Making a Working Class Breakfast in 1820 

We now have FOUR glass windows. Using the money that Ron gathered from selling his horses we are now living like royals. I may or may not have nagged Ron for more glass windows. Thank you everyone for your support! Here are the receipts: Johnny Cakes (American Cookery, 1796) - "Scald 1 pint of milk and put to 3 pints of indian meal, and half pint of flower-bake before the fire. Or scald with milk two thirds of the Indian meal, or wet two thirds with boiling water, add salt, molasses and shortening, work up with cold water pretty stiff, and bake as above." Butter - churn or shake heavy whipping cream in a container until the liquid has separated from the butter solids. This can take half an hour. Toss the liquid (or keep it for baking) then wash your butter in cold water as you press it into your desired shape. Yeast free bread - there are no intact receipts for this as far as I'm aware because receipts for the poor were often not recorded. However, there are several mentions of working class people who baked bread without yeast in the autobiographies of travelers in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Because of this we know that it was a common practice. I used a local 18th century receipt passed down to me from a friend who says that this receipt has been in his family since the 1750s. I simply removed the addition of yeast from it. "3 cups of rye flour (a flour which was more affordable than white flour), 1-1.5 cups of warm water, 1-3 heaping tablespoons of honey or molasses (I used molasses). You can choose to let it rise for 2 hours in a warm place if you wish. The naturally occurring yeast that is on our hands and in the flour will get on the dough when we knead it. It will not however rise as much as if you had purposefully added yeast. Bake for half an hour at 350 degrees.

I love that there's still this side of RU-vid. It's so interesting and calm compared to some of the crazy drama on the other side.

I used to play these videos for my mother who became bed fast after Alzheimer’s stole her ability to walk. I was her sole caregiver and was constantly looking for ways to keep her entertained and excited about the day ahead. See mom was raised like this. No electricity, running water or indoor plumbing. A spring house in front of the cabin was where they stored any perishable food they might have had. Since she had 7 brothers and sisters there wasn’t a whole lot of anything except hard work and of course love. My point is that these videos brought both mom and me such joy as it reminded her of the life she had up in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina. They gave me a visual for all the stories she had shared with me as we were growing up. They also gave me a cherished memory of my mother enjoying the time we had even though our circumstances were dreadful. Even though she forgot who she was, who I was and pretty much everything else these images were still in her mind. I’d be in bed beside her holding her hand as we watched and she’d make these sweet little noises like a baby cooing. I’ll never forget the smile on her face and the twinkle in her eyes as she watched these videos. Your videos have touched our lives in ways you probably wasn’t expecting and for this I thank you. ❤

This kind of stuff really makes you realize why so many people back then considered being a "homemaker" a full time job. We really take for granted some of out modern day tools, such a strange but fascinating thing

I remember my great grand mother making butter. The churn was wooden and bigger. She milked the cows. And let the milk settle. The cream would float to top. She used the cream for butter, coffee,bread,and cooking. She even saved bacon grease to cook and fry. She even made her own salt from the ocean of Maine. No running water and a outhouse.and loved to garden. In a small house like that.

Watching this made me feel so grateful that I can make my tea and toast in less than 5 minutes!

I particularly appreciate the lack of sound add-ons, it makes the whole thing feel way more authentic since I personally often have music on with fridge and street noises in the background when I'm home

There is great pride in making things from scratch…there’s more heart in it. My family is from Portugal and cooking in the fire was an every day thing. My grandmothers kitchen walls were black from the open fire 💜 how I miss her.

I have severe anxiety and panic attacks. Your videos have helped me so much when I’m feeling overwhelmed !!

People tend to romanticize the old days and I admit it looks so cozy and I love to see all the skills that were involved in just day to day living. It also looks like a tremendous amount of work, discomfort due to heat and cold and lets not forget lack of vaccines, antibiotics, pain killers and even an understanding of germ theory. I am both mesmerized with this time and also so glad I didn't live in it (if that makes sense). Beautiful video, I really enjoyed watching and will watch more ! (the bread looked delicious)

Damn, this looks really good for being filmed in 1820.

this made me emotional - in a way, we're not so different, are we? we still come in and talk to our spouses about work. we still smile and say the bread smells good. we still have toast with butter. these things seem trivial, but in the end, humans have always loved each other and bread. every culture has its own love and its own bread. all this food made with love. just like my frozen eggo waffles were 😌

Justine, I find this style of living very interesting yet most difficult. I appreciate all you do to encourage this lifestyle and way of living.

These videos seriously make me appreciate all of the modern gadgets and conveniences I have today.

For anyone wondering, baking bread and making butter wasn’t done daily. Instead it was done on a certain day of the week. Baking on Wednesday, churning on Thursday etc.

