The PA Melting Pot: THE PA MELTING POT: 12

This column was written for the Uniontown (PA) Herald-Standard and appeared on October 16, 2014. Below this column: more information, links for recipes and photos of and about Native Americans and their Foods.

The Melting Pot: A look at the evolution of food in Southwestern PA - Part 12 - NATIVE AMERICANS

Previous columns have covered peoples who immigrated to this country from abroad and how they affected the cuisine of SW PA, NW WV and SE Ohio. However, it is necessary to talk about the Native Americans who were living here before the mass immigrations and how they affected our cuisine. Native Americans indigenous to the area included the Lenni Lenape (Iroquois) or numerous tribes speaking the Algonquin language, the Shawnees and the Six Nations (the Onondagas, Cayugas, Oneidas, Senecas, Mohawks and Tuscaroras).

When the early settlers of PA FIRST landed, the Indians received them with open-hearted kindness, supplied their wants and shared with them the comforts of their humble dwellings. Wm. Penn said, “Their lives weren’t complicated, that they were happy, sharing, wanted little, and they enjoyed their hunting, fishing and fowling. They eat twice a day, morning and evening and their seats and table are the ground.” Later, of course, the French and Indians allied against the English. And that is another story.

The Indians believed in the Natural Universe or gathering foods from the ground, trees, bushes, plants, water, mountain forests and from animals. They hunted, fished and gathered: bear, wild turkey, duck, goose, rabbit, quail, deer, pigs, cows, catfish, salmon, oysters, fruit, wild rice, black pepper, wheat and sugar. They gathered staghorn sumac (tea) and fruit such as grapes, cherries, paw-paws (like papayas) and berries (blackberries, strawberries, mulberries, blueberries, huckleberries, gooseberries and raspberries). They also gathered nuts such as the black walnut, hickory, white oat acorn (used for flour), chestnuts (before the 1900 blight), butternuts, beech, chinquapin and birch from trees.

The first foods were eaten raw, smoked, dried and boiled. Dried foods included corn, eventually freeze-dried potatoes, jerky and vanilla beans among others. Then as the civilization became more sophisticated foods were fried and baked. The primary food of the Americas was corn. Hundreds of dishes around the world are centered on corn. There were and are several types of corn: dent (aka field corn; most of the corn grown in the US is dent corn: dent refers to the little dent in kernel) which is used in cornmeal flour, corn chips, tortillas and taco shells, etc.), sweet corn, popcorn (aka Zea which has a hard moisture sealed shell which enables it to pop), flint corn (aka Indian corn) and dozens of others.

Some recipes that Native Americans in western PA might have prepared: Currant Pudding, Wild Rice (with cranberry and sage), Thunder Milk (rice, honey & tamarinds), Lichen (moss) Tea, Baked Raccoon, Baked Jicama with Beef, Succotash, Easy Venison Roll Ups, Butter Fried Morels, Corn Soup, Dandelion Stir Fry, Fried Corn Mush, Gluckaston (seaweed, corn & shrub needle water), Squash Blossoms, Ma’at Salad (radishes, red leaf lettuce, chicory & wild onions), Vegan Rice Pudding (vanilla or almond extract, water, soy milk, rice and brown sugar), Cranberry Bread, Floral Green Salad (young cattail shoots, oil, leeks, wild garlic, fiddle head ferns, lettuce and sunflower seeds) and Broccoli & Wild Rice Casserole (cream cheese, chopped onion and broccoli and wild rice).

For recipes from 1700s to 1960s and modern day links visit www.ThePAMeltingPot.com. Christine Willard, a native of western Pennsylvania, researches and blogs about the food unique to Western Pennsylvania. She currently resides in North Carolina. Her blog can be found at www.ThePAMeltingPot.com.