Dinner Menu

Instructions:
Read and analyze the source by completing the Analysis Routine below. When you have finished, select the BACK TO DINING ROOM button to explore the other sources provided.

Menu for Dinner - Summer at Mount Vernon, 1797

Based, in part, from a diary entry by Mount Vernon guest Amariah Frost who visited on June 16, 1797.

1st course

Small Roasted Pig
Boiled Leg of Lamb
Roasted Fowles (bird)
Beef
Peas
Lettuce
Cucumbers
Artichokes
Bread

2nd course

Crèmes
Tarts
Iced Creams
Fresh plums and pears
Dried fruits and nuts

A historian created this menu of food served at a summer dinner at Mount Vernon based on many sources. Recorded dinner descriptions from guests were used to create this meal. A meal like this would have been served to the Washington family and their guests. Selected foods for the dinner not only fed the guests. It also showcased the large amount of food produced at Mount Vernon and the ingredients brought from distant places.

Complete the Analysis Routine

1. How many courses are in this meal? Describe one of the courses. Use as many adjectives as you can to express what you think the food was like to eat. An adjective is a word that describes a noun or a pronoun.

2. Why do you think a guest of the Washingtons, such as Abigail Adams or Amariah Frost, would write a detailed description about what they were served to eat?

3. List the people that you know about who grew, prepared, and served the food to the guests in the Washingtons’ Dining Room.

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