Jicarilla Apache Texts: Information Concerning Industries and Ceremonies: 73. Methods of Cooking Corn

In olden times corn was roasted in the car and afterward ground with a metate. The meal was stirred into a pot of hot water. When cooked it was removed from the fire and served to the company in bowls. It was eaten from the hand.

Sometimes corn was ground without first being roasted. Wheat, after it had been allowed to sprout, was ground. This with the corn meal was stirred into a large pot and cooked. The corn meal was first stirred in. The pot was then withdrawn from the fire and the ground wheat thoroughly stirred in. It was then placed in the fire and cooked for some time. When it was dished out for serving, sugar was added. They ate it that way, sweetened.

Corn was sometimes cooked in water as mush. It was then poured into a dish-like hollow made in the snow. Sometimes the mush was poured on top of the metate. As it ran off the stone they would say to it, "Run far off from the stone." Then the mush did not run very far from the stone when it was so told. It was eaten with the hands. That way they ate it. Sometimes peas and corn were mixed and cooked with the feet of deer in a pot. When it was boiled they ate it.

Others roasted the peas and then ground them. The meal was placed in water and made into soup. That they ate.

Sometimes wheat flour was kneaded, spread out each way and twisted. This was buried in the ashes. The dried amole fruit was well worked up