Thank you for these illuminating, lively videos! We live in a house built in circa 1803. It has fireplaces with the swinging iron bars (for hanging pots on) still attached. It has a beehive oven next to the main fireplace (not sure how this oven worked). Thinking of daily life and chores in the 1800s countryside fills me with respect. And with gratitude for what we have now!

This is really very interesting, and the lack of sound or narrative definitely adds something. As a history teacher, this is like gold and will certainly expose this to my students next school year. We may even have to try some of these recipes. Thank you.

I grew up on a small ranch in the mountains and my mom used to make a heavy bread that was so good. I don't remember the recipe but she would add molasses and I loved it! So much so that I would have molasses mixed in with fresh milk. I haven't thought about that in 40 years, thanks for that! 😀

My microwave has been broke for a week and I’m devastated. I cannot fathom that lifestyle.

Just discovered this channel, love it! Both of you are blessed in your skills and spouse. Thank you for sharing, particularly the methods and recipes.

It’s always a joy to watch (& listen to) you cook! Thank you!!

I lived in India from early 1960s to mid 70s, and many of these kitchen techniques were used then even in middle class homes. Now I am sure there are still people using them. I have had perfectly delicious cakes baked with putting it in a pot with coals on the top as well as underneath.

I live in South Korea and this channel is truly a gem. I love how you reenact how earlier people lived in America. There is something quite home about how you live. It hits me deep and hard every time I watch your video. You deserve my sub. Thank you.

Found your channel last night and I’m absolutely enchanted. It’s helping me through the anxiety of a detox from opiate medications (started by my doctor due to terminal illness and got me reliant on them), and it seriously feels like it brings back flashes and memories from a past life where I lived in this era. Wonder if anyone else here is getting those past life familiarity vibes here, any other reincarnation believers getting warm familiar flashes from this?

The way she churned the butler gave me chills. This is definitely one of my favorite RU-vid channels.

This cabin is so quaint and cozy. I actually like this over the Stephenson house. You’ve done an amazing job making it a lovely home. Thank you for the recipes.

I'm almost 60, I watch your videos and and it always makes me tear up to see how folks lived back then. We really have no business ever complaining about anything.

Such a pleasure to watch. The serenity takes me back. Very skilled shots and editing. Bravo !!!

Enjoy...just relaxing..taking a glimpse into another time...

I like this cabin much more than the grand house you used to reside in! This cabin is by far cozier, more cheerful and all your own! You and Ron don't have to answer to anyone but yourselves! Bravo!

I’m so appreciative of your effort and consistency towards giving us these videos. A wholesome corner of the web. I love it! Thank you. 🖤

I started watching this because I was curious and I continue to watch to be grateful for what we have and for the struggles those before us went through. This episode showed me a little glimpse of the partnership a couple would share. They both needed one another and were trying to survive together. Beautiful.

About the four minute mark broke my heart. I didn't realize how much I missed food with someones fingerprints in it since my mother died.

My auntie would use the whey from the butter add added to make bread, to make milk go further.

This is so wholesome and relaxing. Thanks for sharing 💗

I like listening to the sounds of the chopping /fire burning etc. Kind of like the joy of painting with its brush strokes and Bobs calm voice.

Fresh-made butter is wonderful! I used to make it at least once a year with my students, along with ice cream. The kids appreciate things so much more that they have made with their own hands.

My parents used to take the broth from pork roasts, or you could use water, and boil it then add enough cornmeal to make a thick mush and stir until the spoon stands up. They then pt it in a bowl to cool, turned it out, sliced it then fried it. most yummy. I have no idea how old the recipe is but my father grew up on a farm and his mother who had an Irish grandfather, used to make it as well. I still make it when I cook a pork roast it tastes like fretos to me. I serve it with salt but syrup can be used as well.

100% agree. Such a relaxing and peaceful videos. All of these videos are so relaxing. Truly professional. Just the sights and sounds me and my family enjoy greatly. Keep em coming

I'm just loveing your videos they just amazing and thank you for sharing I look forward to more xx

As someone who cooks at home, just watching this video makes me feel tired. It's as if I feel the woman's fatigue after all that effort and work just to have a butter and bread for breakfast. Huge respect for all the women in the old days that managed to survive despite the discomfort due to the lack of advance materials.

