At the table with
Harry S. Truman.

THE HISTORICAL TABLE

Truman wrote down his own dinner

In his diary for 3 January 1952, Truman described a daily pattern that included fruit, egg and bacon at breakfast, and steak, vegetables and fruit ice in the evening. His own record is a better starting point than a menu assembled from presidential stereotypes.

Our steak belongs to that recorded pattern. The apple-and-walnut pudding comes through Bess Truman’s widely circulated Ozark pudding tradition, giving the menu a family dessert connection as well. One is the president’s account of a meal; the other is a household recipe tradition.