Sunday, November 29, 2020

Nocake, Pinole, Even Rockahominy...It’s Still Parched Corn to Me! ©

 

An excerpt from “Movable Feasts: Rockhominy”, by Charles R. Blair, Backpacker Magazine, Spring 1974, page 48.

 

Recently, I was googling through some old magazines online when I stumbled across an article about rockhominy in the Spring 1974, Backpacker Magazine, and it got me to thinking...  

This article can be used by experimental archaeologists, re-enactors or historical trekkers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and by anyone who is interested in wilderness survival and trekking food. 

For a video, watch “How to Make Parched Corn ©”, HERE.  – Author’s note.

 

Nocake, pinole, rockahominy...what’s that?

 

All of these are simply different names for parched and crushed or milled corn, or for my European readers, maize.  Parched and powdered corn was the original Native American traveling food.

 

Parching, or browning the corn kernels, both dehydrates and pre-cooks the corn and helps to preserve it, while grinding or crushing the kernels makes the parched corn easier to carry and easier to eat.  Native Americans, and later Euro-American woodsmen, who travelled in the wilderness of North America carried parched corn with them on their journeys.  If a traveler hadn’t been able to find fresh meat for a meal, he or she would eat a spoonful or two of parched corn and wash it down with a cup or bowl of water and would have had a “good meal1,  especially if they had combined it with some jerky, dried fruit, maple sugar, chocolate or portable soup2.

 

Parched corn is not only nutritious, but when taken with water, instead of being cooked in a pot, it swells in your stomach and makes you feel full.

 

From “Generic – Corn, Parched”, HERE.

 


When Europeans first came to North America, and came upon corn, or maize as it came to be known in Europe, for the first time; they had no word for it or for the food products that were made from it,  Usually, they used the local Native American word for that food, and that is why there are different regional names for parched corn.

 

An excerpt from Wood's New-England's Prospect, by William Wood, page 76, Part Two.


In the New England states, according to William Wood, who wrote Wood's New-England's Prospect in 1634, parched corn was called “nocake”, an anglicized version of the Narragansett word “nókehick4, which apparently sounds like “nookik5.  In Virginia, parched corn was “rockahominy”, according to The Westover Manuscript, by William Byrd, which detailed an expedition along the line between Virginia and North Carolina in 1728 to 1729.  John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder, a Moravian missionary who was active in the frontier areas of Pennsylvania and Ohio during the late 18th century, wrote in History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations, about the Lenni Lenape6, who called parched corn “Psindamócan or Tassmanáne”.  And according to Horace Kephart, writing in The Book of Camping and Woodcraft, Vol. II on page 153, that in Louisiana parched corn was known as “gofio” and in Mexico it was called “pinole”.

 

An excerpt from History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations, by John Heckewelder, page 195


 

“So, how do your make parched corn”, you ask.  That is a good question, so let’s dive into it.  For more information on making parched corn watch my video, “How to Make Parched Corn ©”, HERE.

 

Step One: assemble your ingredients and tools. Photograph by the Author.

 

The first step is to assemble your ingredients and tools.  I used Indian Head: Old Fashioned Stone Ground Yellow Corn Meal, a course ground corn flour made of “yellow dent corn”.  Indian Head, and for that matter the majority of corn meal today, is made of “yellow dent corn”, zea mays var. indentata.  Historically, parched corn was made from “flint corn”, zea mays var. indurata, which is also known as “indian corn”.

 

Photograph by the Author.

If you choose to use corn meal, make sure that it is NOT degerminated.  Many mills remove the germ portion and the hull of the kernel, which allows the grain to be stored for a much longer time without refrigeration.  Unfortunately, removing the germ and the hull also removes much of the fats and vitamins, particularly niacin (vitamin B3), from the corn meal.  Always read the package to make sure, that your corn meal is whole grain and is not degerminated.

 

Photograph by the Author.

