The White House Thanksgiving In 1887: The Interesting Foods We Don't See Today

President Stephen Grover Cleveland was in office, new Sherlock Holmes novels were being published, and some of the steakhouses now known as the oldest in the United States were just getting started. The world in 1887 is tough to imagine, but it turns out that many of the foods people enjoyed while gathered around the Thanksgiving table weren't all that different from the holiday offerings we enjoy today. Let's take a look at the food President Cleveland and his family enjoyed during Thanksgiving in 1887, according to The White House Cookbook, including both those that will likely be on our tables this year and those that have been left behind in the 19th century.

First, the menu doesn't just spell out what's offered for Thanksgiving dinner. Rather, it details a day-long culinary event, complete with broiled porterhouse steak, codfish balls, and buckwheat cakes (similar to hoecakes, a favorite of George Washington) with maple syrup for breakfast. For supper (a lighter, pre-dinner meal), cold turkey was served, alongside scalloped oysters topped with finely ground cracker crumbs, potato salad (simply made of cold boiled potatoes, raw onions, and dressing), eclairs, and tea. The main event — dinner — kicked off with even more oysters, fried smelts (you can eat the bones), roast turkey, mashed potatoes, chicken salad, and a venison pie (chefs were instructed to "cover the pie with a thick lid of paste and ornament it handsomely with leaves and flowers formed with a tin cutter," per the cookbook).

White House chefs took dessert seriously back in the day. In addition to the holiday standard of pumpkin pie and coffee, there were tons of other options to choose from. The White House Cookbook includes a super-detailed recipe for a Charlotte Russe, an intricate dessert that consisted of stale sponge cake soaked in whipped cream, powdered sugar, vanilla, and gelatin, surrounded by ladyfingers. The cookbook offers several variations on the dessert, including an economical version that uses a mock custard and a burnt almond version that requires the chef to stir a water, sugar, gelatin, and almond mixture over a fire. Almond ice cream was another offering on the White House's 1887 Thanksgiving dessert menu. The recipe instructs chefs to pound both bitter and sweet almonds with standard ice cream ingredients, as well as orange flower water, before boiling and freezing. 

The gelatin-infused desserts didn't end there. After all, gelatin once represented power and status, so it makes sense that it would be infused into a variety of White House Thanksgiving offerings. Lemon jelly, another selection on the dessert menu, required chefs to simmer the feet of four calves for several hours before adding sugar, wine, and lemons. The final product was strained through a flannel cloth. While you likely won't add calves'-feet-lemon-jelly to your Thanksgiving menu, including some of the other 1887 White House Thanksgiving items, like almond ice cream, is a fun way to enjoy super-old-school traditions.