IROOUOiS USES OF MAIZE ^^ 



i 



These early citations are interesting because they prove how 

 persistently tlie Iroquois have clung to the dishes of their ancestors. 



Baked green corn,^ Ogon'sa'. When the milk has set, Tusca- 

 rora and sweet corn is scraped from the cob and beaten to a paste 

 in a mortar. This should be done just before the evening meal. 

 After the housework is finished the housewife lines a large kettle 

 with basswood leaves three deep. The corn paste is then dumped 

 in up to two thirds the depth of the vessel. The top is smoothed 

 down and covered by three layers of leaves. Cold ashes to a 

 finger's depth are now thrown over the leaves and smoothed down. 

 A small fire is built under the kettle which hangs suspended 

 from a crane or tripod. Glowing charcoal is placed on the ashes 

 at the top. The small fire is kept brisk and the coals at the top 

 renewed three times. The cook may now retire for the night if 

 her kettle hangs in a shielded place or in a fire pit. In the morniiTg 

 ihe ashes and top leaves are carefully removed and the baked corn 

 dumped out. The odor of this steaming ogon'sa' is most appetizing 

 and it is eaten greedily with grease or butter. For winter's use the 

 caked mass is sliced and dried in the sun all day, taken in at night 

 to prevent dew from spoiling it and dogs or night prowlers from 

 taking too much of it, and set out again in the morning to allow the 

 sun to complete the drying. The ogon'sa' is then ready to be stored 

 away for the winter. When ready for use the winter's store of 

 ogon'sa' was taken from storage and a sufficient quantity for a meal 

 thrown in cold water and immediately put on the stove. Boihng for 

 a little more than a half hour produces a deUcious dish. Ogon'sa' 

 was one of the favorite foods of the Iroquois and remains so to this 

 day. An Onondaga or Seneca can hardly mention the name without 

 showing that it brings memories of the pleasant repasts that it has 



afforded. 



In recent years the corn paste is prepared with a potato masher 

 in a chopping bowl, or by running the corn as cut from the cob 

 through a food chopper. Baking is done in shallow dripping pans 

 in the oven. The food so prepared, however, lacks a deliciousness 

 that makes the older method still popular. 



Boiled green corn, O'kni'staga^'o'.- This is simply the green 

 corn on the cob with which we are all familiar. Tuscarora corn 

 as well as sweet corn, however, was used with equal favor. It was 



1 This is the ble'-grille of the French. 



2 Ganossto'ho" is the Mohawk equivalent. 



