Foods and Recipes of American Indian

French Fried Skunk

2 skunks, skinned and cleaned 3 cups milk or cream
1 tsp salt 1-1/2 cups flour
Water to cover 1/2 tsp salt
2 cups of bear fat or lard
2 egg yolks, beaten 2 tsp. baking soda



Clean and wash the skunks, making sure that the scent glands are removed. Cut up into small serving pieces. Put a soup kettle on the stove and add meat. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and boil until the meat is tender, about 40 minutes. Remove all the scum that rises to the surface. Make a batter by mixing together the egg yolks, milk, flour, salt and baking powder. Mix real good until the batter is about like cake batter. Heat the bear fat or lard in a deep fryer to about 360 degrees F. Dip the pieces of skunk in the batter and then fry them in the deep fryer until golden brown. Drain well and serve. Yum, Yum!

Never tried eating a skunk, but if I were offered some, I would go for it.

Hominy Corn

1 quart wood ashes or
4 heaping tsp. powdered lime
4 quarts water
2 Quarts dry corn kernels



Place the ashes and water in a crockery pot or crock. Stir up good and boil for 30 minutes. Keep stirring until the mixture stops bubbling. Then strain through a cheese cloth or flour sack. If you use lime, just dissolve the powdered lime in the water. No need to strain it. Now add the 2 quarts of corn kernels or as much corn as the water will cover. Cook until the hulls loosen from the kernels. Take the corn off the fire and drain the liquid off. Wash the corn until all the hulls can be floated off the top and the ash or lime taste is gone. Use a granite or enamel pot: never cook the corn in a metal utensil.

Love hominy and eat it all the time. A little pepper on top, you can't beat it.

Fry Bread Recipes

Cattail Flour

Dry the pealed roots (peel roots while they are wet - they are difficult to peel if allowed to dry.) Chop roots into small pieces, and then grind or pulverize them. When the long fibers are removed, the resultant powder can be used as flour.




Indian Bread

3 cups flour 1-3/4 cups corn meal
1 teaspoon soda 2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 3-1/2 cups milk



Sift the dry ingredients all together. Combine the milk and molasses. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and beat with a will until smooth. Now, pour into a well greased 2-quart steam mold, cover, and place on a rack in a deep kettle that has a close-fitting lid. Pour enough boiling water into the kettle to come about halfway up the mold. Cover the kettle and stream the mold for about halfway up the mold. Cover the kettle and steam the mold for about 3 hours. Take the mold out of the kettle and let stand for about 20 minutes. Take off the cover and let and let stand 10 minutes longer. Loosen the edges of the pudding with a spatula, invert the mold on a plate and let stand until the pudding turns loose or unfolds. Serve with big gobs of fresh butter.

We've eaten so much fry bread, and like below, an Indian Taco, so many times, we "no can count." Iris's grandmother fixes great fry bread. Indian tacos are always used as a way to bring in money for school organizations. Usually, where ever there is a pow wow, you will find fry bread/Indian Tacos.

Arapahoe Jebedanutch fry bread

1/2 cup dry milk 1/4-1/2 cup salt
1/3 cup baking powder 3-1/2 cups water
7 cups flour Oil or grease

Fill fry pan with oil or grease 1-1/2 inches deep. Sprinkle a little salt in oil to keep it from burning. In a large bowl combine dry milk, baking powder, flour, and salt. Add enough of the water to make a dough. Pull off pieces of dough and rollin a little flour and flatten slightly. Fry in oil until brown on one side. Turn and brown on the other side. Drain on paper towels. Eat soon after frying.

Navajo Bread

4-1/2 cups flour 1 tsp. salt
2 tsp powdered milk 1-1/4 cups warm water
1 tbsp. soda

Mix and let stand 30 minutes. Roll to about 1/8-inch thick on lightly floured board. Cut into any shape desired. Fry in deep fat at 400-450 degrees until crisp. The following may be added to the dough: 1 tsp., of cayenne pepper, our 2 tsp. chili powder and 1 cup chopped onions.

Fry Bread -- Nora McLemore (Cherokee)

3c. flour 1/2 tsp salt
1-2/2 tsp. baking powder 1-1/2 warm water

Use either white or 1/2 whole wheat flour. Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add warm water and mix flour. Dough should be soft, not sticky. Knead until smooth. Tear off a chunk about the size of a peach. Pat and stretch until it is thin. Poke a hole through the middle and drop in sizzling hot deep fat. Brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels and serve hot with honey or jam or put powdered sugar on it while hot.


Jack's Caddo Fry Bread - Jack McLemore (Cherokee)... taught him how to play the guitar

2c. flour 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp baking powder 1TBSP. Sugar
3/4 c. plus TBSp warm water
or milk



Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and sugaring mixing bowl. Add all the milk or water at once and stir with a spoon. Stir for a minute or two. Add enough flour until dough is easy to handle. The fat will be hot enough when a small piece of dough is dropped into the fat and it begins to bubble and the comes to the top. Put rolled out dough in fat. When first side browns, turn over and brown on other side. Drain on paper towel. There it is, an Indian Taco. Jack is a successful peanut farmer about 30 miles away. He's waiting for me to come over to Colony and play the first Saturday of every month. Guitar, harp and Uke.

