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# ‘Tidbits’ from the White House Cook Book
- URL: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2009/12/tidbits-from-the-white-house-cook-book/
- Published: 2009-12-25T01:59:03.000Z
- Updated: 2009-12-25T01:59:03.000Z
- Author: Cookson Beecher
- Tags: For Foodies, cook book, White House, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-25 09:53

I bought the 1887 White House Cook Book at a yard sale and enjoy opening it up every Christmas to see how much things have changed through the years. Here are a few “tidbits” from the 1887 edition:

[![Cleveland White House Tidbits.png](http://www.foodsafetynews.com/assets_c/2009/12/Cleveland%20White%20House%20Tidbits-thumb-250x405-904.png)](http://www.foodsafetynews.com/Cleveland%20White%20House%20Tidbits.png)

****Medicinal food**

Spinach has a direct effect upon complaints of the kidneys; the common dandelion, used as greens, is excellent for the same trouble; asparagus purifies the blood; celery acts admirably upon the nervous system, and is a cure for rheumatism and neuralgia; tomatoes act upon the liver; beets and turnips are excellent appetizers; lettuce and cucumbers are cooling in their effects upon the system; beans are a very nutritious and strengthening vegetable; while onions, garlic, leeks, chives and shallots, all of which are similar, possess medicinal virtues of a marked character, stimulating the circulatory system, and the consequent increase of the saliva and the gastric juice promoting digestion. Red onions are an excellent diuretic, and the white ones are recommended raw as a remedy for insomnia. They are tonic, nutritious. A soup made from onions is regarded by the French as an excellent restorative in debility of the digestive organs.We might go through the entire list and find each vegetable possessing its especial mission of cure, and it will be plain to every housekeeper that a vegetable diet should be partly adopted, and will prove of great advantage to the health of the family.

**White House Cook Book’s**  
**Menus for Christmas day**

**Breakfast**  
Oranges  
Boiled rice  
Broiled salt mackerel  
Poached eggs a la creme  
Potato fillets  
Feather griddle cakes  
Wheat bread  
Coffee

**Dinner**  
Oysters on half shell  
Game soup  
Boiled white fish  
Sauce maitre d’hotel  
Roast goose  
Apple Sauce  
Boiled potatoes  
Mashed turnips  
Creamed parsnips  
Stewed onions  
Boiled rice  
Lobster salad  
Canvas-back duck  
Christmas plum pudding, sauce  
Vanilla ice cream  
Mince pie  
Orange jelly  
Delicate cake  
Salted almonds  
Confectionary  
Fruits  
Coffee

**Supper**  
Cold roast goose  
Oyster patties  
Cold slaw  
Buns  
Charlotte Russe  
Peach jelly  
Tea