Title: Baked corn bread ... ogahagq'wa` wata'`gqda'`
 Categories: Native, Canadian
      Yield: 1 Servings
 
           No Ingredients Found
 
  The name signifies "under the ashes cooked," and is applied to bread
  baked in the embers, or on flat stones placed over the fire. As
  reported in Samuel de Champlain's, "Voyages of Samuel de Champlain"
  Prince Society ed., (Boston 1878-1882), this seems to have been
  formerly in much favour. Its disuse is probably owing to the
  abandonment of the open fireplace and to the general adoption of
  European foods.
  
  The mixture used was practically the same as for boiled bread. About
  three-quarters of an hour was required for cooking. As the loaves
  baked somewhat more quickly on top, they were turned over to be
  evenly done. To tell when they were finished, the cakes were tapped
  with the finger. If not sufficiently cooked, they felt heavy to the
  touch and, when done, felt lighter and more spongy.  The last part of
  the operation was to wash them in cold water to free them from ashes
  or cinders, as was reported by Peter John (Onondaga) and his wife
  (Mohawk). The Senecas are said to have omitted the beans or berries.
  On the other hand, several informants at Grand River, Ontario, state
  specifically that beans, berries, and sometimes maple sugar were
  included in the baked corn bread mixture. James Adair, in "History of
  the American Indians" (London, 1775), remarks about the use of a
  similar food among the Choctaw and Chickasaw. Mrs. John Williams
  (Mohawk) of Caughnawaga states that red beans used to be mixed with
  the paste for baked corn bread, and the whole covered with cabbage
  leaves or corn husks. Boiled bread is the only kind made there now.
  Peter John (Onondaga), Grand River, Ontario, relates that some fifty
  or sixty years ago a fire was frequently made in the open field,
  while they were harvesting or husking corn, and bread baked in the
  ashes in the old-fashioned manner. A single cake of this bread was
  said, by John Echo (Onondaga), to have formerly been placed in the
  coffin with a corpse. According to Peter Atkins (Mohawk) and others
  of Grand River, Ontario, besides the food which is set aside for the
  dead at wakes and which they are supposed to require for their own
  consumption, a little is sometimes put into the hand.  This is to be
  thrown to a savage cat and dog which guard a bridge over which the
  dead have to pass. While the animals are devouring the food the dead
  person slips over in safety. Source:  "Iroquois Foods and Food
  Preparation, Memoir 86, No. 12, Anthropological Series" by F. W.
  Waugh, (Ottawa Government Printing Bureau, 1916) pp. 82-83
  
  Submitted By   BILL CHRISTMAS