President Andrew Jackson is elected as a man of the people. Yet he has the food and wine tastes of an aristocrat. The president rises at dawn and enjoys a breakfast of coffee, chicken hash, hot waffles, and blackberry jam. But it is the evening meal that shows the dichotomy in Jackson’s food preferences. His favorite dish is something called “leather britches”—green beans cooked in bacon fat. He also enjoys fried ham, gravy, apple pie, and a country dish known as Old Hickory soup, made from nuts, hot water, and sugar.