You could also parch whole corn kernels, form either yellow dent or flint corn.  I chose to use corn meal so I wouldn’t have to take the extra step of crushing or grinding the kernels, after I parched them.  If you use whole kernels, after you parch them, you can either grind them in a coffee mill or hand grinder or crush them in a mortar and pestle.

 

A hand grinder, photograph by the Author.


Step Two: parching the corn.  Note how the corn meal is a bright yellow color, photograph by the Author.


I didn’t grease the cast iron pot that I used before I put the corn meal into it.  Some recipes that you find online will tell you to lightly grease the cast iron pot or skillet before you parch the corn.  However, since historically Native Americans parched their corn kernels in hot ashes, obviously without grease or oil, I chose to parch my corn meal in ungreased pot.

 

I set the heat of my stove between low and medium heat and stirred the corn meal constantly.  It took about ten minutes to parch one cup, 8 ounces or 120 grams, of corn meal.  As the corn meal becomes parched, it changes from a bright yellow color to a light brown color and begins to slightly smoke.

 

The corn meal is now parched, note how it is now a light brown color, photograph by the Author.

 

A side-by-side comparison between corn meal and parched corn, note the difference in color, photograph by the Author.

Historically, Native Americans sometimes added maple sugar to their parched corn, mixing it into the corn after it was parched and ground or crushed.  In the past, I have added brown sugar, instead of maple sugar, to my parched corn and it is very tasty.  I added a ¼ cup (48 grams) of light brown sugar to each cup of parched corn.  I know that brown sugar isn’t very authentic, but I was out of maple sugar that day.

 


 


According to the Indian Head corn meal package, one ¼ cup (1 ounce or 30 grams) of corn meal is a meal and ¼ cup equals three tablespoonfuls.  Photograph by the Author.

 

After I finished parching my corn meal, since I hadn’t had any lunch and I was famished, I took a tablespoonful of parched corn (10 grams) with a cup of water (eight ounces or approximately ¼ liter).  I felt full for at more than two hours, as the corn meal expanded in my stomach.

 

Historically, authors suggested that “Two heaping tablespoonfuls was the usual ‘sup’...7, although William Wood’s wrote that three tablespoonfuls were a meal and John Heckewelder suggested that you only needed one tablespoonful of parched corn (with 16 ounces or ½ half a liter of water) for a meal.

 

An excerpt from Wood's New-England's Prospect, by William Wood, page 76, Part Two.

You can also make cakes out of parched corn, by wetting it with water and baking it, , as the author Daniel Neal suggests, or you can make porridge or mush by boiling it in water, as the John Heckewelder says the Lenni Lenape did at their camps.  

 

An excerpt from History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations, by John Heckewelder, page 195

 

An excerpt from the The History of New-England, by Daniel Neal, page 200.

Don’t eat too much dry, uncooked parched corn and always drink water with it, remember it swells in your stomach!  Follow John Heckewelder’s advice.

 

An excerpt from History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations, by John Heckewelder, page 195


So, during this long Thanksgiving Day weekend, I hope that you get a chance to make some accurate and historic Native American travelling food.  Have fun and enjoy!

 

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Fuzzy Wuzzy was a ... Weatherman!? ©”, where we will talk about Wooly Bear caterpillars and whether or not they can forecast the weather.

 

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!


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That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Notes

 

1 William Wood, 1634, as reported in The Book of Camping and Woodcraft, by Horace Kephart, page 151

 

2 Todays bouillon, which during the 18th and early 19th centuries was known as “cake soup”, “Veal Glue” (The Lady’s Companion, 1743) or “glue-broth” (The Westover Manuscripts, 1841). 

 

Hmm... that sounds appetizing doesn’t it.

 

William Byrd, who wrote The Westover Manuscript, which described a trip along the dividing line of Virginia and North Carolina in the years of 1728 to 1729, noted that “...two to three drachms [one drachma is about 4.3 grams or .15 ounces – Author’s note], dissolved in boiling water with a little salt, will make half a pint of good broth...this broth will be still more heartening, if you thicken every mess with half a spoonful of rockahominy...”.