Grits - The breakfast for The South. Include 2 eggs-over-easy, toast with jam, and plenty of bacon, fried green tomatoes, ... as well as coffee, and brother will this morning meal get you started.

1 c. grits 4 C. boiling water
1 tsp salt

Slowly stir grits into boiling, salted water. Cook 5 to 8 minutes over direct heat, stirring occasionally. This recipe may be served as a vegetable substitute with gravy or butter. It is also a delicious hot cereal.

Harvest Bread

3 c. sugar 1 -2/3 tsp salt
3/4 c. shortening 3-1/2 c. flour
4 eggs 2 tsp. baking soda
2 c. Mashed yams (cooked, canned) 2 tsp cinnamon
1 (6 oz) can concentrated 2 tsp. nutmeg
Orange Juice (frozen) 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 Cup chopped pecans

Mix sugar, shortening, and eggs. Add yams (sweet potatoes) and orange juice. Mix well all ingredients. Add all dry ingredients, 1/2 at a time. Bake approximately 1 hour or until done in 350 degree oven. Serve with crushed pineapple and cream cheese mixture

Never fail Pumpkin Bread



3-1/2 C Flour 2 tsp soda
3 c. sugar 1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt 1 tsp nutmeg

Sift dry ingredients together in large bowl. Make a "well" in middle

Add

1 c. oil 2 c. canned pumpkin
4 eggs nuts if desired
2/3 c. water

Mix until smooth. Add nuts. Divide into 3 loaf pans, greased and floured. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees. Cool slightly and turn out of pan on rack.

I dare say, that the United States cannot live without pumpkins. Whole farms have turned their operation over to growing pumpkins, and letting school kids come out and pick their own, for the price of a school class admittance.

Corn Sticks

1/2 (17 oz) can white white sweet 1 egg
cream-style corn 1/2 c. Milk
1 (6 oz.) env. white corn bread mix

Mix all ingredients lightly. Bake in margarine or butter, greased corn stick in 400 degree oven 20 minutes. Or bake in muffin pan which has been sprayed with nonstick agent 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Hush Puppies

1 box Jiffy Corn Bread Mix 1 Large onion, chopped
1 egg 1 (8 oz.) cream style corn
Mix well. Season to taste. Drop small spoonful in hot oil

Corn Bread

1 c. corn meal 1 egg
1 c. flour 1c milk
1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 c. shortening
4 tsp. baking powder

Sift dry ingredients into bowl. Add beaten egg,milk, and melted shortening. Beat about 1 minute. Do not over beat. Bake in greased 8 inch square pan or greased muffin pans in 425 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes, 15 to 20 minutes for muffins.

The best corn bread I have ever tasted was from a family of alien, Mexicans. They were wonderful. Their parents appreciate all that a public school can give their kids, because in Mexico, they wouldn't have school, unless they are rich.

Waco, Fresh roadkill, groundhog in sour cream



1 groundhog, skinned and cleaned 1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup vinegar 1/2 tsp. allspice
1 tsp salt 1.2 cup bacon fat
2 quarts water 3 wild onions
2 tsp. soda 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup flour



Skin and clean the fresh groundhog. Wash and dry and put in an earthen crock. Cover with water and a half cup of vinegar and 1 tsp of salt. Let stand in a coo place over night. In the morning remove from brine, wash and pat dry with a damp cloth. In a large soup kettle combine 2 quarts of water and 2 tsp of soda. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes removing the scum as it rises to the surface. Drain and rinse the groundhog meat and cut into serving pieces. Combine the flour, salt and allspice and dredge the pieces of meat in the mixture. Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees F. Melt the bacon fat in a heavy, iron frying pan until smoking. Brown meat on all sides. Transfer the brown meat into a greased 4 quart casserole. Arrange sliced onions on top, add water, cover and bake in a preheated oven for 2 hours or until the meat is tender. Transfer the meat to a heated platter to keep warm. Put the casserole on top of the stove over medium heat and spoon in the sour cream, stirring constantly. Do not let the sauce come to a boil. Put the meat back into the casserole and simmer for about 15 minutes. Delicious served with creamed dandelion leaves.

I'm thinking this is a close kin or not just another way to identify and prairie dog. I was once invited to eat groundhog in Kentucky, and I passed it up. I regret it every day. But, I may have eaten at a church group in Nebraska which held a wild animal feed every year to bring in money.


QUAPAW FRIED RABBIT

1 rabbit, skinned and washed Cooking oil
1 cup flour 1 onion diced
1 tsp. salt Juice of 1/4 lemon
Pepper to taste

Cut rabbit up in pieces desired. Roll pieces in mixture of flour,salt, and pepper. Brown rabbit in 4 tsp. cooking oil. Add diced onions and lemon juice. Cover and cook until done.



