Now I've heard from several people that Native American food is bland, but I haven't found that to be true. What were the Cherokee growing and gathering in the 1700s? Sweet potatoes, tomatoes, blue corn, hickory nuts, hazelnuts, mustard, a variety of squash, a variety of beans and peas, mountain tobacco, blackberries, blueberries, huckleberries, cattails, ramsons (wild garlic), ginsing, and maple sugar among many other things. There is also archaeological evidence that chilies grown as far south as the Inca empire were traded as far north as the Cree territories. We could easily make the assumption that they would have been eaten in the old Cherokee Nation during the time of 2 chiefs. In addition, there was a very wide variety of meats on the table, and wild honey to be collected since bees were introduced in the 1600s and many hives had gone feral.
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Wild Onion Eggs
Gather wild onions (AKA: Ramsons or Suh-gi) or the green tops of Elephant Garlic. Chop em up and fry in bacon grease or fatback or lard. Add beaten eggs and cook like you do scrambled eggs.
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Fried Milky Corn
Dent corn kernels have a stage before they get hard and full of starch where they are full of a milky juice. You can eat it fresh like this, and raw it's like candy. You have to eat it within an hour of harvest though or they get hard. You slice the kernels off the cob and fry them in bacon grease. Simple. It's a good side dish with venison and summer squash.
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Bean Bread
Varies from family to family, but is found universally in all three bands of Cherokee. I have heard of Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) and Creek (Mvskoke) making it too.
Make your favorite cornbread batter, add 2 tbs of honey or maple syrup and a cup and a half of cooked drained pinto beans or blackeyed peas, and bake as directed in your cornbread recipe.
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There is a delicacy called Kannuchi which I'm not currently capable of making. It's made of pounded hickory nuts. I'll have to research the process more.
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Topic: "Speak American!" they say... (Read 11987 times)