Commodity Kitchen’s mission is inspired by life on a Native reservation. While some families can afford their own food, others (such as my own) have to rely on government-provided food for the essentials. Even today, my mom drives to the commodity store to collect her fake potatoes and powdered eggs so she can eat for one more month.

A lack of abundance and the emergence of commodities have modified the way Natives eat. Before commodities, fry bread didn’t exist, but it quickly became a Native staple because flour and lard were what Native communities had to survive on. There was even a time in my family that “popcorn meat” became a thing, because canned meat and flour was what we were given.

So what does that mean in terms of our concept? Really, everything: Diets in general consist of what is easily obtained and affordable. In America, where the bulk of us have a sad work-life balance, that means we eat what’s easy, cheap, and super fast. Unfortunately, easy, cheap and fast food tends to be processed and preserved in non-traditional ways so it has a longer shelf life and is cheaper to produce. 

I am not a chef. I am, however, obsessed with cooking, and also the past. This has led me to Commodity Kitchen’s mission: Revive historical American cuisine using modern ingredient substitutions that are natural and readily available; update modern American cuisine using the principals of our ancestors; and make it easier for Americans to replace highly processed/artificial food with natural and naturally processed food, without breaking the bank.

Aside from my Commodity Kitchen’s homegrown recipes, this blog is about having fun with the past as well. I have lots of old recipes I’m curious about, both culinary and homestyle. I hope you enjoy my experiments, and possibly learn new things as I do along the way.

Basic rules for our recipes