John Adams
Salt pork, cabbage & potatoes
Choose a meaty cured shoulder: modern packets labelled salt pork often contain mostly fat.
THE HISTORICAL TABLE
A diary entry you can serve for dinner
Documented meal / preferenceOn 18 November 1777, John Adams recorded a meal of salt pork and cabbage, roast beef and potatoes, pudding, grog and port. The entry predates his presidency, but it gives us something more useful than a modern list of favourites: a meal he actually ate.
The combination is practical New England cooking. Cured meat supplies the broth; cabbage and potatoes turn it into a substantial dinner. Our version chooses a meaty cured shoulder and keeps the vegetables together on the plate. Apple pandowdy belongs alongside it as a regional dessert reconstruction.
Behind this story
John Adams diary, 18 November 1777; New England culinary context.
