The Steak Orders Of 12 Former Presidents Revealed

Steak orders can tell you a lot about a person. There's not any scientific basis to that statement, of course — but like star signs, it's easy to see how steak orders can correspond with certain personalities. If you like your steak rare or a perfect medium-rare, for instance, you're perhaps more of a risk taker who has a more sensitive palette. Alternatively, if you like your steak well-done, you're a traditionalist who has no time for nonsense. What's funny is that these correlations can be seen not just in your friends and family, but in those who hold the highest office in the land. Throughout history, the commanders-in-chief who have become President of the United States have demonstrated time and time again that how they like their steak tracks pretty cleanly with how they govern the country.

While some steak orders of former (or current) presidents have been well-documented, others are a little more lesser-known. We're willing to bet you didn't know too much about how Ulysses S. Grant liked his steak, or the fact that William Howard Taft would eat his for breakfast. We're also guessing that you didn't know where Theodore Roosevelt liked to eat his steak, or the reasons that Jimmy Carter had to keep his on the mild side. Get ready for a trip through presidential history, served with a side of beef.

Arkansas has a massive beef industry, with roughly 1.5 million cattle in the state. So it's little wonder that the Arkansas-born president Bill Clinton was a fan of steak. Clinton tended to reserve his steak consumption for when Hilary Clinton was out of town, according to his former White House chef Walter Scheib – but when he indulged in a hunk of beef, he went big. He went for a 24-ounce steak, and never left a single piece of food on his plate. That's an impressive appetite, huh?

As for how he liked his steak, Clinton preferred a medium-rare cook, which was to be served straight off the grill at its highest heat. Scheib served this steak alongside onion rings, which were also to be served hot, and a béarnaise sauce. Interestingly, though, while Clinton was a fan of red meat while he was in the White House, he later went through a change of heart. "I've stopped eating meat, cheese, milk, even fish. No dairy at all," he revealed in an interview with the American Association of Retired Persons when he was long out of office. Complications following a quadruple-bypass surgery had caused him to reassess his diet and lifestyle, and the former president embraced veganism for the good of his health.

George H. W. Bush was born in Massachusetts, but you probably wouldn't know it. The former president is most commonly associated with Texas, where he moved after graduating from Yale, and later represented the state in Congress. It's little wonder, then, that he enjoyed all of the delicacies that Texas is so well-known for, including steak.

George H. W. Bush understood the importance of contrast in his steaks, and preferred to order it with a charred outside and a rare interior. The sides he had with his meat were pretty bog standard: Like most of us, he liked his steak with a pile of fries and a salad. As for what he drank next to it, a martini on the rocks was his tipple of choice. His preferred combo of steak and fries was a big clue that Bush Sr. liked his food to be, how shall we say, on the tastier side of life. The former president had a famous hatred for broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage, and a love of salty pork rinds.

Of all the presidents who love steak, Barack Obama doesn't really stand out as one of them. Most of us have a picture of the 44th president as a man who preferred eating clean and living healthily, limiting red meat in favor of lighter options. However, Obama was partial to a steak from time to time, and when he had one he didn't hold back. When he dined out, Obama would sometimes order a steak medium-well done, with a helping of truffle butter to wash it all down. Michelle Obama, on the other hand, would opt for a medium-rare steak.

As you might expect, though, these forays into steak were pretty few and far between. Generally speaking, Obama was careful with his diet and was notorious for watching his sugar and fat intake. For breakfast he'd stick with oatmeal or eggs with wheat toast, he was diligent with eating his vegetables, and he'd snack on nuts or fruit and crackers instead of chips or candy. Oh, and he was doing all this while running the country. We can't lie, it makes us feel a little bit inferior.

The current U.S. president is a busy man, so it's maybe no surprise that he favors predictability when it comes to his meals. Donald Trump is well-known for his (ahem) unsophisticated palette, and tends to like food that bears little risk. If you need any evidence of this, check out his steak order. Trump likes his steak to be well-done to the point of rubberiness, and has said so for decades. His long-time butler Anthony Senecal revealed to the The New York Times that when dining at Mar-A-Lago, Trump's steak "would rock on the plate, it was so well done."

