“The Long, Endearing History of the American Kitchen Hack” with Rebecca Onion

Since the 19th century, when American magazines for women began to offer expert advice on how to arrange the household correctly, the “kitchen hack” – a tiny unit of advice meant to be used in a unique cooking situation – has been a staple of food media. As the 20th century wore on, the “kitchen hack” became a way for magazines and newspapers to connect readers to one another, and reader-contributed hacks began to populate columns. Today, the practice of sharing these hacks has moved to TikTok and Instagram and become a commercially viable way for influencers to create their personas in these new mediums. Viewed as a still-compiling archive, the kitchen hack becomes a way to see how American cooks have connected with one another. We will end by sharing a few of our own cultural hacks with one another.

Rebecca Onion lives in Athens, Ohio, and writes about culture, history, and ideas for magazines, newspapers, and the Internet. She’s currently a senior editor for Slate.com and has also written for Aeon Magazine, the Boston Globe’s Ideas section, the Virginia Quarterly Review, The Atlantic‘s website, Topic Magazine, the Austin-American Statesman, PBS’ American Experience website, and others. She holds a Ph.D and an MA in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BA in American Studies from Yale University. Her book, Innocent Experiments: Childhood and the Culture of Public Science in the United States, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2016