Harry Truman's Hilarious Reason For Eating Steak Only Well Done

Harry Truman may be best known as the 33rd President of the United States, but President Truman also had some interesting food habits that really centered around habit. According to My Recipes, the leader of the free world always started his day with a bourbon. No one knows why. (Maybe it made all those meetings on his calendar more tolerable?) But Truman was definitely a person who liked consistency. Poppy Cannon and Patricia Brooks wrote in their book "The Presidents' Cookbook: Practical Recipes from George Washington to the Present," "The President's breakfast menu remained nearly constant: orange juice, grapefruit, or tomato juice; hot cereal in winter and cold cereal other times; whole-wheat toast and milk — sometimes buttermilk."

Truman also was a fan of steak for dinner, as evidenced by a letter housed at the Truman Library and dated January 3, 1952, in which he wrote, "For dinner I have a fruit cup, steak, a couple of non-fattening vegetables and an ice, orange, pineapple or raspberry for dinner. So — I maintain my waist line and can wear suits bought in 1935!" A man after our own heart, but did you know that Truman would only ever eat steak that was cooked well-done? His hilarious reasoning is worthy of laughing out loud. 

Per "Talking with Harry: Candid Conversations with President Harry Truman," Truman once famously quipped, "Only coyotes and predatory animals eat raw beef." Makes sense to us. But Truman is not the only U.S. president who favored this cut of beef cooked well-done. President Donald Trump, according to Business Insider, also prefers his steak without any red or pink showing, and in addition, enjoys his New York strip with ketchup. Other presidents who liked their steaks cooked well-done include Ronald Reagan, who needed a side of chili, and Ulysses S. Grant, who apparently did not like the sight of animal blood. 

Still, there are plenty of presidents who reportedly liked their steaks cooked anywhere from medium rare to a little more in line with the French steak tartare. Dwight D. Eisenhower was said to be a fan of a rare cooked steak, while President Carter liked his cooked medium-rare, with a side of cornbread, while in the White House. And President Obama is said to have taken a more moderate approach to this cut of beef, preferring his steak cooked medium well.