7 Outstanding American Dishes!

American Cookery is the first American cookbook. Written by Amelia Simmons in 1796, it is truly original in many of its techniques, terminology, and ingredients. In this episode we cook seven wonderful recipes from the book and talk about its importance to the history of America.

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[wadejustanamerican]

I hope my comment doesn't sound silly or corny, but. This is such a great channel and community here. The noise of the world is gone and just great food, good historical information, the best host and company on YouTube and just great people feeling at home over good company and food. Thanks

[JWandaFurEvaFamily]

The most wholesome nutmeg inspired content on YouTube. After 4-5 years of watching your content, my historical nutmeg loyalty continues.

[sarahcrews]

I've cut back on many subscriptions and unnecessary spending. However, I will keep the small fee going for this channel because I appreciate you all.

[TheJohn]

I've been waching this channel for years and years and I must say I've really enjoyed pretty much every vid. You guys do a great job and I really appreciate the job that you do. It's really a solace given all the nonsense of modern life. Thank you very much!

[jlennon]

3:26 roast turkey and stuffing
8:35 stew pie
14:30 rice custard
18:06 lemon pudding
21:23 pearl ash leavening discussion
23:48 Christmas cookey
27:39 pound cake
30:16 Indian slapjack

[UncleCharlie.]

Instead of an apple, I add large onions inside the turkey so I can use them for gravy later.

[CormanoWild]

Awesome! I teach HS culinary arts and was trying to think of some good recipes for us to prepare for Thanksgiving. I'll be trying some of these out! Thank you as always for your great videos!

[LadyDulcevida]

They used veal many times because they needed the calf's stomach to make cheese. Our ancestors seldom wasted anything from the calf there's veal, cheese, sausages, marrow, calf's foot jelly; bones
for aspics, stews, soups, buttons, tools etc

[zael_]

Never thought I would see 'arroz con leche' in this show, that was a nice surprise. What's called "rice custard" in the cookbook is still eaten quite often in most hispanic american countries as a dessert, we know it as 'arroz con leche' (rice and milk, yes quite simple) and we often season it with things like cinnamon, cloves and/or (you guessed it) nutmeg. Most places also add raisins or dried plums... or both.

[carloshenriquezimmer]

That rice custard is very common here in Brazil, but it is spiced with cinnamon and cloves, sometimes using brown sugar.
A dash of black pepper can also bring it up a notch, makes it feel richer.
It is very often made with leftover rice, the little salt from it also helps the flavours to pop up (add a little salt to your sweets, just a pinch, you will see the difference).

[Paintplayer]

4:30 "it's been getting a lot more popular in the last 5 years." My man, you and the Townsends team are the reason why it's getting more popular!

[veesimmons]

I agree with your statement about this being the cookbook version of the American Decalaration of Independence. I love our uniquely American recipes. We will continue to benefit from our early idigenous people's generosity in sharing their secrets to survival.

[miradfalco]

Rice pudding for the win!

I preserve orange zest and juice in rum, and then use that and orange flower water to flavor custards.

I also preserve lemon and lime in rum, so nice to have on hand.

[rquest]

I always enjoy watching your cooking videos. It reminds me of my grandaunt. She made several of those recipes on her Franklin wood burning oven/stove well into the 1970s. I had a childhood that transcended time.

[edwardpate]

I love Hoecakes! I love putting Sorghum syrup on mine a VERY common sweetener in America when Sugar and Maple Syrup was a luxury.

[mikehart]

Fascinating. Here in The South we have cornbread dressing rather than white bread stuffing. Personally, I don't usually stuff the turkey. If you boil and dice the gibblets and use it with the dressing it's just as tasty and not stuffing it allows it to cook faster.

[striker]

My father does something similar for the bird on Thanksgiving. He uses a boy scout method and cooks the turkey outside.
Prepping the bird he stuffs it with a fruit stuffing he invented. It basically consists of raisins, oranges, apples, cranberries, currants, and any stuffing bread you can find, with of course a few eggs as a binder.

1. He lashes together a tripod and hangs the bird from the center of it by the legs with 3 oven bags wrapped and tied in position.
2. He takes 4 hardware cloth chimneys, about 4-5 inches in diameter and 2 feet tall, and positions them about 18-22 inches apart in a square.
3. He then wraps the square with heavy-duty extra wide tinfoil a good 4-5 wraps worth and a 2-3 layers on the bottom as an accidental bird-catching base (ask us how we know lol).
4. He then fills each chimney up about 6 inches or so with ready-fired charcoal and positions the bird in the center of this reflector oven.

Change the height and positioning of the bird by adjusting the rope length or angle of the tripod legs. Sit back and whittle or read a bit in the bluster of the chilly Detroit Lions losing day. If the wind picks up, put up a wind break of some sort, or be prepared to double the cooking time lol.

Monitoring the bird thermometer and periodically checking it is key, but the oven bags keep in all the juices usually. Also, using a few toothpicks or pins to poke holes in the oven bag near the top allows it to vent some. If the bird touches a chimney or gets too close it will melt the bags and either burn to the bird, burn a hole in the bag and the juices fall out, or worse still, the bird tumbles to the ground and you have to pick grass and dirt off the outside of the bird in a frantic attempt to salvage the bird (If you never did this before and didn't know to put the base layer of foil down). :)

A 12-15 lb bird will be cooked in roughly 2 -3 hours total time.

[WestForkWoodsman]

I love the roasting turkey on a string. I want to try that now! Another great Townsends video!

[JamesRook]

The turkey looks outstanding, but I've had wild harvested turkey before and that would elevate this recipe to a new level, even closer to the original.

[redtonicSA]

rice pudding! how delightful. I think that's one of the few dishes I've basically seen everywhere I've traveled. In Germany, we had it with canned fruits; mandarin orange sections were really nice! In the US, I've had it with raisins (admittedly, less fond of them) but also rather plain, or with cinnamon, which I liked!