<--PREV Doc #643  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #645 Document #644; April 8, 1958 To Arthur Seymour Nevins Series: EM, AWF, Gettysburg Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part IV: Recession and Reform; February 1958 to May 1958 Chapter 9: "The problems inherent in this job"   Dear Art: Whenever Bob Hartley thinks one of the steers is properly ready, I would be delighted to have another one butchered.1 There are two points I should like to discuss! First, will you tell Mr. Grim that when it comes to the actual butchering and wrapping (after the period of curing has been completed), I should like the shanks to be cut off without stripping any of the meat from them. The bone, with the meat still on it, is to be used for making soup. The rear shank should be cut off above the hock, right up against what is normally called the "lower round." The front shank should be cut high enough up so that the brisket would remain with it. Otherwise Mr. Grim’s butchering was exactly as I should like it. All the large better steaks, taken out of the back, should be about 2 inches thick. (The small "club" steaks should be 1 inch only.) The round should be about the same, possibly 1-1/4 inches. Second: After the steer has been killed, could you have the carcass brought back to the farm and put in the cool room in the garage. This is because I would like to cure it at a slightly higher temperature than Mr. Grim uses at the store. After the curing process is done, then you could send it back to Mr. Grim for butchering and packaging. About twelve hours before you send the steer up to Mr. Grim to butcher, I think the cool room should be started in operation. If there is any doubt about its mechanism, Sergeant Dry could run up to start it. He is completely familiar with the operation. This reminds me that there ought to be in the cool room an ordinary thermometer, so that we could keep the temperature as near 35 degrees as possible. I have put all this down so you can have a record of it. If there is any question you want to ask me, don’t hesitate to call either Mrs. Whitman or me directly.2 It was good to see you and Ann--both of you looked in the finest of health. Give her my love and, of course, warm regard to yourself.3 As ever P.S. Many thanks. I do hope I am not causing you too much trouble. 1 For background on Eisenhower's interest in the butchering of his steers see no. 486. On April 10 Nevins would reply that according to Hartley, Eisenhower's herdsman, a steer would be ready by the second week in May. 2 Nevins said he would give the President's instructions to Grim, the operator of the slaughterhouse at Lowes Country Store in Table Rock, Pennsylvania. He also said he would procure a thermometer that would accurately determine the cool room temperature, and he would have the cooling system operating by the time the carcass returned. On April 29 Nevins would direct Hartley to select the steer. The steer would be trucked to Table Rock on May 6. The following day the carcass would be picked up and delivered to the President's barn for hanging in the cooling room (see Nevins to Hartley, Feaster, West, Apr. 29, 1958). All papers are in AWF/Gettysburg. Leonard D. Dry, Jr., had served Eisenhower from 1942 - 1952; he would be Mrs. Eisenhower's driver until 1962 when he would return to and remain on the White House staff through the Johnson Administration (for background see Eisenhower Papers, vols. VI - XIII). 3 The Eisenhowers had spent the Easter holiday at their farm (see no. 636). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Arthur Seymour Nevins, 8 April 1958. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 644. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/second-term/documents/644.cfm <--PREV Doc #643  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #645

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