Martha Washington’s Sourdough Bread

This week, February 19–27, 2022 #RealBreadWeek returns worldwide with a celebration of additive-free REAL™ Sourdough and yeast bread, and the people who make and bake that kind of bread. Because this celebration always coincides with George Washington’s (the USA’s first President) Birthday, we think it would be fun to go back in time to use his wife’s #REALbread recipe, which we found in Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery and Booke of Sweetmeats; it seems, she recorded hundreds of handwritten recipes.

The USA’s first First Lady hosted many guests at the President’s House in Philadelphia, which was the location of our nation’s first capital in 1790. There obviously were enormous pressures on her kitchen as she hosted members of Congress and foreign dignitaries, but she was not alone in her kitchen since the Washingtons had brought several enslaved people with them.

However, they did hire a cook, with whom they quickly became unhappy. So Washington sent for one of his Mount Vernon slaves, Hercules Posey, who was prized for his culinary skills, to cook in the presidential household.

And as a tribute to Posey for Black History Month, this recollection from Washington’s step-grandson George Washington Parke Custis:

“Hercules’ cooking was very much loved in the Washington household, [where he] was ‘familiarly termed Uncle Harkless,’ …Custis described Posey as “a celebrated artiste . . . as highly accomplished a proficient in the culinary art as could be found in the United States.”  

According to Custis, Hercules Posey earned ‘one to two hundred dollars a year,’ by selling leftovers, known as slops, from the presidential kitchen. [This allowed Hercules to buy fine clothing which lead to him becoming a much] ‘celebrated dandy,’ [and] in the words of Custis, “…the chef kept an equally meticulous kitchen: Under his iron discipline, wo[e] to his underlings if speck or spot could be discovered on the tables or dressers, or if the utensils did not shine like polished silver.'”

The Fred W. Smith National LIbrary for the Study of George Wshington at Mount Vernon

While Hercules may not have been the daily baker, as their chef he certainly met with Martha Washington to work out menus and the daily work schedule. Martha’s role may have been supervisory, but lucky for us, she recorded many handwritten recipes (see the image of her actual recipe book below).

Many of her recipes were passed along as gifts for newlywed family members and eventually popularized in the latter part of the 18th century as one of America’s first recipe books. Calling her recipes, receipts, here is her “receipt” for six loaves of real, whole-grain white bread, likely leavened with sourdough: