Native American Food Heritage And Culture

Native American Influence In Southwest Cuisine

The influence of Native American heritage and culture can be seen far and wide in the cooking style and techniques used in southwest cuisine.  The indigenous people of these regions helped build the foundation for this tasty cuisine and helped the foods evolve into what they have become today.  Let's take a look at how this culture became infused in the foods of the region.

Ingredients

One of the most important ingredients introduced by the Native Americans is corn.  To this culture, corn is sacred and extremely important to the daily diet of the people.  There are a variety of uses including hominy, posole (a soupy stew), and tortillas.  Corn husks are used to wrap tamales, while the kernels of corn are used to make tortillas.  The Native Americans made flat breads out of corn on a daily basis, just like we eat bread.

Beans and chile peppers were used as a staple in many main dishes.  In fact, the Native Americans were suspected to have stomachs of iron due to the fact that they ate so many chile peppers.  Hunting and foraging were an important part of daily life.  However, in order to thrive, Native American people also cultivated crops to ensure greater and more reliable yields.  Along with corn, squash and beans were cultivated.  For meat, wild game was a standard ingredient whenever available.

Methods

The Native Americans relied heavily on living off the resources the land had to offer.   These resources required finding ways to cook the food they hunted, foraged, and harvested in the best ways possible.  Also, the preparation of food was treated like a ritual, and the people took much pride in making each dish.  Some of the preparation and cooking methods are still used in traditional southwest cuisine today.  Those methods may include simmering, oven roasting, braising, slow cooking, grinding, smoking, drying, and frying.

Of course, in modern times we rely on cookware and utensils that we buy at the store.  In the days before mass produced kitchen tools, Native Americans created tools out of what was available.  They used stones to grind corn, herbs, and spices.  Gourds were hollowed out for spoons, ladles, bowls, and other forms of storage.  Flat stones were heated over a fire and used to fry foods.  Clay was used to form pots for roasting meats and other foods.  Today, many cooks use clay casseroles for roasting and claim it results in a more
tender and juicy piece of poultry or meat.

The Native Americans have helped bring about many of the dishes we recognize today as southwest cuisine.  The pride and effort they put into the simple task of cooking food is something that should not go unnoticed.  Due to the fact that they lived off the land, many of the foods and cooking methods introduced by Native Americans are full of nutritional value.  As modern southwestern cuisine has evolved, talented cooks have found ways of fusing the old with the new to create truly outstanding meals.  No matter where you travel in the southwest, you are bound to see, and taste, the influences from the Native American people.