What Was George Washington’s Favorite Food? A Look Inside His

Hoe cakes paired with fresh shad from the Potomac is the answer his own letters, ledgers, and household accounts support most clearly. The simple cornmeal pancake and the spring fish run appear together in his writings more often than any other dish, and Martha Washington’s recipe collection preserves hoe cakes alongside the salt cod and string beans that filled out his everyday table.

This article explores how a Virginia planter’s upbringing, his Potomac fisheries, and Martha’s recipe collection shaped Washington’s everyday table, and which dishes his own letters say he could not abide.

The Setting That Shaped Washington’s Appetite

Eighteenth-century Virginia tidewater planters sat near the top of the colonial food chain, and Washington owned roughly 8,000 acres at Mount Vernon by the 1790s. He ran five working farms along the Potomac, each with its own fields, gardens, and fishing access, which produced a steady surplus of beef, pork, corn, wheat, vegetables, and freshwater fish.

A Tidewater Table Versus the Average Colonial Household

Most colonial families ate salt pork, beans, cornbread, and whatever a small kitchen garden could supply. Washington’s table ran to imported cheese, Madeira wine, salt cod shipped from New England, and fresh oysters hauled from the Potomac on a near-daily basis. A letter from his manager recorded 365 pounds of butter and 175 pounds of lard delivered in a single year, figures that dwarfed what a typical yeoman farmer ever set aside.

The Agricultural Rhythm of Mount Vernon

Spring brought shad and herring running up the Potomac. Summer filled the kitchen with peas, beans, cucumbers, and the first ripe corn. Autumn meant hog-killing season, hams curing in the smokehouse, and bushels of apples pressed into cider. Winter turned the menu toward salt fish, preserved meats, and stored root vegetables.

Enslaved Cooks Who Shaped the Daily Menu

Hercules, Washington’s longtime chef, ran the Mount Vernon kitchen for more than two decades and was widely regarded as one of the finest cooks in early America. He supervised a team of enslaved cooks and kitchen workers who turned local ingredients into formal meals, daily dinners, and dishes for traveling guests. The richness of Washington’s food life rested on their skill and their labor, a fact any honest account of his table has to name.

Those enslaved cooks also produced the everyday foods Washington sought out again and again, even as his tastes grew broader.

Hoe Cakes and Fish: The Foods Washington Returned To

Hoe cakes and fish from the Potomac appear in Washington’s own writings more often than any other foods, with the simple cornmeal pancake fried on a griddle or a hoe over an open fire showing up repeatedly across his papers. He asked for them, mentioned them by name, and his household bought the ingredients in quantities that suggest regular use.

Why Hoe Cakes Appear So Often

Washington mentioned hoe cakes approvingly in several letters and household records, once writing that he preferred the plain cornmeal cakes over more elaborate breads. They cost little, cooked fast, and paired naturally with butter, honey, or salt fish. Martha Washington made them for him, and they appear in her recipe collection alongside the other dishes tied to his daily table.

Fish and Shellfish From the Potomac

Shad, herring, rockfish, and perch ran in the Potomac each spring, and oysters came up from the riverbeds year-round. Washington’s ledgers record regular purchases for both the mansion and the outlying farms, and his diary names specific catches served at dinner. In season, fresh fish showed up at nearly every formal meal at Mount Vernon, and Washington noted when the first shad of the year arrived.

Letters and Ledgers as Evidence

Household ledgers, farm reports, and personal correspondence preserve the clearest record of Washington’s daily meals, logging purchases, guests, and table preparations in exacting detail. His letters to farm managers, his wartime camp diaries, and the surviving Mount Vernon accounts all name specific dishes and food purchases. That paper trail separates documented preference from the folk stories that swirl around his reputation.

The recipe book itself fills in the picture those ledgers leave incomplete.

The Dishes Martha Washington’s Recipe Book Preserves

Martha Washington’s hand-copied “Booke of Cookery” survives at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and offers a working catalog of what the household actually cooked. The recipes cover preserves, cakes, soups, meat dishes, and puddings, and many match the foods Washington mentions elsewhere in his papers.

What the ‘Booke of Cookery’ Tells Us

The recipes lean heavily on English tradition adapted to Virginia ingredients. Preserved fruits, spiced meats, rich puddings, and sweet cakes fill its pages. Several recipes for string beans with mushrooms, “Haitian” soup (a rich okra-and-tomato dish), and almond cakes point to dishes that historians link directly to Washington’s table.

Recipes for Puddings, Soups, and Meats

Specific recipes historians regularly connect to Washington’s preferences include:

• ▸Pudding before meat – A Yorkshire-style baked pudding that appeared at formal dinners.
• ▸String beans with mushrooms – A simple vegetable side still common in Virginia homes.
• ▸Haitian soup – An okra-and-tomato soup reflecting Caribbean and Southern influences.
• ▸Almond cakes – Small sweet cakes baked for guests and family.
• ▸Salt cod preparations – Dried cod soaked, then fried or boiled, a winter staple.

