Piki Explained
Piki is a bread made from blue corn meal used in Hopi cuisine.
Preparation
Blue corn, a staple grain of the Hopi, is first reduced to a fine powder on a metate. It is then mixed with water and burnt ashes of native bushes or juniper trees[1] [2] [3] for purposes of nixtamalization (nutritional modification of corn by means of lime or other alkali). The thin batter is then smeared by hand over a large flat baking stone[4] that has been heated over a fire and coated with oil made from pounded seeds of the native American plants squash and sunflower, and also from the seeds of watermelon, which though originally from Africa, has been in the Americas for at least 500 years.[5] Piki bread bakes almost instantaneously and is peeled from the rock in sheets so thin they are translucent.[6] Several sheets of the bread are often rolled up loosely into flattened scrolls.[7]
Piki takes several days to make from scratch. Piki is prepared by women in various phases of the courtship and marriage ritual. It is eaten by the couple on the morning of the marriage ceremony.[8] [9] In some Hopi pow wows it is handed out by the kachina dancers.
See also
External links
Notes and References
- Book: American Indian Food. Linda Murray Berzok. 2005. Greenwood Press. 2007-10-15 . 978-0-313-32989-0.
- Book: 2007-10-15. Diabetes As a Disease of Civilization: The Impact of Culture Change on Indigenous People. Jennie Rose Joeand Robert S. Young. 1993. Walter de Gruyter . 978-3-11-013474-2.
- Web site: Whole Grains and Grain liroducts . 2007-10-15 . Gale Jack and Alex Jack . Amberwaves . https://web.archive.org/web/20170817035740/http://www.amberwaves.org/mediaPages/recipes/corn.html . 2017-08-17 . dead .
- Web site: The Testimony of Hands: Piki Stone . University of New Mexico: The Testimony of Hands, an Online Exploration of the Archaeology Collections of the Maxwell Museum . 1 April 2023.
- Book: Native American ethnobotany. Daniel E. Moerman. 1998. Timber Press. 2007-10-15. 978-0-88192-453-4.
- Book: The Piki Maker: Disabled American Indians, Cultural Beliefs, and Traditional Behaviors. Carol Locust. Native American Research and Training Center, University of Arizona. 1994. 2010-03-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20100707103047/http://nartc.fcm.arizona.edu/publications/monographs/monograph13.htm. 2010-07-07. dead.
- News: New York Times. 2007-10-15. On the Mesas of the Hopis. Lois Essary Jacka. October 2, 1998.
- Book: Bride's Book of Etiquette. Conde Nast Publications . Sharon Watts . 2003 . 978-0-8058-9566-7.
- Book: the Hopi way. Robert Boissiere. 1985. Sunstone Press. 2007-10-15. 978-0-86534-055-8.
