Richard Nixon's Favorite Home-Cooked Meal Was A Comforting Classic

President Richard M. Nixon's consumption of cottage cheese (with or without ketchup) became famous while he was in office. In "The White House Family Cookbook," presidential executive chef Henry Haller wrote that Americans were fascinated by his food choices in general, well beyond cottage cheese. At some point, word got around that President Nixon especially enjoyed the home-cooked meatloaf made by his wife, First Lady Pat Nixon — so much so that Haller made sure to serve it at least once a month during the Nixons' years in the White House. So many people contacted the White House to get the recipe that the staff had it printed on official stationery in order to quickly reply to requests. Eventually, the recipe found its way into the newspapers, and the rest is meatloaf history.

Throughout his political career, Nixon stressed his humble beginnings as the son of a California grocery store owner who had to work before and after school in the family store. His wife also worked to support herself and earn a college degree. Perhaps that's part of why they both liked to eat simple meals — including meatloaf.

Interestingly, the Nixon meatloaf recipe mailed out by White House staffers has fewer ingredients than the recipe Haller features in his cookbook. The original includes breadcrumbs, whipping cream, tomato sauce, parsley, and seasoning salt in addition to the standard ground beef, egg, salt, pepper, and tomato sauce topping. Haller's recipe for "Pat Nixon's Meatloaf" calls for sauteed onion and garlic, bread soaked in milk, dried thyme, and dried marjoram as well as the original parsley, ground beef, and eggs. Haller leaves out the whipping cream, seasoning salt, breadcrumbs, and tomato sauce in the meatloaf itself. He then uses tomato puree for the topping, adding breadcrumbs for texture and crunch.

Why this change happened is lost to history, but it proves something about meatloaf. There are many delicious ways to make this comforting classic, including stuffing it with hard-boiled eggs, lightening it up by swapping ground turkey for beef, and even creating a vegetarian mushroom "meat" loaf. Any way you make it, it's good enough to grace the presidential table, and it deserves a place on yours.