How Martha’s Preferences Blended With Washington’s

Martha came from a Virginia family with deep roots in English cooking, and her recipes shaped much of what the household served. Washington’s own tastes, recorded in his letters, often matched what she cooked rather than the reverse, a quiet partnership rather than a tug of war. Together they produced a table that was both regional and refined.

Yet Martha’s contributions were additions to his table, not substitutions for the foods he quietly disliked.

Foods Washington Documented Disliking or Avoiding

Washington named foods he did not want in his letters and household notes, and those few aversions sharpen the picture of what he actually preferred.

Sauerkraut, Rabbits, and Other Noted Aversions

Washington wrote at one point that he had “no inclination” for sauerkraut, a surprising note for a man who served alongside German troops who swore by the dish. He also occasionally objected to rabbit prepared a certain way, and his household accounts show that guests were more often served rabbit than the family itself was. These dislikes sat alongside a generally adventurous appetite.

Tolerated Foods Versus Requested Foods

A useful distinction runs through Washington’s records. Some foods he tolerated when served to guests; others he actively requested for himself. The first list is longer because hospitality and politics demanded a varied menu; the second list is shorter and far more revealing of personal taste.

Why Hospitality Often Overrode Preference

Once Washington became president, formal dinners in New York and Philadelphia required French-trained chefs and elaborate service. Dolley Madison later refined that tradition, but Washington set the baseline of serving guests what they expected rather than what he personally craved. His personal preferences read best from Mount Vernon records, not from presidential menus.

From Mount Vernon to the President’s House

Washington’s eating habits traveled with him to New York and then to Philadelphia during his presidency, but the core preferences held. Wherever he dined, hoe cakes, fresh fish in season, and simple country preparations stayed on his private table.

Carrying His Habits Into the Presidency

During his two terms, Washington occasionally asked his household staff to prepare country-style dishes alongside the formal menus required for state dinners. His wartime habit of eating whatever was available without complaint carried forward. At home in Mount Vernon after 1797, he returned immediately to his old patterns.

Modern Equivalents of Washington’s Favorites

Most of Washington’s favorite foods still appear on American tables in some form:

• ▸Hoe cakes – Modern johnnycakes or cornbread pancakes, common in New England and the South.
• ▸Shad and herring – Still eaten in the Chesapeake and along the Atlantic coast in spring.
• ▸String beans with mushrooms – A standard Southern side dish today.
• ▸Salt cod – Still eaten in New England and among Portuguese and Caribbean communities.
• ▸Haitian soup – Echoed in modern okra-and-tomato soups across the South.

The Clearest Verdict the Evidence Supports

If a single dish has to be named, hoe cakes paired with fresh fish is the most consistently documented personal favorite. Washington praised hoe cakes in writing, ate them often, and combined them with the seasonal fish from his own river. That pair, simple, regional, and repeatedly named across decades, is the closest the historical record comes to a definitive answer about what did George Washington like to eat most.

Why These Choices Still Matter

Washington’s table opens a window into the man that no portrait can match. The foods he loved, the foods he avoided, and the labor that produced them together sketch a life grounded in land, season, and enslaved skill. The honesty of the picture comes from the sources themselves: letters, ledgers, and recipes that survive because someone wrote them down at the time.

What the Table Tells Us About Wealth and Power

A wealthy tidewater planter ate differently from a backcountry farmer, and Washington sat at the very top of that range. His menu reflects the plantation economy, the reach of Atlantic trade, and the enslaved labor that made abundance possible. Reading his food history honestly requires holding all three of those facts together.

Separating Documented Preference From Myth

Cherry tree stories and folk legends have shaped Washington’s public image more than his actual habits. His documented food preferences, drawn from letters and accounts, tell a more grounded story than the myths ever have. Foods George Washington ate at Mount Vernon were simple, seasonal, and tied to the land he managed.

Where to Explore Further

• ▸Mount Vernon’s archives – Original ledgers and farm reports.
• ▸Martha’s Booke of Cookery – Held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
• ▸The Writings of George Washington – The University of Virginia edition of his papers.
• ▸Mary Randolph’s “The Virginia House-Wife” – A related cookbook of the era.

The Big Picture

Strip away the cherry tree legend and the marble statues, and Washington’s real food story is plain: he liked simple cornmeal cakes, fresh river fish, salt cod in winter, and the vegetables his own garden produced. The richest evidence sits in his letters and ledgers, where the same dishes appear over and over across decades. That repetition is the answer, and it is more satisfying than any myth.

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