Prepariang Indian Bread
John Heckewelder (see previous Wanishi! John Heckewelder post) wrote about Indian Bread prepared from corn when fully ripe and quite dry. The dry corn is pounded as fine as possible and sifted. I am preparing the dough in a small trade kettle with very fine corn flour and water.
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Posted in Corn, culinary history, food, food history, John Heckewelder, Lenape, Native American, receipts, recipes | Tags: corn, culinary history, food, food history, foodways, Lenape, Native American
John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder, 1743-1823
John Heckewelder was born in England in 1743 and came to Pennsylvania with his Moravian family in 1754, His goal was to be a Moravian evangelist and in 1762 he achieved this goal when he was asked to assist Christopher Frederick Post and David Zeisberger (Moravian missionaries) with the Christian Delaware Indians located in Western Pennsylvania. John’s detailed descriptions of some of the food preparation techniques of the Delaware are invaluable for the interpretation of Lenape foodways. Wanishi (thank-you) John!
(The portrait of John Heckewelder was painted by Gustav Anton von Senckendorff, 1823 and is in the collection of the American Philosophical Society)
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Posted in culinary history, food history, John Heckewelder, Lenape, Native American | Tags: culinary history, food history, foodways, Lenape, Native American
Drying the Staghorn Sumac Drupes
Freshly harvested, ripe Staghorn Sumac drupes make a wonderful, ascorbic acid rich tea (in cold water) when ripe and the drupes can be dried so the tea can be made in the off-season the rest of the year. To dry my sumac, I have strung the drupes on cordage and hung them in the sun on my drying rack.
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Preparing Staghorn Sumac for Drying
To prepare staghorn sumac for drying, a needle made from a deer bone is used to put cordage through the stem.
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Posted in drying, food, food history, Food preservation, Lenape, Native American, Staghorn sumac | Tags: culinary history, food, food history, Food preservation, foodways, Lenape, Native American
Preparing Sumac Tea
To make sumac tea (a great source of Vitamin C), a bone needle was used with cordage to hang just the conic, dense clusters of small, red drupes in cool water to infuse the flavor and water soluble vitamins. The drupes were bruised lightly prior to immersing in water making certain that only the drupes were in the water. To keep the tea from becoming bitter, the clay pot needed to be moved several times to the shade.
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Posted in Beverages, culinary history, food history, Lenape, Native American, recipes, Staghorn sumac, Sumac Tea | Tags: culinary history, food history, foodways, Lenape, Native American
Harvested Sumac
The staghorn sumac in my elm bark basket was perfect for harvesting in my home state of Maine. To determine if the sumac is ready, taste a drupe (a fruit with a thin skin, fleshy body, hard stone and inner seed) before picking to insure that there is a tangy, lemon flavor.
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Posted in culinary history, food, food history, Lenape, Native American, Native plants, Staghorn sumac | Tags: culinary history, food, food history, foodways, Lenape, Native American
Staghorn Sumac on House Island
Last week in Maine on Casco Bay, the staghorn sumac was ready for harvesting on House Island. This picture shows the open-spread of the shrub with picturesque branches resembling the velvety antlers of a deer, hence the name Staghorn.
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Posted in culinary history, food, food history, Lenape, Native American, Native plants, Staghorn sumac | Tags: culinary history, food, food history, Native American, Native plants
Ship’s Provisions
My shipboard cooking display includes typical provisions on a sailing vessel. From left to right in the picture is front row-a box of tea, dried beans and rice, dried apples and raisins; second row- a gill cup filled with coffee beans, salted cod, and dried beef. There is a bowl of pounded ship biscuit at the back of the table. From these staples, ships cooks would create a variety of meals.
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Posted in culinary history, food, food history, Provisions, Sea Biscuit, Shipboard cooking | Tags: culinary history, food, food history, foodways, shipboard cooking
Soaking Ship Biscuit for Dandyfunk
If you look carefully at the picture, you can see a few weevils that were a common problem on shipboard in the flour and water ship biscuit. This ship biscuit is being soaked in water to create a consistency similar to a dumpling. To make dandyfunk, molasses will be added after the biscuits are soft.
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Posted in culinary history, Dandyfunk, food, food history, receipts, recipes, Sea Biscuit, Shipboard cooking | Tags: culinary history, food, food history, foodways, shipboard cooking
Lobscouce
In the picture, I am adding more of the pounded hard sea-biscuit to my reproduction shipboard kettle for the lobscouce, a thick stew prepared in this case with dried, salted beef, potato, turnip, carrot, cabbage and plenty of pounded sea biscuit.
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Posted in culinary history, food, food history, Lobscouce, receipts, recipes, Sea Biscuit, Shipboard cooking | Tags: culinary history, food, food history, foodways, shipboard cooking
Heart to Hearth Cookery 