James Madison
Broiled ham with buttered toast
Use fully cooked ham steaks; uncooked cured pork needs a different cooking method.
A central figure in the making of the Constitution and the fourth president.
Family or White House tradition
Dolley Madison’s culinary tradition includes gingerbread. Molasses and ginger give this modern butter-based cake its dark crumb and warming flavour, baked in a small home tin.
The president & the table
Accounts of James and Dolley Madison’s household describe breakfast around nine: ham or salt fish, bread and butter, and coffee or tea. Their coffee habit continued in the White House. It is a useful reminder that a famous hostess’s table also had a daily working rhythm.
Behind this story
Madison household breakfast accounts and Dolley Madison culinary tradition.