 

William Byrd, The Westover Manuscripts, page 70

 

4 From “Nocake” by List of Nouns

 

5 Horace Kephart, in The Book of Camping and Woodcraft, Vol. II, on page 150, wrote that in “New England it went by the name ‘nocake’, a corruption of the Indian word nookik”, possibly because that is how it sounded to him when it was pronounced.

 

6 The Lenni Lenape, were also called the Delaware by chroniclers during the 18th, 19th and even up through most of the 20th centuries.

 

7 Horace Kephart, in The Book of Camping and Woodcraft, Vol. II, on page 154.

 

Sources

 

Blair, Charles R.; “Movable Feasts: Rockhominy”, Backpacker, Spring 1974, Vol. 6, No. 4, page 48, https://books.google.com/books?id=7eMDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=backpacker+magazine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiS4LD5k5rtAhWzsDEKHQijBY44oAEQ6AEwA3oECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=backpacker%20magazine&f=false, accessed October 29, 2020

 

Byrd, William; The Westover Manuscripts: Containing the History of the Dividing Line, [Printed by Edmund and Julian C. Ruffin, Petersburg, 1841] p. 70 to 71, https://books.google.com/books?id=TMLpBsVTdWIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22The+Westover+Manuscripts%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjSpYu266jlAhWlUt8KHXpeAXIQ6AEwAHoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=%22The%20Westover%20Manuscripts%22&f=false, accessed 10/19/19

 

Earle, Alice Morse; Home Life In Colonial Days, [The Macmillan Company, New York, 1898], page 137, https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5Qaft6BzI649tDdpTAJX9k_SdpFzpmGPlJCJtvo51qUTzd0Frq0l3pq8aVoZs_Un0nubzWgPF1Efl9QStp5cVszVx7nWiChTTfnezGnBg5xTajAtZr8lT_pCDbw29ArWXvRnfPCJdn82cJ431m9tK54pP57BLouVYCnIt4doPHLLsicQfN_WNghx-LP8zEnYPjdfmg6_TnhZyjQC75DTrg_sWG-1cN1__xLD71_Ku_ARL_yDQZfSRn1AGenMDo4p_XnotovzBr7vWwC606KtOgfOq3UJxIw, accessed November 23, 2020

 

“Generic – Corn, Parched”, [© 2020 Under Armour, Inc.], https://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/454623218, accessed November 23, 2020

 

Heckewelder, John; History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations, [The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1876], page 195,

https://www.google.com/books/edition/History_Manners_and_Customs_of_the_India/F8wLAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%E2%80%9CHistory,+Manners+and+Customs+of+the+Indian+Nations%E2%80%9D&printsec=frontcover, accessed November 24, 2020

 

Kephart, Horace; The Book of Camping and Woodcraft, Vol. II, [The Macmillan Company, New York, 1947] page 150 to 155

 

List of Nouns, “Nocake”, [© 2017 List of Nouns], https://listofnouns.net/noun-nocake-definition-and-examples, accessed November 24, 2020

 

Neal, Daniel; The History of New-England, Volume II, [Printed for A. Ward, in Little-Britain, London, 1747], page 200, https://books.google.com/books?id=u3opAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA200&dq=%22NOCAKE%22&hl=en&ei=y2X5TPbvIY6cOqvizdUK&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22NOCAKE%22&f=false, accessed November 21, 2020

 

Waugh, F. W.; Iroquis Foods and Food Preparation, Memoir 86, No. 12, Anthropological Series, [Government Printing Office, Department of Mines, Ottawa, Canada, 1916], pages 88-90, https://ia800207.us.archive.org/28/items/cu31924101546921/cu31924101546921.pdf, accessed November 22, 2020

 

Wood, William; Wood's New-England's Prospect, [Prince Society, published by John Wilson and Son, Boston, 1865], Part Two, page 76, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Wood_s_New_England_s_Prospect/ZWoFAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22william+wood%22+nocake&pg=PA76&printsec=frontcover, accessed 11/24/20

 

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