Methods rather than recipes
The title of this article mentions recipes, but the historical record for Apache cooking is mostly about methods. Written sources from outsiders, such as ethnographers, soldiers and travelers, tend to describe how foods were handled in general terms, not to give measured instructions. Families in Apache communities have their own knowledge of foods and preparation, and much of it is passed on in person. Inventing recipes from scattered descriptions would be inaccurate, so this article sticks to techniques that are widely documented, and says where they varied between nations such as the Western Apache, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan and Plains Apache.
Pit-roasting agave
The most distinctive technique is the earth oven used for agave, also called mescal. In general terms, people dug a pit, lined it with stones, and built a fire on them to heat the stones. The trimmed agave hearts were then set in, covered with plant material and earth, and left to cook slowly, often for a day or longer. The long cooking turns the plant’s tough, fibrous core into something soft and sweet enough to eat.
Cooked agave could be eaten at once, shared, or dried for storage. Accounts describe it being pressed into flat cakes and dried so that it would keep. Archaeologists working in the Southwest find roasting pits, often called mescal pits or roasting features, at many sites, and these are used as evidence of how long and how widely agave was processed. How much agave was eaten, and how important it was, varied with whether agave grew near a group’s range. It was especially important to people in the southern New Mexico mountains where the Mescalero Apache people lived.
Roasting on coals and fires
Much food was cooked more simply. Meat could be roasted over a fire or placed on hot coals, and some foods, such as certain seeds, nuts or cobs of corn, could be parched or roasted in coals. Piñon nuts, for example, are generally described as roasted before eating, which also helps them keep. Roasting in this way needed little equipment and suited camps that moved with the seasons, a pattern discussed under the Apache seasonal round.
Boiling and stewing
Boiling was done in containers made by the group or obtained by trade. Several sources describe stone boiling, in which hot stones are dropped into a watertight basket of water to heat it. Pottery was made and used by some groups, including the Jicarilla in northern New Mexico, and later iron and steel pots became common through trade and, in the nineteenth century, through rations. These containers connect to the craft traditions of Apache basket makers and Apache pottery, which were as much part of the kitchen as the food itself.
Grinding
Corn, seeds and some nuts were ground using stone tools, usually a flat or basin-shaped stone and a hand-held stone. Ground foods could be mixed with water and cooked in different ways. Groups that farmed, or that obtained corn in trade, relied on this equipment more than groups that did not. Grinding was labor-intensive and often a shared task, which made it a time when conversation and teaching took place.
Drying and storing
Drying was probably the single most important preservation method. Meat cut into thin strips could be dried on racks or lines in sun and air, so that a successful hunt would feed a family for a long time. Fruits such as prickly pear and yucca fruit were also dried, as were cooked agave and some wild greens. Dried foods were stored in baskets, hide containers and other containers, and sometimes in caches, hidden or protected storage places in rock shelters or the ground. Storage allowed a group to move, to share, and to get through winter or periods of conflict.
Processing animals involved more than food. The same hunt that provided meat also provided hides, which involved the skills discussed in Apache hide tanning, and bone and sinew for tools. Little was wasted, though the exact uses differed by animal and group.
Tools in the kitchen
Cooking equipment overlapped with the wider toolkit described under Apache tools: digging sticks and knives for harvesting, stone grinders, baskets for gathering and carrying, and containers for cooking and storage. Much of this was made from local materials, and the people making it often had long familiarity with where to find the best of each.
How methods changed
Metal pots, flour, lard and canned goods entered Apache kitchens as trade and later rations arrived, and the reservation period limited access to many gathering areas. Dishes made with ration ingredients, such as fry bread, became widely shared foods in the reservation era and are common at many Native gatherings now, though they are generally not considered pre-contact foods. Traditional methods did not disappear; many people continue to pit-roast agave, dry meat, or gather and prepare plants, often with an emphasis on teaching younger generations. Details of current practice differ by nation and family, and some knowledge is private. For current community programs, readers should look to each nation’s official website.