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Seneca Indian Dinner
One time a Seneca friend named Moses Shongo, one of the finest men I ever knew, told me how to prepare a big meal for a crowd with the least labor.
One must dig a hole in the ground about two feet deep, line the bottom with rocks and allow a hot fire to burn in this hole for an hour. Since potatoes cook slower than corn, these are placed in the coals, covered with two inches of moist earth, and another fire built on this, which lasts perhaps half an hour. Then ears of corn with the husks on are laid as thick as possible in the coals, with eggs placed on top carefully, and covered with two inches of moist earth again. Once more a fire is built and maintained for an hour. When the coals have nearly died out the feast supply is ready to be opened. You may ask why Indians used chicken eggs, when these fowl are not native of America? But the answer is that the custom began long ago by using sea-gull eggs, also wild turkey, duck, grouse and even crow. Ralph Hubbard IMU Fish, fowl, rabbits, small pigs may be cooked without utensils in a hole in the ground. A hole a foot and a half each way, and the same depth, is lined with stones-then the hole is filled with kindling and twigs and over it a criss-cross twofoot pile of two- to three-inch hardwood. In perhaps an hour the wood has burned and the hole is full of hot stones. Rapidly clean out the embers, put on a heavy layer of sweet leaves (basswood, sweet gum, wild grape, maple, sassafras or vegetable tops). Place the chicken or fish on these leaves in the center of the hole with any potatoes, corn on the cob, close to the fish or fowl or animal-then cover with leaves and stones, spread over it wet canvas or burlaps and then cover it completely with earth. In a couple of hours this Imu is ready! Come quickly!!
FIRE BY RUBBING TWO STICKS TOGETHER Scouts of all degrees know how to care for matches, conserve their supply and keep it dry. But your First Class Scout can probably show you how to make a fire even without matches, a friction fire obtained by rubbing two sticks together. For in this primitive but practical fashion enough heat can be generated in a jiffy to make a spark. It can be done in a minute, if it can be done at all.
All the makings but one grow right in the woods, and that you get out of your shoe. You need first of all a dry piece of easily inflammable wood to serve as a hearth, with a notched hole in the edge of it; next, a pointed wooden spindle to stand upright like a drill and work itself into the hole when it is whirled, thus furnishing the friction; and, lastly, a bow of convenient length to assist the motive power. Any curved branch, not too flexible, will do for the bow, since you are not going to shoot arrows with it. But the bowstring, which has to be strong and durable, is what you take out of your shoe or boot, a shoestring, preferably leather, which makes the neatest and handiest bowstring when on the trail. Hold the bow at right angles to the drill, give the bowstring a single hitch around the drill, while you rest the palm of your left hand on top and hold the drill steady in the hearth hole. Then work the bow back and forth in front of you with your right hand. If the bowstring is tight enough, but not too tight, the drill will whirl, hot wood dust will fall out of the hole and down the notch and presently the spark will appear, that is, if you have hitched up everything right and the wood is the kind that makes hot dust and sparks. Have some tinder ready to catch the first spark-dry bark, cotton waste or a torn up charred cotton rag will do and fan or blow your fire to life. Meanwhile, you have probably bored a blister in your hand, too, from steadying the drill. So it's good to know that a little block of wood with a hollow cut in it to fit the top of the drill, and some grease in that hollow, will save your hand and also increase the whirling speed.
If you master this technique sufficiently to enter a fire making contest and win a silver dollar thereby, you can fix a point of flint to the drill, bore a hole in the dollar and hang it by a string around your neck, as did the wild man of Borneo in James Austin Wilder's Jack-Knife Cookery. For, incidentally, this bowstring driven drill is one of the commonest tools of the Orient, where workers on every craftsman's street sit over it crosslegged, piercing everything from a pearl to a wooden joist. A BURNING GLASS FIRE We know some old trail hounds who always carry a magnifying glass in a safely buttoned pocket along with their compass. A small strong glass focusing sunlight in a burning spot on some good tinder will set it alight in less time than you imagine.
Two pit-cooking methods are described here: a layered pit for potatoes, corn and eggs, and a leaf-lined imu for fish, fowl or a small animal. Both depend on heat stored in stone rather than on flame, so the stone-heating stage is where the whole thing is won or lost.
- Heat the stones, not the foodIn the imu the fire's job is to bring the rock up to temperature, and the embers are raked out before anything goes in; in the first pit the food sits in the coals and fresh fires are built above each earth layer. Either way an hour of hard hardwood fire is a minimum, and a pit that has only been warmed will produce raw food two hours later. Stones should be dry field rock rather than waterlogged or porous stone, which can fracture violently when heated.
- Pit sizes as givenThe first pit is about two feet deep; the second is a foot and a half each way and the same depth. Neither is a large pit; the book offers the second for fish, fowl, rabbits or small pigs with potatoes and corn tucked alongside, which is as much as an eighteen-inch hole will hold.
- The "moist earth" layerThe two inches of damp soil between courses is insulation and a steam source, not a garnish. Soil that is bone dry lets heat escape upward and the second fire will scorch what is underneath it.
- Corn and potatoesCorn goes in with the husks on, which do the work of foil; soaking the ears first gives more steam. Potatoes want the full sequence, and even then a large baker may come out firm at the center.
- Eggs in the pitWhole shell eggs buried in coals frequently burst. Pricking the broad end helps, and the eggs should sit on the corn rather than against hot stone.
- Choosing the leavesThe list given -- basswood, sweet gum, wild grape, maple, sassafras -- is safe and aromatic. Do not substitute wild cherry, laurel, rhododendron, oleander or yew, all of which are toxic and all of which grow where people camp.
- Meat needs a thermometerAn hour of stone heat and two hours buried is a plausible cook for a small chicken or a fish, but it is not a reliable one for pork or for anything over a few pounds. Check the thickest part before serving: 165F for poultry, 145F for pork, 145F for fish. If it is short, finish it over the fire rather than reburying it.
- Wild eggs are not an optionGull, duck and crow eggs are protected in the United States and Canada under migratory bird law; wild turkey and grouse are game birds whose nests and eggs are protected under state and provincial regulation. Use chicken eggs.