The Early American Cooking Channel

 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.

From Home Chefs To Culinary Stars

 It's amazing how You Tube can raise the profile of anybody, especially the home chef. Now women in Arab countries are discovering the power of this platform as they share their recipes and heritage with the world.It's a chance to shine and expand the world's palate.

Food and culture writer, Reem Kassis wrote about this phenomena in today's New York Times Food section.Middle Eastern and North African women are generating extra income for their families as they show their recipes to the world. The kitchen has always been the heart of domesticity in their world.It's kept women tethered to it for millennia. Only twenty-five per cent of women actually work outside the . You Tube os changing that .It's changing the power dynamic for Arab women and turning their kitchens into a source of income and influence. Women like Heba Abo Elkheir started a YOuTube channel after her husband suggested it. She featured such classic dishes as basbousa - a sweet semolina cake and macarona bil bechamel a kind of baked mac and cheese.In less than three years she has amassed three million viewers becoming a top wage earner as well as being one of the top three women leading food channels on YouTube across the Middle East and Africa or MENA.

Ms. Abo Elkheir isn't the only one.Katrina Boukar is raking in money too. Her dessert videos are legendary with tons of viewers. They're simple and economical.  Her most popular video has more than sixteen million viewers. It was about a  three ingredient coconut macaroon inspired dessert. It was followed by a chocoflan and a cold brewed(!) pudding. She was going to give it up when she had her first born son but the child was diagnosed with autism., Her revenue from YouTube paid for his medications.Another successful home chef is Ola Tashman. A native Jordanian created her You Tube channel in 2018 when she was living in Saudi Arabia. She missed the traditional Eid cookies of ma'amoul (a date filled cookie) and her mother's recipe of shushbarak, a lamb dumpling cooked in yogurt sauce. The Syrian refugee situation has helped another You Tube chef,Muna Al - Amsha who fled the Syrian Civil War with her husband, They and their five children relocated to Kurdistan where she started a channel featuring all the recipes that Syrians around the world missed. It became wildly popular.

You TUbe is not only a great platform for chefs to show off  their recipes, it;s also a great way to earn a sizable income. For women of the Arab World ,it's a way to be successful and have a satisfying career.It combines the love of food with the need for recognition.