That bread is similar to the first step of making a sourdough starter, and I'd bet that a lot of frontier families ate sourdough more often than this wild-yeast bread. Sourdough starts with equal volume of flour and water -- just that, stirred together and kept in a warm place. Each day one adds about as much new flour and water as what you already have (so you can start with just a couple tablespoons). After three to five days, it should be bubbly, runny like a batter, and smell sour and faintly alcoholic; then you take half of it and work it into that bread recipe, and feed the rest for the next day's baking. Kept in a warm place, it can be used every day, or it can be starved in a cold place (spring house, where you'd keep your butter or milk, perhaps) and will hold well for a couple weeks (for instance, if you're going traveling). Sourdough will rise higher and faster than this bread, and you still don't have to have access to actual yeast -- you've just captured and domesticated what this bread uses, and start from equivalent of five days of rising instead of nothing. Works with wheat, barley, or rye flour, whatever your use for your bread (bread made from mainly barley doesn't rise well, though, because it lacks gluten; you can add an egg white or two to help if you have the eggs to spare).

This channel is GOLD! Love watching you cook! 😍

These videos are actually quite educational in of itself. Thank you for making them.

Cooking is a labor of love and skill. I learned how to cook meals from scratch because it's economical and healthier ( I have a big family). I enjoy watching videos such as these. Thanks for sharing.

I love the quaint home you have. It looks like you're more at ease than you have been, and it makes me happy you got away from all of that. Can't wait to see more!

I'm so addicted to this channel! I can't imagine my life without it! ❤️🥰

These videos are so genuine. Thank you!

Breakfast back then took skill as well as patience, and you could take pride in your culinary work. I subscribe to a number of history channels and have my fav ones; Early American has taken first place!

Justine, I have so much respect for the women and men from this era. They worked so very hard. I can’t even imagine young children while you’re trying to get chores done! ♥️👍

This is just wonderful!!❤

I could watch this episode over and over. Never gets old. Its true! It’s pure and it’s EXACTLY how they would done it way back then. No electricity! So cool! And best part she is absolutely quiet during the video which makes it wholesome

I always enjoy watching you prepare meals and I’m reminded of how much we waste (paper products, etc.). Great episode!

I love this! my husband & i homestead on our farm, built in 1800, & i always wonder about the daily lives of the original family who lived here! this is so cool!

great to see such imagery so lovingly restored

Your videos are just wonderful! You truly bring history to life and what a tremendous resource for children and students and teachers!! Thank you so much!

Life was so much more slow-paced back then compared to the hustle and bustle of the 21st century! Very relaxing watching videos like this!

Everything is labour intensive but the results so satisfying. I love how the fireplace is, in reality, the heart of the home.

This was this first video I ever saw of Ron and Justine and their Early American adventures. I had Covid November 2021. I had nothing better to do but scour YT for whatever crossed my mind. I was curious how people in the Colonial days ate breakfast in particular. Became hooked for life and the rest is history! This will forever be my favorite video!

Hello, I love your videos. I also love all the beautiful and practical wrought iron pieces. I've never seen the toaster before.

Let’s not forget that many homes if not most made their own leavening agent with a sourdough starter. Basically they would just take a little bit of the leftover though from their last batch add water and flour and let it rise and create starter for the bread for the next day

You guys did so well with the resources made available to you. My goodness, this cabin has that rustic homey-cozy feel and I must say, the aesthetic is just lovely.

I’m so grateful for all appliances I have to make my breakfast prep so easy

Wonderful! It’s quite soothing to see all things handmade and without modern technology and noise. I loved learning there’s yeast in the flour and on our hands, and seeing the bread toaster, griddle, and dutch oven. A fire all day seems necessary. But! No-one living that life would have long clean nails! Especially assuming there’s gardening involved. 😊

All this so quick! It would be much longer showing starting the fire, milking the cow, priming the pump ( breaking the ice off if it where winter), getting more wood, and if it was Sunday collecting eggs, the wringing the neck of a chicken, plucking feathers & boiling for Sunday dinner later. My grandmother's both did all this. Very thankful for many conveniences today❤️

Your cabin is so cozy. Love the bread toaster and fresh made butter...delicious!

i love love that simple life with family. Very calm life and making things by your hands is blessing. Keep going 👍

there's just something about waking up some days and starting the day off with these videos 🕊 or even watching some around dinner time xx

Different naturally occurring "yeasts" were highly prized and frequently brought over from the mother country. I read about this in historical journals where I grew up. The best strains were shared and kept growing for many years, even traveling across the US with various groups migrating west. Sourdough. Fascinating history.

Love how warm and cozy the cabin is! You are a natural, the bread ,butter and cakes look delicious!😊

Fascinating. Thank you for the peek into 1820 frontier life. You had to be tough with a strong back!

Brilliant, i always enjoy your posts.

I loved this. My house was built around this time, a log cabin in what I suppose was then a frontier town. It's fascinating to imagine the people who built it and how they lived, dressed, and ate.

So glad you are back. I've looked for every day!!!!! I don't know what's evolved in making the films. But I love you both so much. I missed you. It's a pleasure to watch. Thanks for something decent to watch

Ur videos awesome. Thank u for sharing them. I look forward to seeing more.

