George Washington's Favorite Breakfast Food

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and per the Cleveland Clinic, registered dietitian Beth Czerwony, RD concurs. Czerwony asks, "Would you start a long road trip in your car with the tank on empty?" Fair point. But regardless of where breakfast falls into the pecking order of importance, the foods eaten in the early hours of the day are also some of the dishes that are most beloved. Bacon and eggs, pancakes dripping in a pool of syrup, or a good old-fashioned frosted doughnut can get the engines going. 

Even Presidents of the United States have liked breakfast, because, let's face it, leading the free world is not easy to do on an empty stomach. Food.com shares that the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was said to be fond of waffles to get his day started. And, per CBS News, Theodore Roosevelt was a huge fan of coffee. It was even rumored Roosevelt drank 40 cups a day. And while that caffeinated stat has not been definitively confirmed, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin shared Roosevelt gets full credit for the Maxwell House slogan, "Good to the very last drop." And then there's President Harry Truman who, according to the Harry S. Truman Little White House, at the advice of his doctors, commenced his day with a shot of bourbon, followed by a glass of OJ. 

But our first U.S. President, George Washington, liked one breakfast food for a very specific reason.

According to PBS, George Washington was a fan of the hoecakes or Johnny cakes, as they were often called. The news site reveals Washington had dentures so he tended to stick to foods that were soft. Hoecakes are traditionally made out of cornmeal, according to his Mount Vernon estate website, and fried to golden perfection on a hoe, which is another word for "griddle."

The Spruce Eats shares that these fried flatbread corn cakes and their origin can be traced to "Jamaica and parts of the Eastern Caribbean," where they were served up alongside some "sautéed salt fish." Hoecakes also go by the name "journey cakes" because one theory suggests they were portable and easy to eat on long journeys.

Per Slate, these "dense" little cakes, at their most basic, are made with three simple ingredients: cornmeal, oil, and salt. Hoecakes may look like a pancake at first glance, but don't be fooled. Hoecakes lack the fluffiness that is a hallmark of this breakfast food. Mount Vernon goes on to note, Washington ate his hoecakes with butter and honey and polished them off with a spot of tea.