Keeping Foods for Later Use
Water is the Enemy
Dehydration, as the term implies, is the act of removing moisture from, in this case, foods, which in turn not only preserves it but makes the foods smaller and lighter. But why does dehydration preserve the foods? Well, water in the food is also food for bacteria and fungus, both of which will rot the food if they have adequate water. By taking away the water, we take away the food source that encourages such microbial organisms to thrive on the food we want preserved.
Likewise, bacteria and fungus needs air, and by the skin (outside) of the food drying first (during the sun drying or smoking process) we can cut off any further air from the inside of the foods where it could possibly feed these harmful entities that rot our foods. But even with access to air, without moisture such bacteria and fungus will not get far. Keep in mind for dehydration to work the foods must be thin and/or small so the drying process can reach the full interior within a certain amount of time.
There was two main ways the historic Native Peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands dried their foods: with heat energy from the sun, and with heat energy and smoke from the fire. Both could be utilized together, or depending on the foods, one method would be utilized over the other. According to some contemporary sources, fruits are more favored for the sun drying process while meats and vegetables are more often smoked (such a difference in methods seems to be based on the sugar content and acidity of the foods being dried). While we know there seems to be times historic Native Peoples did one or the other, possibly based on the food being a fruit or vegetable or meat, we don’t have enough evidence to say this was the pattern always followed. For example, if squash rings/strips, a fruit, were hung in a longhouse to dry, then it dried as it received a dose of smoke from the interior cooking fires indirectly. Also, some suspect many Native Peoples hung fish in the sun, whether it was the whole drying process, or to start the drying process or finish it (in conjunction with smoking it). So whether we can apply this pattern to historic Native Northeastern food processing remains unknown, so we won’t “assume” the drying process based on this contemporary-defined pattern. In fact, a clearer pattern may arise not based on the foods being processed, but on the environment the foods are processed in (particularly the humidity and winds).
Using the Power of Sunlight to Dry Foods
As you can imagine, drying food in the sun required not only a clear, sunny day, but a day of little humidity. Humidity slows down, and can even halt the drying process even when foods are placed in direct sun. According to the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service, a minimum temperature of 86 degrees with less than 60% humidity is best for drying fruits out-of-doors in the sun. With these two conditions, wind also has to be taken into consideration.
Air flow can in fact aid greatly to sun drying. Why? The low-humidity air that surrounds the foods soaks in the moisture from the drying foods. A light breeze can whisk away the surrounding moist air and replace it with dry air to again repeat the process – a continual supply of dry air. And not only does the wind circulate the air surrounding the moist food but it also helps to remove moisture from the surface of the food. In an example of air flow drying surfaces directly, think about hand dryersâÂ?¦ the moving air separates water molecules from your skin (breaks them away from your skin and other water molecules) and usually sweeps them away with the moving air, thus resulting in your hands getting dryer faster. This is what is wanted when sun drying, for gentle breezes to be present helping the moisture “dry up” quicker from the foods. It is worth noting that heat makes air molecules move and vibrate more, and that in smoking foods (stepping away from sun drying for a moment), the warm, smoky air creates an updraft that will also help in dehydrating foods faster (when placed above the heat source, as many Native Peoples did when smoking).
We have gotten the question, “What about bugs getting your food while it dries in the sun?” To be realistic, not too much could be done, with exception to the area in which the drying was taking place. One may chose to not perform sun drying in an area infested with bugs, or during a time of year when certain bug activities spike (hence, this may be one of those environmental reasons to smoke foods and not sun dry them). Gentle breezes that aided to drying could also discourage bugs. But we also have to consider the usual areas sun drying occurred, that being in villages or possibly dense fishing camps. In these areas, the numerous fires probably filled the air around the working space with smoke particles, and bugs don’t tend to like such areas with smoke residues in the air and on the objects of the same area. Indeed, even if not smoking foods, the indirect smoke residues from nearby fires may have still attached to the drying foods, and these compounds surrounding the foods could have discouraged some bugs. And although we might see an issue in bugs landing on foods, laying eggs, and such, because we tend to eat dehydrated foods like beef jerky and fruit chips as is (uncooked), we must keep in mind that most dehydrated Native foods were cooked before consuming (even fruits and jerky, which will be discussed later on).
Smoking Foods to Preserve Them
While sun drying foods tended to be a more passive way of dehydration, smoking foods was more labor intensive but usually produced the best results. Not only did smoking foods put the food in direct dry heat (not of high heat cooking temperatures but of lower temperatures), but it also imparted residues from the smoke (oils from the wood being burned). Such residues partly coated the foods, adding to the preservation barrier between the food and the air.
