Elvis' Favorite Greasy Treat Was Stocked By The Pound In His Fridge

It's good to be the king — and that applies to the "King of Rock and Roll," Elvis Presley, especially when it comes to eating well. The iconic musician was a big eater, with a host of favorite dishes that included deep-fried pickles, cowboy beans at his favorite Mexican restaurant, and southern classics like fried chicken and biscuits. But when Presley's cook, Mary Jenkins Langston, was stocking his fridge, there was one thing that always had to be on hand in sizable quantities, and that was bacon. The meat was always on offer at Graceland, for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

According to Langston, Presley loved rich food served in king-sized quantities. She even recalled serving him family-size bowls of banana pudding, as he had something of a sweet tooth. But when it came to bacon, his preferences were quite specific — he liked it fried up very crisp, but not burnt. Once prepared to his satisfaction, Presley would enjoy bacon as part of a breakfast — which also included butter-fried biscuits, scrambled eggs, and sausage patties — or in a sandwich. In the latter case, this could be a plain bacon sandwich, or another one of Langston's specialties, the famous combination of bacon, banana, and peanut butter that would come to be known as an "Elvis sandwich."

While you don't have to be from the South to like biscuits, bacon, and fried chicken, for Elvis, his food preferences were formed at a young age and remained part of his persona all his life. Growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi, the future "King" developed a lasting taste for traditional southern cooking. In fact, that may be where his love of bacon started; as a child, his mother Gladys cooked bacon as a treat since the family didn't always have the money to spare.

In fact, growing up poor shaped Presley's love of divisive soul food dishes that some people today consider gross, like chitlins and pigs' feet. Even at the height of his fame, Presley never particularly enjoyed expensive dishes like caviar and stuck to comfort foods like burgers, meatloaf, and hot dogs. In fact, even the menu at Presley's wedding at Las Vegas' Aladdin Hotel included fried chicken and ham and eggs, alongside lobster and oysters Rockefeller.