The Queen’s Scones for a Wedding Breakfast

Recipe from Queen Elizabeth (Eisenhower Library)

Welcome to our first “What’s Cooking Wednesday” here at Pieces of History!

We’re excited to make this first post in a series celebrating our new exhibit “What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam?” which looks at the role that the Federal Government has taken in Americans’ lives regarding food production, safety, advertising, and nutrition. It opens June 10, and we’ll be posting images, recipes, food challenges, and much more!

This recipe from Queen Elizabeth is featured in the upcoming exhibit, and it would make an excellent breakfast to eat as you watch the royal wedding on Friday.

Why does the National Archives have a recipe about scones from the British monarch? Since was sent to a President, it’s actually a Federal record.

In August 1959, Queen Elizabeth entertained President Dwight Eisenhower at Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands. One of the dishes she served was drop scones. The next year, she was reminded of his visit and her promise to share the recipe, and she mailed it to him.

She included some help to make the recipes work for an American cook. She noted that treacle (sugar syrup) could be used for caster sugar. But you have to wonder, exactly how a big a teacup should the cook use?

President Eisenhower with Queen Elizabeth II at the dedication and formal opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, June 26, 1959. (Eisenhower Library)

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