"The Biggest Cheese in Washington"
https://boundarystones.weta.org/2017/11/30/biggest-cheese-washington
From the article...
"While Presidents of the United States have received all different kinds of honors and gifts throughout the years, there is one particular 19th-century trend of presidential gift-giving that stands out…or maybe stands alone.
Giant wheels of cheese have appeared at the White House multiple times in presidential history, starting in 1801 when Thomas Jefferson was gifted the 4 foot-wide, 17 inch-high, 1,235 pound Cheshire “Mammoth” Cheese from the citizens of Cheshire, Massachusetts.
The cheese was made of milk from 900 strictly Republican cows"...
..."Meacham’s cheeses were ornately decorated with customized paintings and mottos, and created with the “intention of pomp and circumstance.” His final 1835 product for President Jackson was an impressive 1,400 pound wheel of cheddar that arrived in Washington in a cart pulled by a fleet of 24 horses; the mammoth cheese then sat in the White House foyer for the next two years."...
..."President Jackson began a tradition of opening up the White House for extravagant parties,
... No party was as memorable, however, as the celebration he threw in honor of George Washington’s birthday on February 22, 1837...
...Jackson had the two-year-old, viciously fragrant (Washingtonians could smell it blocks away from the White House) mammoth cheese hauled from the foyer into the East Room, and invited citizens from all over Washington to come to the White House and help eat it. Washingtonians did not miss the chance to help consume the presidential cheese, and it is rumored that the party was so crowded that “people who could not fit through the doors were climbing in through the windows.” A crowd of 10,000 turned out and “hacked” at the cheese—eating pieces, and taking large hunks away with them as well. In just two hours, the entire 1,400 pound wheel of cheese had been demolished, with only a small piece saved for Jackson.
“The air was redolent with cheese, the carpet was slippery with cheese, and nothing else was talked about at Washington that day.”
Good thing he liked nachos!