Seasoning

The way in which indigenous people flavored their food.

       Several kinds of plants were used by the woodland Indians to flavor their foods. One important plant used as a flavoring was a kind of wild onion that grew in great numbers many years ago in the rich moist soil of the areas around Chicago. Some say that the name "Chicago" comes from "shika'ko," the native word meaning "skunk place" which probably was a good name for the area. It must not have smelled very good.

       The wild onions were gathered early in the spring when the underground bulbs were round and plump. The native women removed the strong burning taste of the bulbs by placing them in ovens and covering them with a layer of grass. The heat did not damage the bulbs. After the bulbs had been dried in the sun they made a flavorsome addition to their meals.

       Another important and popular seasoning used by the woodland natives was wild ginger. Today the wild ginger is a fairly common plant, forming large sprawling mats throughout the rich woodlands of the Chicago region. The broad heart-shaped leaves, three to six inches wide, are more familiar to us than the blossoms, which appear early in spring and last a very short time. The creeping aromatic rootstock was the part of the plant that the Indians used as a seasoning.

       The descendants of some of the natives who lived in the Chicago area a long time ago now live on a reservation near Tama, Iowa. From the nearby Iowa River native people catch large numbers of catfish. These natives still use the wild ginger as a seasoning. They cook it with the catfish to take away the muddy flavor and make the fish tasty.

       Maple sugar was an important flavoring; it was used in a great number of dishes. We, of course, know it best as a syrup for pancakes or as a candy, but, for the natives, it took the place of salt. The indigenous tribes of America used very little salt in the early years, and even today they use very little of it. They chose to seasoned even their meats with maple sugar, which does not sound really strange to us because we flavor hams with brown sugar. But would we enjoy having our fish flavored with maple sugar as the natives did?

       The woodland tribes also used the berries of the spice bush to flavor some of their dishes. The berries were dried and ground into powder. This flavoring tasted very much like the allspice that we have in our kitchens today.

       Both the Native Americans and the early settlers considered the mint their favorite flavoring. We still use mint, and with it we flavor sauces, chewing gum, and jellies. Indigenous people called it the "fragrant herb." By crushing the leaves and stems in water it made a pleasant-tasting drink. Sometimes they stewed mint leaves with meats or added them to soups. Occasionally when dried or smoked meats were being stored away for winter eating, a layer of mint leaves was placed between two layers of meat. Thus while it was stored away the meat took on a mint flavor that increased with the length of time that the meat was stored. The aroma of mint leaves is so strong that native trappers sometimes placed their traps in a boiling solution of water and mint leaves to take away the human smell that causes animals to avoid traps. Svoboda

Read more about the gifts from Native Americans:

• Gifts From The Native Americans  
• Cultivated Plants 
• Wild Plants
• Nuts and Berries
• Beverages
• Maple Sugar
• Bark and Bast
• Medicine
• Gourds and Pumpkins and Their Uses

Learn more about seasoning for traditional native foods:

• Meskwaki Nation
• All About Herbs in Native American Cooking