When Mary Todd Lincoln moved into the White House in 1861, she brought her favorite cookbook, Miss Leslie’s Complete Cookery (1853) by Eliza Leslie, with her. The First Lady was an accomplished cook and a fervent believer in the “nourishing” power of sugar, and Abraham Lincoln was quite fond of apples—the President was known to devour the fruit, core and all, with a glass of cold milk as a light lunch—so she likely treated him to the book’s apple bread pudding.
Along with Pippins or Bellflowers (tart apple varieties), Leslie called for bread
