Native American cuisine

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Native American cuisine of North America

American Indians of the Eastern Woodlands planted what was known as the "Three Sisters": corn, beans, and squash. In addition, a number of other domesticated crops were popular during some time periods in the Eastern Woodlands, including a local version of quinoa, a variety of amaranth, sumpweed/marsh elder, little barley, maygrass, and sunflower.

In the Northwestern part of what is now the United States Native Americans used salmon and other fish, seafood, mushrooms, and berries, among other foods, including meats such as deer, duck, and rabbit. Rum was popular after its introduction by Chistopher Columbus. They were hunter-gatherers, not needing agriculture to supplement the abundant food supplies of their habitat. In what is now California, acorns were ground into flour, the main food for about 75 per cent of the population, and dried meats were prepared during the season when drying was possible. cocoa latte

Southeastern Native American cuisine alkalizer

Southern Native American culture forms the cornerstone of Southern cuisine. From their culture came one of the main staples of the Southern diet: corn (maize), either ground into meal or limed with an alkaline salt to make hominy, also called masa, in a Native American technology known as nixtamalization. Corn was used to make all kinds of dishes from the familiar cornbread and grits to liquors such as whiskey, which were important trade items. cocoa liquor

Though a lesser staple, potatoes were also adopted from Native American cuisine and were used in many similar ways as corn.

Native Americans introduced the first Southerners to many other vegetables still familiar on southern tables. Squash, pumpkin, many types of beans, tomatoes (though these were initially considered poisonous), many types of peppers and sassafras all came to the settlers via the native tribes.

Many fruits are available in this region. Muscadines, blackberries, raspberries, and many other wild berries were part of Southern Native Americans' diet.

To a far greater degree than anyone realizes, several of the most important food dishes of the Southeastern Indians live on today in the "soul food" eaten by both black and white Southerners. Hominy, for example, is still eaten ... Sofkee live on as grits ... cornbread [is] used by Southern cooks ... Indian fritters ... variously known as "hoe cake," ... or "Johnny cake." ... Indians boiled cornbread is present in Southern cuisine as "corn meal dumplings," ... and as "hush puppies," ... Southerns cook their beans and field peas by boiling them, as did the Indians ... like the Indians they cure their meat and smoke it over hickory coals.

- Charles Hudson, The Southeastern Indians.

Southern Native Americans also supplemented their diets with meats derived from the hunting of native game. Venison was an important meat staple due to the abundance of white-tailed deer in the area. They also hunted rabbits, squirrels, opossums, and raccoons. Livestock, adopted from Europeans, in the form of hogs and cattle were kept. When game or livestock was killed, the entire animal was used. Aside from the meat, it was not uncommon for them to eat organ meats such as liver, brains and intestines. This tradition remains today in hallmark dishes like chitterlings (commonly called chitins) which are fried large intestines of hogs, livermush (a common dish in the Carolinas made from hog liver), and pork brains and eggs. The fat of the animals, particularly hogs, was rendered and used for cooking and frying. Many of the early settlers were taught Southern Native American cooking methods.

Dishes

Corn bread

Succotash

Corn bread

Nokake, Algonquin hoecakes

Fry bread is a dish made from ingredients distributed to Native Americans living on reservations.

Bean bread, made with corn meal and beans; popular among the Cherokee

Black drink, or asi, a Southeastern ceremonial drink made from the Yaupon Holly

Succotash, a trio of lima beans, tomatoes and corn

Pemmican, a concentrated food consisting of dried pulverized meat, dried berries, and rendered fat

Psindamoakan, a Lenape hunter's food made of parched cornmeal mixed with maple sugar

Bird brain stew, from the Cree tribe

Buffalo stew, from the Lakota also called Tanka-me-a-lo

Acorn mush, from the Miwok people

Acorn bread

Wojape, a Plains Indian pudding of mashed, cooked berries

Dry meats Jerky, smoked Salmon strips

Piki bread Hopi

Green chili stew

Mutton stew Navajo

Pueblo bread

Tiswin, a term used for several fermented beverages in the Southwest, including a corn or fruit beer of the Apache and a saguaro sap beer of the Tohono O'odham.

Walrus Flipper Soup, Inuit dish made from walrus flippers.

Stink Fish, Inuit dish, of dried fish, underground, until nice & ripe then eaten for later consumption, also done with fish heads.

Salted Salmon Inuit dish, brined salmon in a heavy concentration of salt water left for months to soak up salts.

