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Portrait of President and revolutionary Thomas Jefferson in front of his Monticello estate in Charlottesville, Virginia
Thomas Jefferson, one of America’s founding fathers and the third President of the United States (and second VP), was one of the most influential figures in our great nation’s history. He is often credited as the author of the Declaration of Independence and Jefferson was a man of science and education who left an indelible legacy on this nation as one of the American Revolution’s pivotal architects and through Jeffersonian architecture which remains prominent aesthetic at the University of Virginia and at Monticello, his Virginia home.
At Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s private chef was a man by the name of James Hemings. This is the man who would make all of the elaborate, extravagant, hearty, and fresh meals Thomas Jefferson would eat every day in his adult life. And in the latest Cookin’ With Congress video, Bennett Rea makes a day and night’s worth of Thomas Jefferson’s diet through James Hemings’ recipes to see what eating like Thomas Jefferson for a day would be like.
Could You Eat Thomas Jefferson’s Diet For 24 Hours?
James Hemings traveled with Thomas Jefferson to France the future 3rd President of the United States was appointed the U.S. Minister to France and while there James Hemings became the first known American to ever train as a master chef in France. At that point in history, French cuisine was everything that embodied the upper echelon of refined culture and prestige.
Thomas Jefferson is arguably the most famous Francophile in American history and his daily diet certainly reflected that in both what he ate and what he drank. Jefferson was a lover of fine wine. Historical records show that President Jefferson spent approximately $16,500 on wine during his 8 years as President between 1801 to 1809. Adjusted for inflation, that is around $250,000 that Thomas Jefferson spent on wine while in office. A cool quarter million on vino.
Jefferson was a ‘foodie‘ at the time, centuries before the term ever existed. On a day-to-day basis, Thomas Jefferson’s diet was an amalgam of French cuisine and local Virginian style dishes.
That began each day with breakfast around 11am. This was Thomas Jefferson’s simplest meal of the day and also quite a late breakfast by the standards of the day when most Americans were waking at dawn to tend to their farms and homesteads.
Thomas Jefferson’s Breakfast
A normal breakfast for Thomas Jefferson would include Coffee, Tea, Cold Ham, Hot Bread, Fried Apples, and Berries. Until now I had no idea how similarly I started my day to Jefferson as breakfast for me always includes a large serving of berries, coffee, and protein.
Noticeably absent from Thomas Jefferson’s breakfast are vegetables but he is getting a healthy serving of fruit with apples and mixed berries, all of which was grown on the grounds of his Monticello estate in Charlottesville, Virginia. Thomas Jefferson was a very wealthy man and adjusted for inflation he had a personal net worth upwards of $285 million and his Monticello estate, which can be toured today, reflected his cultural standing at the time.
Fried apples were a favorite of Thomas Jefferson’s which is a trend among U.S. President, also a favorite of Ulysses S. Grant.
Suppertime At Monticello
The next meal in Thomas Jefferson’s day was Supper which was served in late afternoon. Thomas Jefferson was not a huge carnivore. Everyone in Virginia ate Virginia Ham, and of course Jefferson indulged like he did at breakfast, but similar to Adams, Thomas Jefferson’s diet was not rooted in meat.
All of the vegetables served at Supper by Chef James Hemings were grown on the Monticello property. This Supper of Thomas Jefferson’s consists of Drunken Bread which is exactly what it sounds like, Cheesy Turnips, Okra Soup, French wine, and Madeira.
The recipe for Thomas Jefferson’s ‘Drunken Loaf’ can be found here on the Cookin’ With Congress website. It was essentially a hollowed out loaf of French bread (or sour dough), that was then filled with red wine, macaroni pasta, butter, cream, and cheese. And yes, you would feel quite tipsy after taking down the dish that was sodden with wine.
For the post-meal Madeira (fortified wine), he found a Thomas Jefferson edition Madeira from Rare Wine Company. I’ve had this before in Savannah and cannot recommend it enough if you enjoy Madeira and happen to ever see it on a menu.
Thomas Jefferson said he would (only) drink 3-4 glasses of wine at dinner. But we are still on Supper! The man is out of order here. Supper wine would be served to guests upon request but for the most part wine was reserved until dinner.
After Supper and before Dinner, Jefferson was not a big ‘snacker’ but he would go to down on a fresh tomato. Thomas Jefferson was known to eat tomatoes like apples, holding them in his hand and taking bites out versus using a knife and fork as is the modern custom.
On nights when Supper would become Dinner, Thomas Jefferson’s diet received a healthy boost of daily calories through dessert. A typical dessert for Thomas Jefferson at Monticello would consist of Snow Eggs and Vanilla Ice Cream made the Jeffersonian way, custard-based for extra richness. You can find the recipe for Thomas Jefferson’s vanilla ice cream there on the Monticello website.
The Vanilla Ice Cream recipe above is one of a handful at Monticello that were written by Thomas Jefferson himself. Primarily, Thomas Jefferson’s diet was made up of recipes from his personal chef but the ice cream was in his hand.
Dessert would also consist of ‘Snow Eggs’ and that recipe can be seen in full here on the Monticello website as well. I was not familiar with this recipe until seeing Bennett Rea make the Snow Eggs and now I’m very curious but him admitting he screwed up the recipe 9 times before getting it right is a bit daunting.
After the desserts and wine and Madeira, Thomas Jefferson would then have coffee and tea and perhaps a little more wine. Caffeine that late in the evening would not agree with many but perhaps there is some correlation to why Thomas Jefferson wouldn’t eat Breakfast until 11am and how he drank caffeine right before bed.
So what do you think, would you be able to eat Thomas Jefferson’s diet for 24 hours? What about every day for 365 days? That is a LOT of wine by any standards. And there are a lot of calories packed into that dessert. I think I could do it though. Let me know what you think down below in the comments.