Abraham Lincoln
Corn pone & buttery cabbage
Fine cornmeal binds more readily than coarse polenta; the dough should be soft enough to shape with damp hands.
THE HISTORICAL TABLE
Corn pone, cabbage and a taste for ginger
Family or White House traditionWhite House accounts of cook Cornelia Mitchell connect Lincoln with corn pone and cabbage. National Park Service research also traces his enthusiasm for gingerbread and ginger crackers. These simple foods offer a more personal route to his table than the elaborate menus served on state occasions.
Cornmeal and cabbage make the savoury centre of this menu. The ginger cookies are a soft modern interpretation of the ginger tradition. Almond cake remains as a separate Mary Lincoln family tradition, with its household association kept distinct from the better-attested everyday foods.
Behind this story
White House Historical Association on Cornelia Mitchell; National Park Service on Lincoln’s gingerbread; Lincoln family cake tradition.