Akutaq, also called "Eskimo Ice Cream", made from caribou or moose tallow and meat, berries, seal oil, and sometimes fish, whipped together with snow or water.

Native American cuisine of the Circum-Caribbean

This region comprises the cultures of the Arawaks, the Caribs, and the Ciboney. The Tano of the Greater Antilles were the first New World people to encounter Columbus. Prior to European contact, these groups foraged, hunted, fished. The Tano cultivated cassava, sweet potato, maize, beans, squash, pineapple, peanut, and peppers. Today these groups have mostly vanished, but their culinary legacy lives on.

Barbacoa, the origin of the English word barbecue, a method of slow-grilling meat over a fire pit

Jerk chicken with plaintains, rice and honey biscuit

Jerk, a style of cooking meat that originated with the Tano of Jamaica. Meat was applied with a dry rub of allspice, Scotch bonnet pepper, and perhaps additional spices, before being smoked over fire or wood charcoal.

Casabe, a crispy, thin flatbread made from cassava root widespread in the Pre-Columbian Caribbean and Amazonia.

Bammy, a Jamaican fried bread made from cassava and coconut milk or water.

Guanime, a Puerto Rican food similar to the tamale.

Funche or fungi, a corn mush traditional to Puerto Rico.

Cassareep, a sauce, condiment, or thickening agent made by boiling down the extracted juices of bitter cassava root.

Pepperpot, a spicy stew of Taino origin based on meat, vegetables, chili peppers, and boiled-down cassava juice, with a legacy stretching from Jamaica to Guyana.

Bush teas, popular as herbal remedies in the Virgin Islands and other parts of the Caribbean, often derive from indigenous sources, such as ginger thomas, soursop, inflamation bush, kenip, wormgrass, worry wine, and many other leaves, barks, and herbs.

Ouicou, a fermented, cassava-based beer brewed by the Caribs of the Lesser Antilles.

Taumali or taumalin, a Carib sauce made from the green liver meat of lobsters, chile pepper, and lime juice.

Native American cuisine of Mesoamerica

Main articles: Aztec cuisine and Maya cuisine

The pre-conquest cuisine of the Native Americans of Mesoamerica made a major contribution to shaping modern-day Mexican cuisine. The cultures involved included the Aztec, Maya, Olmec, and many more (see the List of pre-Columbian civilizations).

Some known dishes

Tamales

Tacos

Tamales

Tlacoyos (gordita)

Pozole

Mole

Guacamole

Salsa

Mezcal

Tortillas

Champurrado, a chocolate drink

Pupusas

Xocoltl

Pejelagarto, a fish with an alligator-like head seasoned with the amashito chile and lime

Pulque or octli, an alcoholic beverage of fermented maguey juice

Tepache, pineapple beer

Chili

Pupusas, thick cornmeal flatbread from the Pipil culture of El Salvador

Alegra, a candy made from puffed amaranth and boiled-down honey or maguey sap, in ancient times formed into the shapes of Aztec gods

Balch, Mayan fermented honey drink

Native American cuisine of South America

Andean cultures

Main article: Inca cuisine

This currently includes recipes known from the Quechua, Aymara and Nazca of the Andes.

Grilled guinea pig, a native to most of the Andes region this small rodent has been culivated for at least 4000 years

Roast guinea pig (cuy)

Fried green tomatoes, a nightshade relative native to Peru

Saraiaka, a corn liquor.

Chicha, a generic name for any number of indigenous beers found in South America. Though chichas made from various types of corn are the most common in the Andes, chicha in the Amazon Basin frequently use manioc. Variations found throughout the continent can be based on amaranth, quinoa, peanut, potato, coca, and many other ingredients.

Chicha morada, a Peruvian, sweet, unfermented drink made from purple corn, fruits, and spices.

Colada morada, a thickened, spiced fruit drink based on the Andean blackberry, traditional to the Day of the Dead ceremonies held in Ecuador. It is typically served with guagua de pan, a bread shaped like a swaddled infant (formerly made from cornmeal in Pre-Columbian times), though other shapes can be found in various regions.

Quinoa Porridge

Ch'arki, a type of dried meat

Humitas, similar to modern-day Tamales, a thick mixture of corn, herbs and onion, cooked in a corn-leaf wrapping. The name is modern, meaning bow-tie, because of the shape in which it's wrapped.

Mate de coca

Pachamanca, stew cooked in a hauta oven

Ceviche

Pataska, spicy stew made from boiled maize, potatoes, and dried meat.

