Have you ever wondered how home chefs managed to create tasty and sustainable meals two centuries ago? How did they cook without air fryers and microwaves? Well, there's this YouTube channel , Early American that explains everything. Imagine a cooking show form the Federalist period to 1830
I disocvered this channel only yesterday (and I;m late to the party on some of the videos). It was mind blowing and fascinating along with being weirdly calming. The main cook and baker is Justine who actually cooks in a log cabin. She is wearing period clothing - an Empire style dress and a very long apron which serves as double duty to protect her clothes and carry scraps out to the chickens. (Yes, there is a small flock of chickens outside), There is no chirpy dialogue with these videos , no jazzy music or fun banter. You hear Justine cutting up veggies or her butter and milk sizzling over a fire There is the sound fo her whisking eggs with a straw(!) whisk. The implements are simple themselves. Liquids and batters are mixed in earthernware bowls. There is only one , rather lethal looking knife that does all the heavy kitchen duty. There are no ovens or stoves. Everything is cooked over a fire or wirh hot coals. This is the most fascinating to me. Justine puts tins or literally cups (for cupcakes) in a pot. A lid is put on it and then hot coals are expertly shoveled on top to create a kind of convection oven. The cakes and cupcakes come out OK.
The recipes or receipts as they were called are flashed across the screen at the end of each video. Most are from The Frugal Housewife and The Cook's Oracle. Can thye be replicated in the modern kitchen? Yes, but keep in mind that they're made with very basic ingredients. This is the kind of food that a Young America ate . influenced prinarily by Britain. The spicings are very simple., mostly salt and pepper for the savory foods with mustard being included in some recipes. The cupcakes seemed to be the most flavorful, with a kind of gingerbread vibe thanks to molasses, mace, cloves and a lot fo dried ginger being used. I was fascinated by her bacon rice curry that had a pinch of cayenne and a good tabelspoon of curry powder in it. I'm just wondering where they got cayenne pepper back then. Was it with trade from the Caribbean? The same with the curry. I imagine a general store in the early 1800's may have had it on occassion. Another questionable aspect is the meat. I saw her husband Ron shoot a deer for their Christmas dinner video (it wasn't witnessed. You just saw him loading up a musket and then hear it go off). Seeing him dump the body into a cart was disturbing, probably because I am animal rights. Then her chickens - where they used for the fried chicken recipe? Vegans may be offended by these videos, Vegetarians will be more accepting.Some recipes can work for themlike the baked mac and cheese and the golden fried potato balls,
It's always fun to think about time travel. Home chefs can, thansk to Justine and her huband Ron. Go back two hundred years with Early American. It's a tasty history lesson.
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