Curing meat was, in a sense, a whole other process that used salt. Salt helped to dehydrate foods and inhibit bacteria growth. Salt curing has great antiquity all over the world, except in Northeastern Native societies. Northeastern Woodland cultures didn’t seemingly produce or use salt, but their Woodland neighbors to the south and the nearby Midwestern Mississippians did. Yet such salt appears to have only been used as a condiment and not for meat curing. Even those salt-consuming Natives of the Eastern Woodlands relied on their age-old practice of smoke preservation for meats without salt.
Getting around the Morning Dew
When sun drying, the cool night air and morning dew made it so drying foods had to be put under shelter every night. Likewise, unless fires were attended to all night, foods being smoked without cover might also need to be put up for the night or suffer the moisture that blanketed the outside with dawn.
One such way to possibly get around the dew may have been exemplified by the pre-contact Native Peoples in what is now New Jersey. There, archaeologists have uncovered large areas “paved” with river stones. Some stones showed evidence of being heated by fire, and some “paved” areas also revealed what appeared to be posthole stains under the stones. Why would anyone take the time to make such areas, some as large as 25 by 50 feet in size? Well, it might have had something to do with preserving foods, possibly fish and shellfish to be exact. These areas were located next to great fishing spots along the rivers, and it is theorized that families came to these “fishing camps” to trap large amounts of fish en route to breed, as well as collect mussels and clams. Because large amounts of fish were collected, and the fact that fish runs were seasonal, then much of the fish caught were preserved for later use. These stones may have served as a warm plate on which shellfish were laid on – as the stones heated up in the sun, they released such heat back into the shellfish. The shellfish then reaped the benefit of heat sources from above and below, possibly cutting their dehydration time in half. Concerning the evidence of those stones that were burned and the postholes below them, these may have been drying racks built above the stones to which fish were laid upon. Smoky fires were set below the racks on top of the stones all day, and as the night got long and the attendants went to bed, the stones that were busy soaking in heat throughout the day now released such heat through the late night to early morning, possibly pushing back the moisture by radiating a dry heat to the food above. Stones have an amazing capability to make fire pits hotter and release heat far longer after the flames have died and the coals have cooled.
Storing Foods for Later Use
While dehydrating foods was the first step in preserving them, proper storage was key to making sure they continued to stay edible for long periods of time. The Northeastern Peoples were known to pack dried food in containers and bags made of natural fibers, bark, and other materials, before putting up. Most smoked and sundried foods can last for quite a while, at least up to a year with proper storage in dry spaces. One such dry place was located above the sleeping platforms in longhouses and wigwams, in the ceiling area of the home. This area tended be dry and even smoky, both conditions created by the interior fires of the home (note: cool food storage could be found below the sleeping platforms on the ground level, and under the ground in food storage pits).
Consuming Dried Foods
Unlike the store-bought meat jerky or trial mix berries we consume from plastic packaging, Native dried foods of the past were much harder. Many dehydrated snack foods we consume today have a higher moisture content, which is retained partly by the packaging, which allows us to eat it dry, even if hard to chew. The dehydrated Native foods of the past, if kept correctly, were much harder and usually needed to be hydrated to consume. Most dehydrated foods were, frankly, “added to the cooking pot.” Even if a person wanted to consume jerked meat as “trail food” (without cooking), they consumed it probably in small pieces they could suck on until it broke down in the mouth (which took much longer time than today’s mass produced jerky), or, as was commonly practiced with trail foods (like parched corn), the jerked meat was crushed in a mortar and the “powdered meat” was pinched into the mouth. This powdered meat could also be combined with meat fat, berries, cornmeal, and/or bean-meal to create an energy food commonly known today as pemmican. However, in general, this “rock-hard” dehydrated food was hydrated in the cooking process and consumed soft.
Often we are asked about taste of dehydrated foods. Like any dried food, they tend to lack the full flavor they possessed fresh. This is why dried fruits are often sugared and jerky is often seasoned. Likewise, the Native Peoples could overcome the scourge of “flat food flavor” with seasoning. This included adding maple sugar by those tribes that produced sugar, and adding animal fat (saved away for such use). Salt was not much of a condiment for the Northeastern Native Peoples, with exception to the Mississippian who inhabited the Ohio River Valley and the Mississippi River (some Native Peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands also used salt as a condiment historically).
Selected Sources:
– “Grease, Fat, and Oil: Historic Native American Condiments” by J. Diemer-Eaton
– “How Does Smoking Preserve Food?” by Paul Telesco
– “Maple Sugar Vs. Salt in Native American Food Culture” by J. Diemer-Eaton – “Preserving Food: Drying Foods and Vegetables” Edited by Judy A. Harrison, Ph.D., and Elizabeth L. Andress, Ph.D., Extension Foods Specialists, University of Georgia
– “Salt Use Among Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands” by J. Diemer-Eaton
– “The Lenape-Delaware Indian Heritage: 10,000BC to AD2000” by Herbert C. Kraft
– “Winds and Drying” from “Ask a Scientist” answered by ProfHoff and Ali Khounsary, Ph.D.