I can remember watching my grandmother make butter in a large churn more than 50 yrs ago those women worked very hard

Its looks wonderful and charming, but living like this is very challenging for modern folks. I've done long term living history and reenacting for many years, this is glorious to see, but hard work, but also very satisfying. My home and lands now, as seen in my tea related videos is considerably more elegant but I long for such a cabin in my woods, a perfect escape.

Watching you cook is so relaxing, even cathartic. I could watch it for hours - like gazing into a fire on a cold winter's night. Love your cabin and love your vids. 👍

Fascinating! Loved this! 👏👏👏

I just love this channel! I want to try some of this cooking myself!

Looks like Justine and Ron got a gift certificate to Townsend for their "Marriage". 😆 The cabin looks very cozy.😊

Your new home looks warm and cozy. So happy to see all is going well. Looking forward to many more videos. 😀

I absolutely love watching you cook like this; really a bit of history in a movie. I guess in those days food was so simple and pure people still didn't get fat from all the carbs !! thanks

I’m new to your page I love all your videos very calming and this is so amazing that there’s still people that actually put effort the way you do. God bless you.! ❤

I love the cabin, so cheery, bright and cozy. It's so clear you both are smitten with one another. xxoo from Philly! Love your videos. Thank you for the upload today.

I’m so glad I had the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder as a child! Naturally, she lived as a child 100 years or so later than the time reconstructed here, but her father moved them to a few places where there were no other white people, and he had to walk for days to go to the nearest to the nearest town to get supplies. I loved reading about Ma cooking and preparing food, making butter and cheese, and imagining what it must have been like. I loved that she grated a carrot, cooked it with milk, and used it to make her butter a pretty yellow and then she gave the cooked carrot to the little girls to eat, which was a great treat....very different from “treats” today!

So calming and meditative to watch.

I feel great respect for those peole. They were hardworking, generous, and hospitable. I have read several books portraying them.

I adore the newer videos more then anything. Your videos are the perfect start and end to my day, they're so creative and inspiring. Thank you so much for continuing to make these amazing videos like this. Also, you both look absolutely wonderful. Much love, joy and encouragement from Australia ❤️

Oh wow! I said it before and I will say it again! I'd love to be a reenactor as you both do it! The clothes would fit me very well, and just... I love cooking so much and cooking everything from scratch! To know how the good folks back then cooked and survived the way they did! I love it. I've always have been so fond of going to places like Williamsburg, and visiting the old museums with actors portraying the lives from back then. I always loved it!!!

Can’t seem to sit still to watch anything (anxiety is great 😅😂) so I came back to your videos. I love that they’re interesting and informative, and can take my mind out of my ‘modern problems’ and remind me to enjoy simple things. Also the sound of churning butter is the most ASMR thing I’ve ever heard lol

So cool! Just freaking love your videos ❤

I don’t know why but these videos calm me down, they also make me very appreciative to cook with the modern appliances we have now making things so much easier…..it’s a shame all our foods are so processed and modified though 😕 Imagine how different the fruits and veggies tasted just 30 years ago and longer!

For those of us who strive to live a more natural, seasonal, sustainable and healthier lifestyle free from processed foods, preservatives, chemicals and other additives, and with less reliance on modern supply chains that don’t always work, these historic reenactment videos are a gem. Our ancestors got by quite well without all of that, and even though it’s a lot of work to do things from scratch, it’s well worth it! Thanks!

I love all the different cast iron pans and hooks used.

Greatly appreciate your work! Very interesting! So much has to be done in those days!

Life was very hard for women then. I feel blessed whenever I watch these kind of videos. My aunt tells me that she and my grandmother were working so hard that she learned how to cook as early as 10 years old. My grandfather was unemployed and had alcohol issues, it was possible to get divorced legally but they were living in a small town and she didn’t get divorced. Dad tells me the days he was picking up my grandfather from different different places, he was all drunk. They were carrying water from outside of house, aunt tells me water was so cold they didn’t feel their hands. Houses were made of wood and they were hard to clean, grandmother was working while my aunt left the school to take care of 2 younger siblings. She had eye sight problem and was crying every night, until one of our relatives bought her glasses. Dad always tells that he gave the money he made first to my grandmother and how she cried. Life in small towns of Turkey only 60-70 years ago was still hard. Especially for women, especially those who were not fortunate enough to make a good marriage.

Enjoying my bowl of cereal while watching this 😂 I would not be a breakfast person if it involved all of that! Lol great video

I honestly didn't know they were called receipts and ignorantly thought she was spelling it wrong. I learned something new today!

so much peace and serenity