Ceviche, marinated in acidic tumbo juice in Pre-Columbian times

Cancha or tostada, fried golden hominy

Llajwa, salsa of Bolivia

Llapingachos, mashed-potato cakes from Ecuador

Other South American cultures

Cheese-filled arepa

Arepa, a maize-based bread originating from the indigenous peoples of Colombia and Venezuela

Angu, an indigenous Brazilian type of corn mush

Pamonha, a Brazilian tamale

Cauim, a fermented beverage based on maize or manioc broken down by the enzymes of human saliva, traditional to the Tupinamb and other indigenous peoples of Brazil

Manioba, dish of boiled manioc leaves and smoked meat indigenous to the Brazilian Amazon

Moqueca, a Brazilian seafood stew

Tucupi, manioc-based broth used in Brazilian dishes such as pato no tucupi and tacac

Curanto, a Chilean stew cooked in an earthen oven originally from the Chono people of Chilo Island

Lapacho or taheebo, a medicinal tree bark infusion

Merken, a aj powder from the Mapuche of Patagonia

Pira caldo, Paraguayan fish soup

Chipa

Chipa, a corn flour or manioc-based bread traditional to Paraguay

Yerba mate, a tea made from the holly of the same name, derived from Guaran

Terer or ka'ay, a cold-brewed version of yerba mate

Cooking utensils

The earliest utensils, including knives, spoons, grinders, and griddles, were made from all kinds of organic materials, such as rock and animal bone. Gourds were also initially cultivated, hollowed, and dried to be used as bowls, spoons, ladels, and storage containers. Many Native American cultures also developed elaborate weaving and pottery traditions for making bowls, cooking pots, and containers. Nobility in the Andean and Mesoamerican civilizations were even known to have utensils and vessels smelted from gold, silver, copper, or other minerals.

Molinillo, a device used by Mesoamerican royalty for frothing cacao drinks

Metate and mano

Metate, a stone grinding slab used with a stone mano to process meal in Mesoamerica and one of the most notable Pre-Columbian artifacts in Costa Rica

Molcajete, a basalt stone bowl, used with a tejolote to grind ingredients as a Mesoamerican form of mortar and pestle

Batan, an Andean grinding slab used in conjunction with a small stone ua

Paila, an Andean earthenware bowl

Cuia, a gourd used for drinking mate in South America

Comal, a griddle used since Pre-Columbian times in Mexico and Central America for a variety of purposes, especially to cook tortillas

Burn, a clay griddle used by the Tano

Cooking baskets were woven from a variety of local fibers and sometimes coated with clay to improved durability. The notable thing about basket cooking and some native clay pot cooking is that the heat source, i.e. hot stones or charcoal, is used inside the utensil rather than outside. (also see Cookware and bakeware)

Crops and ingredients

Maize, beans and squash were known as the three sisters for their symbiotic relationship when grown together by the North American and Meso-American natives. If the South Americans had similar methods of what is known as companion planting it is lost to us today.

Non-animal foodstuffs

Acorn - Used to make flour and fertilizers for the plants.

Achiote or annatto seed, seasoning

Acuyo, seasoning

Agarita - berries

Agave nectar

Allspice or pimento, seasoning

Amaranth

American chestnut

Amole - stalks

Aspen - inner bark and sap (both used as sweetener)

Avocado

Barbados cherry or acerola

Beans - Throughout the Americas

Bear grass - stalks

Birch bark

Birch syrup

Blackberries

Blueberries

Box elder - inner bark (used as sweetener)

Cacao

Cactus (various species) - fruits

Canella winterana, or white cinnamon (used as a seasoning before cinnamon)

Cashew

Cassava - Primarily South America

Cattails - rootstocks

Century plant (a.k.a. mescal or agave) - crowns (tuberous base portion) and shoots

Chicle, gum

Chile peppers (including bell peppers)

Cherimoya

Chokecherries

Cholla - fruits

Coca - South and Central America

Cranberries

Culantro, used as a seasoning before cilantro

Currants

Custard-apple

Datil - fruit and flowers

Devil's claw

Dropseed grasses (various varieties) - seeds

Elderberries

Emory oak - acorns

Epazote, seasoning

Goldenberry

Gooseberries

Guarana

Guava

Hackberries

Hawthorne - fruit

Herba luisa

Hueinacaztli or "ear-flower"

Hickory - nuts

Hops

Horsemint

Huazontle

Jamb

Jicama

Juniper berries

Kaniwa

Kiwacha

Lamb's-quarters - leaves and seeds

Lepacho

Locust - blossoms and pods

Lcuma

Maca

Maize - Throughout the Americas, probably domesticated in or near Mexico

Mamey

Maple syrup and sugar, used as the primary sweetener and seasoning in Northern America