Trump likes to eat his steak with an unholy amount of ketchup, and it doesn't matter if he's eating the most expensive one on the menu: He's covering it in sweet, slightly artificial-tasting sauce. Elsewhere, Trump favors simpler meals like meatloaf and fast food, with McDonald's being a particular favorite. Some people might tie this to a taste for classic American meals; others might say that it indicates a traditional, slightly timid approach to food. However, if you want to eat like Trump, now you know how. Just grab a steak, fry it to the point of losing any taste, and serve.

Jimmy Carter was a man of two halves: A humanitarian who had a keen desire to make the world a better place on one hand, and a homegrown Georgia boy who was born and died in the same town. It seems to be the latter that informed his diet. Carter loved meat and potatoes more than anything else, and his steak of choice was a rare broiled sirloin. More specifically, he was a fan of a strip steak, of a minimum two inches' thickness, weighing in at approximately 12 to 14 ounces.

Carter would have his steak with a baked potato and a salad with Roquefort dressing. Elsewhere, his diet was as homely and unfussy as this simple, classic meal would indicate. Carter was a big fan of ham and red-eye gravy, would enjoy grits and eggs for breakfast, and loved fried chicken with potato salad. His tastes were informed by his Southern upbringing and heritage, and they remained the same when he was in the White House. Carter was notorious for keeping his meals uncomplicated even when he was the most important person in the country, which spoke to his humble and unassuming personality.

Most presidents aren't exactly known for their indulgence, although certain recent ones have definitely pushed the boundaries on that front. Look back a little further, though, and you'll find some examples of presidents whose diets wouldn't impress most nutritionists today. William Howard Taft was one such president, who famously ate steak for breakfast, in large quantities. His housekeeper famously reported that Taft would have a twelve-ounce steak almost every morning, which came with a side of several slices of toast. He'd also have a sugary, creamy coffee alongside this. Oh, and he'd also frequently have eggs, too.

As you might expect, this kind of diet wasn't exactly good for the former president, and it eventually had an effect on his health. Taft eventually grew to weigh 332 pounds, and was told by his doctor that he'd have to lose weight. His solution was simple: He'd cut the size of his morning steaks down by half. Problem solved — except, unfortunately, it didn't quite fix the lasting impact on his health. In 1930, Taft died as a result of heart disease.

Like his Dad, George W. Bush has been long associated with Texas, and all of the visions of cowboys and super-size steaks that come with that state. O, it's probably no surprise to you that he was fond of beef, although you might not quite expect the way he ate it. At Bush's second inaugural dinner, steak was on the menu — but it was beef tenderloin, served with asparagus, baby carrots, and potatoes au gratin. Kinda fancier than you'd expect, but then we guess it was a pretty formal occasion.

Perhaps this slightly more moderate approach was down to Bush's noted emphasis on fitness and remaining healthy. The president liked to keep an eye on his blood pressure and cholesterol, and so it's likely that steak wasn't a hugely common meal. That didn't mean that he didn't enjoy a cheat meal every now and again, though. Bush was famous for his love of Big Macs, which he'd order straight to the White House. Snack-wise, he was a fan of pretzels, although he was also pretty diligent with his fruit and vegetables. It seemed like beef was his meat of choice, though: During his first inaugural dinner, lamb was on the menu, but it clearly wasn't enjoyed enough to make a comeback the second time around.

You might not associate Dwight D. Eisenhower with a love of steaks, but when it came to how he cooked his beef, he was pretty unique. Eisenhower preferred his steaks ultra-thick and cooked himself, working with four-inch thick sirloins that he'd season liberally with oil and garlic. He'd then take his steaks and throw them straight onto an open fire, where they'd turn blackened on the outside and remain juicy on the inside.

To be honest, we kinda get why he did that. A charcoal grill is great for steaks thanks to the smoky explosion of flavor it provides the meat with. Interestingly enough, Eisenhower wasn't quite as extreme with his other eating habits, and in some areas of his diet, he was decidedly moderate. After a potential heart attack, Eisenhower started to eat more healthily, adding a higher amount of fruit into his diet and reducing fat intake in a bid to lower his cholesterol. This actually had the opposite effect, with Eisenhower's cholesterol continuing to rise, which then led to new discoveries about the roles of fat in diets and how it can affect overall cardiovascular health.

