study. A similarly early riser, Martha Washington awoke at dawn to begin her household duties. In the kitchen, the enslaved cooks—Lucy Lee and Nathan, in 1799—had no choice but to start their days before sunrise, lighting the fire in the bread oven by 4 a.m. to ensure it reached a high enough temperature to bake the day’s fare.

According to numerous accounts, George Washington’s favorite breakfast was hoecakes. His step-granddaughter Eleanor (Nelly) Parke Custis Lewis recalled that he enjoyed the cornmeal pancakes “swimming in butter and honey.” A traditional Southern dish, hoecakes did not receive their name because enslaved field hands baked them on the back of a hoe, an oft-repeated story. Rather, in the 17th century, “hoe” was another word for griddle. Washington’s affection for hoecakes may have stemmed from practicality as much as personal taste. As his dental troubles increased with age—Washington had just one remaining tooth when he became president, and by 1796, none—the soft, easy-to-chew pancakes surely appealed.

Other items at breakfast included cold meats and warm drinks. In 1802, Manasseh Cutler described a meal of ham, cold corned beef, cold fowl, red herring, and cold mutton. Martha Washington served hot beverages, such as tea, coffee, and chocolate. According to Nelly Custis, George Washington drank “three cups of tea without cream” every morning.

A substantial breakfast was important because the next meal, dinner, was not served until 3 p.m. Immediately following breakfast, Martha Washington “gave orders for dinner,” directing the cooks on what to serve and instructing them to set aside a turkey or a goose “in case of the arrival of company.” Meanwhile, George Washington set out on horseback to inspect work on his plantation, an activity that occupied the morning and early afternoon hours. Guests were generally left to their own devices until it was time to dress for dinner. 

The ringing of a large bell 15 minutes prior to the meal signaled stragglers to hurry. The bell rang again at the hour itself. George Washington was notoriously punctual. The Reverend Ashbel Green, who dined with the Washingtons in Philadelphia, recalled, “His rule was, to allow five minutes for the variation of clocks and watches, and then to go to table, be present or absent whoever might.”

The main meal of the day was also the most elaborate, though not excessively so. Washington’s preference for goods that were high quality and fashionable but not ostentatious extended to his dinner table. Scottish artist Archibald Robertson described a meal during the presidency as “plain, but suitable for a family in genteel and comfortable circumstances.” Reverend John Latta, a Pennsylvania clergyman, similarly noted that the “table is furnished in [a] great, but not luxurious, variety of dishes.”

During his February 1799 visit, 25-year-old Englishman Joshua Brookes noted that the table was arranged with a leg of boiled pork at the head and a goose at the foot, surrounded by roast beef, cold boiled beef, mutton chops, hominy, cabbage, potatoes, pickles, fried tripe (beef or sheep stomach), onions, and more. During his June 1797 meal with the Washingtons, Massachusetts lawyer Amariah Frost enjoyed similar fare, plus seasonal vegetables, such as peas, lettuce, cucumbers, and artichokes. To drink, diners could choose from beer, porter, and wine.

The second course generally consisted of mince pies, tarts, and cheese. For the third course, the tablecloth was removed and diners enjoyed nuts, apples, and raisins, along with port and Madeira wine (the latter being Washington’s favorite). At this time, the ladies retired to the parlor, leaving the gentlemen to converse in the dining room. Polish nobleman Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, who visited in June of 1798, noted that Washington “loves to chat after dinner with a glass of Madeira in his hand.”

Joshua Brookes observed that Martha Washington sat at the head of the table, with her husband at her right, an arrangement that was apparently their custom. George Washington directed others where to sit. In addition to visitors, the Washingtons were frequently joined by family and friends, some of whom lived at Mount Vernon. Along with the Washingtons and his two companions, Brooks recorded the presence of Nelly Custis, Tobias Lear (Washington’s secretary), and Dr. James Craik (Washington’s personal physician).

Brooks noted that this party of eight diners was waited on by three “servants,” or enslaved waiters. These men—possibly Frank Lee, Christopher Sheels, and Marcus—cut striking figures, wearing custom-made livery suits in the white and red of the Washington coat of arms, a custom the Virginia gentry borrowed from English nobility. Despite these eye-catching uniforms, the men’s task was to remain inconspicuous, hovering on the edges of the room and quietly anticipating each diner’s needs.

Frank Lee served a particularly important role in the Washingtons’ dining and hospitality. As butler, he choreographed the complex dance of serving platters and clearing plates, pouring wine and brushing crumbs from the tablecloth. The butler worked closely with the kitchen staff to manage the flow of the meal, and it surely helped that Lee’s wife, Lucy, was one of Mount Vernon’s cooks. On George Washington’s inventory, the small pantry next to the dining room was designated “the closet under Frank’s direction,” an indication of Lee’s authority over this particular domain. 

The final meal of the day was tea, which the Washingtons generally consumed around sunset. Tea was a light meal, consisting of bread, butter, and delicate cakes alongside the namesake beverage. In the summer months, the family took tea on the piazza to enjoy the cool breezes off the Potomac River. In 1796, Elizabeth Westcott described “the large and magnificent Portico at the back of the house where the tea equipage was paraded in order.” Frank Lee likely carried the hot water urn, porcelain tea service, silver tray, utensils, and other requisite items out to the piazza. As the lady of the household, Martha Washington presided over the tea ceremony.

