February 19, 2024
Introduction: In this article – to help celebrate Washington’s birthday on today, Presidents’ Day – Gena Philibert-Ortega provides recipes for you to prepare something special for family and friends. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.”
Presidents’ Day honors both the first and the 16th presidents of the United States, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. But officially it is Washington’s Birthday.
According to Wikipedia:
George Washington was born on 22 February 1732. Washington’s Birthday was celebrated on this date from 1879 until 1970. To give federal employees a three-day weekend, in 1968 the Uniform Monday Holiday Act moved it to the third Monday in February. The day soon became known as Presidents(’) Day (the presence and placement of the apostrophe varies) and provides an occasion to remember all the U.S. presidents, to honor Abraham Lincoln’s [Feb. 12] and Washington’s birthdays together, or any single president of choice.
In decades past, that day was not just an excuse for a three-day weekend (it wasn’t always celebrated on a Monday). It meant celebrating Washington’s birthday like any birthday: with food. Reading historical newspapers gives you some ideas about what kinds of food to cook for a presidential celebration.
Pies
I assumed that every recipe for Washington’s birthday would be cherry-based, and some were. It makes sense that Washington’s birthday means newspaper recipes for cherry pie since the president and cherries are eternally linked.
This 1962 “old-fashioned” cherry pie recipe includes 3 cups of canned cherries, cherry juice, and red food coloring (which doesn’t seem that old fashioned). You could make this pie recipe today and use a premade pie crust. If you aren’t concerned about having a red colored pie, you could skip the food coloring.
This 1941 newspaper article suggests a traditional cherry pie and adds a suggestion for a cottage cheese lattice top crust. The pie recipe is surrounded by an article about National Turkey Day on February 22nd and the suggestion to cook turkey along with the cherry pie to celebrate Washington’s birthday.
Cakes
Cakes and pies seem to be the standard recipes to serve on Washinton’s birthday. This cake from 1956 is a little more interesting than others I found. It’s a rainbow sponge cake which in and of itself is visually interesting. Rainbow colors are a product of the various fruit fillings added to slices of the cake so that when it’s cut you see the rainbow of fruit colors. More interesting is the suggestion to decorate it with “red sugar hatchets and red cherries.” Obviously, a nod to the myth of Washington cutting down a cherry tree.
Another appropriately themed cake is the log cake recipe found in this 1946 issue of the Evening Star. A chocolate log cake (maybe even with the red hatchets) is one way to evoke Washington’s memory. In this version of a log cake, the cake is baked in a loaf pan and then trimmed to look like a log. There is a recipe for chocolate frosting, or you could use store-bought frosting.
And More Presidential Treats
Not all newspaper recipes for Washington’s birthday are pies and cakes. In some cases, I found recipes for jams and jellies! I like this 1951 Plain Dealer newspaper article because it provides some details about the celebration of the day.
This article reports:
Because this is a special day in history and tradition, it’s more than likely that homemakers will be planning parties, gala teas or luncheons and serving party foods. Of course, you will want to decorate your table with cherry blossoms, real or artificial, with sprays of brightly colored cherries, and miniature cherry trees. Cut your sandwiches or tea cookies in the shape of hatchets and use a delicious jam or jelly for spread or filler.
Keeping with that advice, the recipes listed are grape jelly and pineapple marmalade.
This 1979 Mobile Register food column provides recipes for dinner and dessert to celebrate Washington’s birthday. It suggests that one of the popular dishes in Washington’s family was Brunswick Stew. This simplified version of the stew includes cans of corn and lima beans, packaged chicken noodle soup, and a can of stewed tomatoes. For dessert is a cherry torte with multiple layers of cake and ice cream with a cherry sauce.
Celebrate Presidents’ Day with Food
Presidents’ Day is a good excuse to try something different. Historical newspapers, such as GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives, have numerous suggestions and recipes for celebrating Washington’s Birthday. To find these recipes, go to the GenealogyBank advanced search engine and type in the first name box “Washington’s Birthday.” Then in the keyword box type in the word “recipe” (without quote marks). That will help you narrow your search to recipes that were published for Washington’s Birthday.
Happy Presidents’ Day!
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Note on the header image: “Happy Presidents’ Day” with special pie. Credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html
