President Washington Orders Dinner Dressings and Ice Cream for Entertaining at the Executive Mansion in New York, 1790

At the dinners were John Adams, John Jay and Thomas Jefferson, among many other notables

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Signed by the first man to sell “ice cream” in the United States, and thus an important piece of American culinary history

The new republic was still small, so it was easy for Washington to have meaningful interaction with the leaders of the day at his own table. And on Thursday evenings,...

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President Washington Orders Dinner Dressings and Ice Cream for Entertaining at the Executive Mansion in New York, 1790

At the dinners were John Adams, John Jay and Thomas Jefferson, among many other notables

Signed by the first man to sell “ice cream” in the United States, and thus an important piece of American culinary history

The new republic was still small, so it was easy for Washington to have meaningful interaction with the leaders of the day at his own table. And on Thursday evenings, the brightest minds in the nation came to dine with him.

At the time of Washington’s fist term, the nation’s capital was still in New York City, so these dinners were held in executive mansions in lower Manhattan, close to where the other governmental offices were located. And while Washington entertained foreign dignitaries and other heads of state at public receptions on Tuesdays and Martha Washington regularly invited guests to their home on Fridays, Thursday evenings were reserved for formal dinners with congressional leaders, their wives and close personal friends of the Washingtons.

By all accounts, these dinners were elaborate affairs. They started promptly at 4 p.m., as the president refused to wait for latecomers. Parties numbering up to two dozen people might gather at the table, which was set with the Washington family silver and china. Martha sat at the middle of one side of the long table, with the president across from her, and a secretary at either end to help with both conversation and roast carving.

After eating, Washington would raise a toast to the assembly, and then the ladies would retire to Martha’s drawing room for coffee and civilized conversation. The gentlemen would remain in the dining room, lingering over cigars and wine, but not for long: The President only stayed another quarter hour or so before he, too, left for the drawing room.

In July 1782, George Washington probably first ate ice cream at a party in Philadelphia given by Monsieur de la Luzerne, the French minister, in honor of the birth of the Dauphin of France. An entry in Washington’s ledger reveals that he bought “a cream machine for ice” two years later, while he was in Philadelphia, attending a meeting of the Society of Cincinnati. His Philadelphia household account book noted the purchase of an ice cream serving spoon in 1796. A room-by-room inventory at Mount Vernon, taken shortly after Washington’s death, listed two pewter and eight tin ice cream pots among the kitchen equipment. Washington ate ice cream at a dinner given by Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, wife of the secretary of the treasury, in 1789. That same year, he attended a ball at the Count de Moustier’s home, where the refreshment table was laden with apples, oranges, cakes, and ice creams. While the federal government was temporarily headquartered in New York City, the Washingtons reportedly ordered more than $200 worth of ice cream from a local confectioner. They served ice cream to their guests, which probably accounts for the large amount spent on it. The Washingtons borrowed the custom of the levee, a large afternoon assembly or reception, from the British court. At a typical Washington levee, the refreshments were simple: ice cream, cake, lemonade, tea, and coffee. Martha Washington’s nephew described a reception at the President’s home while the couple was residing in Philadelphia. “Refreshments were handed round by servants in livery; and about that period first appeared the luxury, not so universal, of ice cream,” he recalled.

Joseph Corre was a well known city merchant and host who ran City Tavern for a period and then left to found his own hostelry – the first time the word “hotel” appeared on this side of the Atlantic. He was a confectioner, and an early vendor of ice cream, among the nation’s first, operating out of Hanover Square in New York beginning in 1779. In 1781, he became the first to advertise his product using the word “ice cream.”

Autograph document signed, Joseph Corre, New York, beginning April 15, 1790 (a Thursday), dated July 7, “provided for the President household by Joseph Corre.” It lists the acquisitions of the household and dates, including how much each cost. Among the purchases from the President’s household: macaroni, almonds, ice cream on 4 separate occasions, and tea. Many of the dates listed are Thursdays.

The document notes that the President’s household purchased “dinner drest,” or cloth for tables and such on the 15th of April, when John and Abigail Adams, John Jay, and Thomas Jefferson dined with him. The same purchase occurred on the 29th, when Washington entertained a number of senators. Silked.

This document was last sold by Walter Benjamin in 1951. It provides a fascinating and detailed view of the entertaining done by the Washingtons, and in the hand of Corre, is an important piece of American culinary history.

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