If you're looking for a picture of health from your former presidents, don't point to Grover Cleveland. Cleveland is notorious for being one of the unhealthiest presidents in American history, due to a combination of heavy drinking, tobacco use, and a poor diet. This latter is demonstrated by how he enjoyed his steak: While many former presidents understand the need to balance out the red meat with salad or vegetables, Cleveland ate his with a side of eggs. Not exactly heart-healthy, huh?

Elsewhere, Cleveland's diet wasn't exactly glowing. The president (who later experienced stomach, heart, and kidney concerns) was a big fan of snickerdoodles and corned beef, eating the latter with cabbage. Having said this, some aspects of his diet were healthier than you might think. The former president ate oatmeal for breakfast, and would also sup on brown bread. He was also, famously, a voracious beer drinker, and once tried to curb his habit by promising with a friend that they'd both drink just four a day. They soon revised this compromise to four tankards a day instead, which was still apparently a reduction from what he was having before. We're not sure reducing intake to just a few liters each day will quite do the trick, but hey, it was a different time.

John F. Kennedy liked to keep his diet simple. And while we're not exactly sure how he ate his steak, we know what was informing his choices. Steak was definitely on the menu for Kennedy, who would eat it on rotation with other meats like chicken, turkey, and lamb chops. Unlike some of his predecessors, he'd have his steak for dinner only, and was a particular fan of mashed potatoes as a side. He was especially partial to a corn muffin, too — but he wouldn't eat them in any great quantity, instead being known to stick to smaller portions.

The reason for this, though, is not because he didn't like the food in front of him, but because he had notably poor health throughout his life. A spell of health issues, and particularly long-standing stomach problems, meant that Kennedy would restrict himself to plain foods most of the time. Although these health concerns were dominant mostly in his earlier life, we can see how they'd inform his eating choices during his presidency. As such, we'd imagine that his steak was a fairly bland affair, without any heavy sauces or sides.

For a lot of presidents in office before the internet, it's tricky to know exactly how they liked their steak. Harry S. Truman, however, is a bit of an exception. The 33rd president was pretty forthcoming about how he liked his steak to be cooked, as well as what he ate it with. In the book "Talking with Harry: Candid Conversations with President Harry S. Truman," Truman revealed that he would only eat his steak well-done, in line with his Midwestern upbringing. "The West — Midwest — furnishes the beef for the nation, and they are of the opinion that only coyotes and predatory animals eat raw beef," he was quoted as saying. "That's the reason we like it cooked."

Elsewhere, Truman went into great detail about the other aspects of his diet. "Usually have fruit, one egg, a strip of bacon and a half a glass of skimmed milk for breakfast; liver & bacon or sweet breads or ham or fish and spinach and another nonfattening vegetable for lunch with fruit for dessert," he said in a handwritten note now preserved by the Harry S. Truman Library Museum. "For dinner I have a fruit cup, steak, a couple of nonfattening vegetables and an ice, orange, pineapple or raspberry for dinner." A pretty healthy diet, then — but perhaps a slightly tasteless one, if the doneness of that steak is anything to go by.

Ulysses S. Grant is remembered today for his military prowess and for leading the army, and the U.S., during the Civil War. Most people would assume that a president like this wasn't scared of anything, but he did have particular trouble when it came to raw steak. Grant despised the sight of animal blood, and any raw meat that came his way (including steak), would leave him with an unsettled stomach. Instead, he insisted on having his steak well-done, removing it of pretty much any pinkness whatsoever.

Grant would also avoid eating fowl, and instead stuck to four-legged creatures for the meat side of his diet. He was also a fan of fish, and was known to eat broiled Spanish mackerel alongside his steak meals — and he'd eat both of them for breakfast. What he really loved, though, was coffee and rice pudding. Grant would consume coffee each morning, and he also had a slightly odd taste for cucumbers soaked in coffee and vinegar, which he would eat before he was in his office for breakfast. As for rice pudding, he was reportedly obsessed with it, and preferred to eat it over pretty much any other dessert.