Food of the Prophets

March 30 in the General Conference insert. This topic was an assignment, but it was fun to write.

We have long been interested in what comes out of the mouths of the prophets, but what about what goes into them? It is intriguing to consider the lives of the Latter-day Saint prophets outside of the words they shared … their daily toil, the people and the places they loved, and their food.

It is no stretch to imagine David O. McKay loving a fresh-baked apple topped with brown sugar and cinnamon, shiny with basted caramel syrup and fragrant from the oven, as reported by Holly Farnsworth in the Worldwide Ward Cookbook. It also easy to believe that Ezra Taft Benson appreciated the bright-yellow of a tart lemon meringue pie or a heaping cup of plump fresh red raspberries. Lorenzo Snow loved Yorkshire pudding. Howard W. Hunter liked Alaskan Crab.

Spencer W. Kimball, on the other hand, filled a tall glass with milk, crumbled date-nut bread into it until it was thick, and ate it with a spoon, recalled President Thomas S. Monson. And as for the favorite food of Joseph Fielding Smith, “I observed him at our luncheon table in the temple on Thursdays, and he seemed to love sweet pickles. I hate them! I would see to it that he got the sweet pickles, and I'd take the dill pickles,” said Monson.

The favorite recipes of some of the Latter-day Saint prophets were compiled by Farnsworth in a chapter of a book called the Worldwide Ward Cookbook. Farnsworth collected most of the recipes from an old Salt Lake City 10th ward cookbook. Favorite foods are not a static decision, and the collected recipes are more speculation than fact. But the recipes do reflect the times and places in which the men lived.

Joseph Smith had Johnny Cakes. Harold B Lee had boiled raisin cake. Joseph F. Smith had custard pie. Their recipes were simple, and required mostly locally available ingredients … apples, sugar, cornmeal, and eggs, for example. As printed, none of the recipes really expound on the actual labor that probably accompanied each dish. None of the directions contain “milk the cow, separate the cream, and churn it into butter,” steps that were likely necessary for a meal during the days when each of these men lived and ate.

Monson's remarks about the prophets' favorite foods came from direct observation while serving with these men in Salt Lake City. He related brief personal glimpses as part of a September 2009 BYU devotional that bespoke his appreciation for the leaders he had known, and favorite foods were a part of who these men were. David O. McKay embodied consideration, and ate Cummings chocolates, said Monson. Gordon B. Hinckley lived the guiding principle “do your best,” and loved pie and ice cream, he said.

Perhaps it is a desire to know these men better, or to know that they had personality quirks like we do. Maybe it is an effort to be closer to them. Or maybe it is a hope that we have something in common. Whatever the reason, it is interesting to think about what the prophets chose to eat.

Which brings me to Brigham Young's Buttermilk Donuts, a recipe found in the Worldwide Ward Cookbook. The recipe was first made by Emily Partridge Young, and was a favorite with Brigham Young, according to the book. The donuts became so popular that they were sold at the ZCMI department store in Salt Lake City.

I was intrigued. Interesting enough that they were a prophet's preferred food, but the fact that they were approved (and purchased) by thousands of mercantile-seeking individuals indicated that they must have been good. And they were. The recipe certainly wasn't strictly authentic (Young didn't have paper towels or paper bags, I'm sure). But my family didn't care. Served warm from the oil, and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, we ate enough soft, bready donuts to cross the planes … well, Kansas, at least.

But really these foods tell us less about the prophets than they do about the people who loved and served them. Most of these recipes were probably prepared for the prophets by wives, mothers, friends, people who loved them and knew them well enough to make the foods they liked. After all, how much time did the prophets have for cooking? President Kimball used the refrigerator in his office to store piles of notes, said Monson.

Latter-day Saints love their prophets. Maybe that is why we are interested in their foods, because we have at least that in common with the people who prepared these dishes.