While some 18th-century households served supper later in the evening, it was not a regular meal at Mount Vernon. Martha Washington’s grandson recalled that at night George Washington would read newspapers “while taking his single cup of tea (his only supper).” The president apparently divulged his reasoning to one guest, Winthrop Sargent, who noted in 1793 that tea was Washington’s last meal of the day, “Suppers and even a glass of wine in the Eve[nin]g afflicting him with the head ache.” Instead, Washington typically retired to bed at 9 p.m.

As guests enjoyed tranquil meals in the Washingtons’ company, the kitchen was a whirlwind of activity. As on most southern plantations, Mount Vernon’s kitchen was detached from the main house, a practice that reduced the risk of fire and separated the heat, sounds, and smells of cooking from the home’s interior. Waiters darted back and forth across the curved open-air colonnade that connected the kitchen to the Mansion, bringing out each series of dishes and returning to retrieve trays laden with the next course.

For dinner, the cooks might produce well over a dozen dishes, many prepared over an open hearth. This feat required enormous skill and impeccable timing. According to Martha Washington’s grandson, enslaved chef Hercules Posey—whom the Washingtons brought from Mount Vernon to the Philadelphia executive residence—“was as highly accomplished a proficient in the culinary art as could be found in the United States.” Such regard did not render the bonds of slavery more tolerable: In 1797, Posey fled Mount Vernon, making his way to New York, where he lived as a free man. City directories note that he worked as a laborer and a cook until his death in 1812.

Much of the food the cooks prepared for the Washingtons and their guests came from the plantation’s gardens, fields, and pastures, as well as the adjacent Potomac. Mount Vernon’s enslaved laborers grew and harvested this bounty. Field hands cultivated wheat and corn, which were ground into flour and cornmeal at Washington’s gristmill. They also tended livestock, raising hogs, sheep, and cows, some bound for slaughter. In the nearby river, they caught fish, of which George Washington was “excessively fond,” according to his step-grandson.

On their own, enslaved people also raised poultry, which they could sell to the Washingtons for small amounts of cash. At various times, the Washingtons’ table may have boasted ducks purchased from Caroline Branham, a housemaid; chickens from Dolcey, a laundress; and eggs from Lucy, a field hand.

Enslaved gardeners such as Harry and George, who in 1799 worked under hired Englishman William Spence, tended cabbage, asparagus, cauliflower, peas, and numerous other vegetables in the kitchen garden mere yards from the Mansion house. While living in Philadelphia, where such fresh produce was not so readily available, Martha Washington pined for Virginia, declaring, “[V]egetable is the best part of our living in the country.”

Just beyond the lower kitchen garden sat a grove of fruit trees: Washington’s orchard supplied the household with apples, pears, cherries, peaches, and apricots. On the other side of the bowling green, the warm greenhouse protected delicate citrus trees bearing oranges, lemons, and limes.

In the absence of refrigeration, various methods of preservation allowed fresh foods to be enjoyed beyond their seasonal availability. The cooks took advantage of the natural preserving qualities of sugar and salt by making fruit preserves and pickled vegetables. The inventory of Mount Vernon taken after George Washington’s death lists 20 “pickle pots” (stoneware storage jars) in the cellar, suggesting the quantities of food laid up for later use. Fruits could also be dried: In 1795, Martha Washington sent instructions from Philadelphia to “have … some of the morelly cherries dried,” noting that “Old Doll,” the former cook, “cannot have forgotten how to do them.”

Meat and fish were cured, usually by salting and sometimes smoking. Each winter, dozens of enslaved laborers were reassigned to the annual hog slaughter, which in 1785 produced more than 15,000 pounds of meat. Smoked bacon and ham remained hanging in the smokehouse or were stored in barrels packed with ashes. The reputation of “Virginia ham” was well-known even in the 18th century. In 1786, George Washington shipped a barrel of hams to the Marquis de Lafayette, noting, “[W]e recollect that it is a dish of which you are fond.” While in Philadelphia, Martha Washington sent for bacon and ham from Mount Vernon to use on the presidential table.

While a large portion of the Washingtons’ diet was local, key ingredients came from far-flung locales. Purchases included tea from China, coffee from Yemen and Surinam, chocolate from Mexico, Madeira wine from the Canary Islands, cheese from England, spices from the East Indies, sugar and molasses from the Caribbean, olives and raisins from the Mediterranean, and salt from Portugal. Given the time required to ship goods across the world, most of these ingredients were long-lasting, and Washington bought them in large quantities to ensure sufficient stores were on hand. In 1768, a lengthy order to his English agent included 90 pounds of cheese, 15 pounds of Jordan almonds, and nine pounds of tea. Lest he run out of his favorite beverage, Washington purchased Madeira by the “pipe”—a type of cask that held 126 gallons.

With culinary delights from near and far, each meal at Mount Vernon represented the work of countless people in the house, on the plantation, and across the world. Guests to Mount Vernon marveled at the elegant dinners “served up in excellent order.” But for most visitors, meals were simply a vehicle for what they craved the most: time in George Washington’s company. As New Englander Elkanah Watson declared after his 1785 visit, “To have communed with such a man in the bosom of his family, I shall always regard as one of the highest privileges, and most cherished incidents of my life.”