The Wondrous Bread of the Pueblo Nations
January 29, 2019 10:56 AM Subscribe
The Pueblos’ baking traditions and golden loaves are renowned among the Native American tribes of the Southwest.
Traditional Native American foods weren’t a big part of my childhood on the Navajo Nation reservation in Crownpoint, New Mexico. For the most part, our plates were filled with simple, subsistence stuff: potatoes, ground beef, rice, canned vegetables. Few of the dishes we ate left much of a dent in my memory, nor were they meant to. But then there was Pueblo bread.
Traditional Native American foods weren’t a big part of my childhood on the Navajo Nation reservation in Crownpoint, New Mexico. For the most part, our plates were filled with simple, subsistence stuff: potatoes, ground beef, rice, canned vegetables. Few of the dishes we ate left much of a dent in my memory, nor were they meant to. But then there was Pueblo bread.
mmmm, sounds good! such a good read.
posted by sarahdrugs at 11:23 AM on January 29, 2019
posted by sarahdrugs at 11:23 AM on January 29, 2019
Norma Naranjo does a better job of explaining how the Spanish affected Native cuisines.
posted by Ideefixe at 1:29 PM on January 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Ideefixe at 1:29 PM on January 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
MMMMMMMMMM!!!
Planning a trip to Albuquerque to see youngest daughter this summer. My salivary glands are now prepped for the bread.
posted by BlueHorse at 1:49 PM on January 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
Planning a trip to Albuquerque to see youngest daughter this summer. My salivary glands are now prepped for the bread.
posted by BlueHorse at 1:49 PM on January 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
Fascinating. One of the places that the author visited were using pizza ovens - I wonder how robust the tradition of building and using hornos is?
posted by porpoise at 2:56 PM on January 29, 2019
posted by porpoise at 2:56 PM on January 29, 2019
New Mexico is possibly America's most underrated state.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 3:17 PM on January 29, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 3:17 PM on January 29, 2019 [4 favorites]
A couple more articles about Pueblo Bread: the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and NYTimes 1982.
I lived in Santa Fe for two years and somehow never had this bread. Clearly my loss, but I wonder if I turned my nose up at it? Reading the article it just sounds like very simple white bread. Simple white flour, no mention of fermentation. Perhaps baking in the horno is what makes it distinctive, the "tough crust" mentioned in the article? Or maybe it's just a good simple bread.
posted by Nelson at 5:05 PM on January 29, 2019
I lived in Santa Fe for two years and somehow never had this bread. Clearly my loss, but I wonder if I turned my nose up at it? Reading the article it just sounds like very simple white bread. Simple white flour, no mention of fermentation. Perhaps baking in the horno is what makes it distinctive, the "tough crust" mentioned in the article? Or maybe it's just a good simple bread.
posted by Nelson at 5:05 PM on January 29, 2019
Sorry, sorry. New Mexico: a desert, but without those cool cacti that they have in Arizona. Also they insist on pouring green glop on all the food; not very Instagramable. One time I went camping in what turned out to be literally an old bombing range. Avoid.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:38 PM on January 29, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:38 PM on January 29, 2019 [2 favorites]
Nice license plates, though.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:40 PM on January 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:40 PM on January 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
I had some once when I was in high school and went to a camp based in New Mexico. It *is* a pretty simple white bread, as Nelson observed, and I can imagine (although I don't know) that after a day or two it loses its appeal. But straight out of the oven, it can make you believe that life is worth living.
posted by uosuaq at 6:21 PM on January 29, 2019
posted by uosuaq at 6:21 PM on January 29, 2019
Yea, that green glop they “insist on pouring on all the food,” kind of like that weird round boiled bread they insist on in New York, or those weird “weenie” things they pile shit on in Chicago. Local food spoils everything. Go go Gadget Dinty Moore canned stew!
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 1:49 AM on January 30, 2019
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 1:49 AM on January 30, 2019
I just can't win, can I?
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 3:35 AM on January 30, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 3:35 AM on January 30, 2019 [5 favorites]
This reminded me of the scene in Smoke Signals about Arlene's magical fry bread. Film set in Coeur D-Alene Indian Reservation, Plummer, Idaho.
posted by TrishaU at 6:20 AM on January 30, 2019
posted by TrishaU at 6:20 AM on January 30, 2019
Nice license plates, though.
The old yellow and red design, yeah. The new ones are hideous.
Pueblo bread is the best.
Local food spoils everything. Go go Gadget Dinty Moore canned stew!
I think you missed some context relevant to that comment.
posted by PMdixon at 9:36 AM on January 30, 2019
The old yellow and red design, yeah. The new ones are hideous.
Pueblo bread is the best.
Local food spoils everything. Go go Gadget Dinty Moore canned stew!
I think you missed some context relevant to that comment.
posted by PMdixon at 9:36 AM on January 30, 2019
>>The new ones are hideous.
You mean the black with red & green chiles? I like 'em. In fact, I didn't even need new plates last time I registered but paid for the new black ones. I always thought the yellow ones look like some kind of alert or warning. To each his own I guess.
Love the green glop done right.
@ Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The:
We're cool, but yeah, shhhh.
posted by falsedmitri at 5:47 PM on January 30, 2019
You mean the black with red & green chiles? I like 'em. In fact, I didn't even need new plates last time I registered but paid for the new black ones. I always thought the yellow ones look like some kind of alert or warning. To each his own I guess.
Love the green glop done right.
@ Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The:
We're cool, but yeah, shhhh.
posted by falsedmitri at 5:47 PM on January 30, 2019
The bread is good, but it's thoughts of sopapillas that give me cravings.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:26 PM on January 30, 2019
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:26 PM on January 30, 2019
This is making me wish so much that I could eat gluten. I would love to get to try out these breads and learn to make them.
posted by bile and syntax at 9:23 AM on January 31, 2019
posted by bile and syntax at 9:23 AM on January 31, 2019
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posted by allthinky at 11:16 AM on January 29, 2019 [3 favorites]