As described in my previous post, I'm trying some recipes from The First Ladies Cookbook. Are you waiting with baited breath? Hayes triumphed over Jefferson in my roast beef conundrum. Weird, I know. I'm fairly certain Jefferson normally trumps Hayes in any category (pesky slave owning aside) and clearly Jefferson could give all of his presidential cohorts a run for their money foodwise. Half the people in this country (this may be a generous estimate) probably wouldn't be able to name Hayes as a president, and when he is remembered, I'm pretty certain it's not as a foodie. Whereas Jefferson is famous for his devotion to the culinary... However, I'm feeling distinctly lazy and Lucy Hayes' recipe looks easier. Also, this is about first ladies right? Jefferson didn't even have a first lady, so Lucy Hayes would triumph by default in a Hayes/Jefferson first lady smackdown.

So roast beef ala Hayes it is. Because I'm feeling lazy, the aforementioned potato puffs will have to wait for later. Roasted potatoes will do.

Life is full of hidden challenges. I choose a seemingly unchallenging recipe only to feel the cold snap of Lucy Hayes' teeth on my Achilles tendon. Let's get down to brass tacks: restraint is not one of my more evident qualities as a cook. Although I have learned that moderation in spicing can be a good thing, I tend to make up for any (modest) restraint in that area by using tons of flavorful ingredients: garlic, leeks, scallions, wine, capers, olive oil, Parmesan, bacon grease, chicken stock. Did I mention bacon I rarely cook anything that has fewer than eight ingredients. The ingredients for Lucy Hayes' roast beef? Four. Flour, beef, salt, and pepper. Five if you count hot water.

The bland recipe seems fairly in keeping with the Hayes white house. Although Lucy Hayes was the first college graduate first lady, she wasn't exactly a firecracker. The chapter on the Hayes white house is peppered with phrases such as: "Virtue became fashionable, and Lucy was hailed as its defender", "Then to the blue room for family prayers", and "Every night the family gathered in the Red Room to sing old ballads, hymns, and Stephen Foster songs". Lucy became known as "lemonade Lucy" because the Hayes White House had a strict ban on alcohol.

A number of ingredients spring to mind as I ready the roast. Ingredients I have around that really would add to the recipe...Perhaps a sprinkle of smoked paprika? Some fresh rosemary? Leeks couldn't possibly hurt...Do I really have to put hot water in the bottom of the pan? Wouldn't stock or wine be better?

I heat the oven to 450 degrees. For some reason it has never occurred to me to cook a roast at this high of heat. At first I want to consult other recipes, but as I think about it, it begins to make sense. Steaks are good cooked at high heat for short periods of time, after all. Speaking of short periods of time, the recipe claims that a roast this size (3.5 lbs) should be done in 45 minutes, which seems impossible. I am used to making pot roast, which takes all day.

I resist the temptation to add any spices or additional ingredients and dump the floured and salted lump into a pan, ringed only by the potatoes I'm roasting. I do cheat a little and add a splash of wine, my rationalization being this: Lucy and Rutherford B. were teetotalers, so of course it wouldn't occur to them to add wine to a recipe. But probably anyone else cooking this recipe at that time would have added wine as a matter of course, right? Jefferson's recipe calls for wine. I can't be a slave to their inhibitions. Also, I don't want the potatoes to be too dry...

After 45 minutes, I check the roast. It smells good and the outside sizzles crispy, but I am still suspicious of the timing. I like rare (read: raw) meat myself, but my roommate Cornelius (purchaser of said roast) eschews bloody beef. I plunge the meat thermometer into the roast, and the arrow doesn't waver. According to the thermometer, the meat doesn't even qualify as rare yet. I cook until I get a rare reading, another 45 minutes.

And the results? The roast, like the Hayes administration, is unremarkable. It's tender and juicy enough and doesn't seem to suffer terribly from the lack of spices. However, truth be told, the extremities are overdone. I should have listened to Lucy Hayes.

Two of my great obsessions, cooking and presidential history, collide in the remarkable The First Ladies Cook Book: Favorite Recipes of All the Presidents of the United States, which was published in 1969. A wedding gift from a dear friend of mine, the book is satisfying in so many ways. The aesthetic is very much a product of the era: saturated color prints amp the surreal kitsch of White House interiors, and the photographs of food are reminiscent of old Betty Crocker cookbooks: lurid, glistening roasts flanked by sinister jell-o molds. Nonetheless, the historical research is sound and the book is reasonably well-written. Though as far as I can tell, the most interesting thing about Rutherford and Lucy Hayes was their taste in china patterns (amazing paintings of American flora and fauna, particularly the excellent plates featuring bucks poised in a majestic tableau). But then there's juicier fare: Theodore Roosevelt, for example, was fond of whole suckling pigs. Are you surprised? Perusing the volume is a pleasure and offers piquant lines: "for the stuffing, simmer heart and liver together";"Mrs. (John Quincey) Adams received her guests resplendent in a gown of steel-colored llama cloth with cut steel ornamentation"; "these feet must be well boiled the day before they are wanted"; and the following quote from poor, doomed James Garfield, "It was a pleasant relief from the monotony of the White House to get out for an evening."

Today I will be attempting my first recipe from the book. I would, of course, gravitate toward Abigail Adams, but the main recipe in her chapter is salmon stuffed with oysters, which seems a bit fancy for a Tuesday night with no guests, and also requires you to 'lard the fish with skinned eel', whatever that means. I happen to have a roast on hand, so it's either Jefferson's Boeuf a la Mode (Jefferson is, of course, one of my presidential obsessions, and the recipe involves bacon) or Hayes' Roast Beef with Potato Puffs (the roast recipe sounds easy and the potato puffs sound delicious). Updates pending.