WOJAPI

A traditional Sioux favorite is a sure-to-please fruit pudding the Sioux call Wojapi. Served with fry bread, it is a delicious combination of crunch, pudding and fruit.

1 cup fruit (A favorite is seeded choke cherries which have been pounded.)
1 Cup water
Sugarto taste
Flour as needed

Heat fruit and waterto boiling. Add sugar to taste
Gradually blend in four as needed, stirring constantly until thickened.
Serve with fry bread

* Special Note: There is a departure from the above using tomatoes and corn called "Arapaho Wojapi." (Name origninatedfrom an Arapaho married to a Sioux)

Cornmeal Indian Pudding

8 cups milk 1 cup currants
4 tbspcornmeal 1tsp salt
3 large or 4 small eggs Spices: Nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon
3-1/2 cups of sugar 2 Cups of raisins

Cook cornmeal slowly in milk appears creamy like. Add sugar to beaten eggs and fruit. Pour over cooked part, then spices. Stir fruit up when first cooking. Open little places in pudding when set and pour cream in. Cook slowly 4-6 hours.

Marinated Porcupine Chops

6 porcupine chops 3 fingers of coltsfoot salt
1 quartmaple sap 4wild leeks
2 small wild onions

Pour the sap in a birch bark container or other non-metallic container. Cut up the onions into small pieces and add to the sap. Place the porcupine chops one at a time into the solution, placing one wild leek between the chops. Let stand overnight in cool place In the morning grease the stone griddle with fat and remove the chops from the marinade and fry on the griddle. Serve on hot cornmeal cakes.

Blackfeet Indian Jellied Snake

Any fat snake will do for this recipe, but the Indians particularly, fond of the rattlesnake.

1 Medium, deadly Snake 1 Handful mint
2 Cups Indian Vinegar 2 Fingers colts salt

Cut off the head and skin and take out the intestines. Cut into 1inch pieces. Wash in cold water. Put the vinegar, mint and coltsfoot salting some kind of container; put the pieces of snake on top and cover with cold water. Let stand overnight. Put the container over the hot coals in the morning and simmer slowly for about 35 minutes. Remove from the fire and cool. The dish is read to eat when the jelly has set.

Indian Stuffed and baked, good and freshly, road-killed, raccoon with Apples


1 medium raccoon Stuffing
4 large onion 2 tbsp butter
4 strips salted pork 5 large tart apples
2 cups beef stock 1 tsp cinnamon
1 cu- dry bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Skin and clean the raccoon. Wash well and remove most of the fat. Place in a large soup kettle, cover with water and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Peel, core and dice the apples into a mixing bowl. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the cinnamon, bread crumbs, salt and pepper. Mix real good. Take the raccoon out of the cooking juices and cool. Stuff the raccoon and sew up the cavity. Place the raccoon, breast down on the rack of a roasting pan, with the legs folded under the body and fastened with a string. Drape the salt pork over the back of the raccoon and fasten with tooth picks. Place the onions beside the raccoon on the rack.

Bake at 400 degrees F. for 10 minutes to brown the mneat. Reduce the heat to 325 degrees and add the 2 cups of beef stock. Cook for one hour, basting as often as possible. Transfer to a heated platter surrounded by whole onions.

Fried Dry Fish

1 medium dry fish
1 quart maple or birch sap
3 fingers coltsfoot salt
2 fingers bear or porcupine fat

Catch the fish and fillet it. Let it dry. Place the fish in a birth bar container. Add the sap and let stan overnight., Femove the fish in the morning and leave to drip dry. Grease the store griddle with the fat and place the fish, skinside down on the griddle. Sprinkle with salt and fry for about 15 minutes.Be sure your griddle is hot.Serve hot.


DEER VENISON (OGALALA SIOUX)

Put clean dried meat in bread pan and roast; when ready, sprinkle some water on the roasted meat, cool, wrap meat in a clean white cloth and pound until meat is real tender and flacky; add tallow grease, and sugar and raisins to taste.

Assiniboin bear stew

5 pounds bear meat 5 medium dandelion roots, sliced
3 cups maple or birch 25 medium arrohead tubers, sliced
4 cups water 1 handful fresh mint leaves
2 thumbnails coltsfoot salt 3 wild leeks, cut up
4 wild onions

Trim all fat from the meat and wash well in cold water. Cut the meat into 2 - inch cubes. Cut the meat into 2-inch cubes. Skewer the meat on a sapling and sear on all sidesover an open fire. Pour the sap and water into the plastic liner and add remaining ingredients.

Put the sapling basket in the kettle and drop there hot stones into the basket. As the stone cool, change them to keep the stew simmering for about 45 minutes. Remove the basket and stones and serve the stew as hot as possible.

(c) 2006 Dale Hill