Mesquite - bean pods, flour/meal

Mint

Mexican anise

Mexican oregano

Mulberries

Nopales

Onions

Palmetto

Papaya

Passionfruit

Paw paw

Peanuts

Pecan - nuts

Pennyroyal - American False variety

Pigweed - seeds

Pine (including western white pine and western yellow pine) - inner bark (used as sweetener) and nuts

Pineapples - South America

Pinyon - nuts

Popcorn flower, herb

Potatoes - North and South America

Prickly pears

Prairie turnips

Pumpkins

Purslane - leaves

Quinoa - South America, Central America, and Eastern North America

Ramps - Wild onion

Raspberries

Rice - imported by Spanish

Sage

Saguaro - fruits and seeds

Salt

Sangre de drago

Sapote

Sassafras

Screwbean - fruit

Sedge - tubers

Sea grape or uva de playa

Shepherd's purse - leaves

Sotol - crowns

Soursop or guanbana

Spanish bayonet - fruit

Spanish lime or mamoncillo

Squash - Throughout the Americas

Stevia

Strawberries

Sumac - berries

Sunflower seeds

Sweet potato - South America

Sweetsop or sugar-apple

Tamarillo

Teaberry or wintergreen

Tobacco

Tomatillo

Tomato

Texas Persimmons

Tulip poplar - syrup made from bark

Tule - rhizomes

Tumbleweed[disambiguation needed] - seeds

Tumbo or taxo

Ua de gato

Vanilla

Vetch - pods

White evening primrose - fruit

White walnuts

Wild celery

Wild cherries

Wild grapes - fruit

Wild honey

Wild onion

Wild pea - pods

Wild roses

Wood sorrel leaves

Yacon nectar

Yaupon holly leaves

Yerba buena

Yerba mate

Yucca - blossoms, fruit, and stalks

Hunted or livestock

Antelope

Badger

Bear

Beaver

Bighorn sheep

Bison - Originally found throughout most of North America

Burro - from Europe

Camel - extinct

Cattle - important European import

Chipmunk

Deer

Dove

Duck

Elk

Geese

Ground hog

Grouse

Guanaco - Hunted in South America by hunter-gatherer societies, for ex. in Patagonia until the 19th century.

Guinea pig - Domesticated in the Andes

Hog - important European import

Honey wasp - Brachygastra mellifica, Brachygastra lecheguana, and Polybia occidentalis, a source of honey found from the Southwestern United States to Argentina

Horse - Although imported by Europeans, the horse was still very important to Native American cultures throughout the Americas (although famously on the North American Plains) in the historic era

Hutia

Iguana

Livestock

Llama - Domesticated in the Andes

Locust (cicada)

Manatee

Mastodon - extinct

Moose

Mountain lion

Mourning dove

Mule

Muscovy duck - Domesticated in Mesoamerica

Opossum

Otter

Passenger Pigeon - extinct

Peccaries

Pheasant

Porcupine

Prairie dog

Pronghorns (antelope)

Quail

Rabbit

Sheep - important European import

Skunk

Sloth

Stingless bee - Melipona beecheii and M. yucatanica, Mayan source of honey

Squirrel

Turkey

Turtle

Wood rat

Woolly mammoth - extinct

See also

Food of the Tlingit

Locavores

Transhumance

Hunter gatherer

Wild onion festival

References

^ http://www.nativeculinary.com/forum/index.php

^ http://www.nativetech.org/recipes/index.php

^ http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes/native-american

^ http://www.mle.matsuk12.us/american-natives/nw/nw.html

^ http://www.thepeoplespaths.net/NAIFood/acorns.htm

^ http://www.jerkyfaq.com/jerky/information/the-history-of-jerky.html

^ Dragonwagon, Crescent (2007). The Cornbread Gospels. Workman Publishing. ISBN 0-7611-1916-7. 

^ Hudson, Charles. "A Conquered People". The Southeastern Indians. The University of Tennessee Press. p. 498499. ISBN 0-87049-248-9. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Foods and ingredients of the indigenous people

Traditional Chiricahua recipes

Canadian Wild Foods

Bibliography

Niethammer, Carolyn. American Indian Food and Lore. New York: A Simon & Schuster Macmillan Company, 1974. ISBN 0-02-010000-0

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Categories: Native American culture | Native American cuisine | Latin American cuisine | North American cuisine | First Nations cultureHidden categories: Articles with links needing disambiguation