Page:St. Nicholas, vol. 40.1 (1912-1913).djvu/415

  Two of these have been sealed up to cook the food in them, and the woman is heating the third by stirring up the fire in it through the poke-hole. Her husband has just returned from the field with some corn, and has stopped to see how the fire is progressing. 

earliest methods of cooking about which we know anything definite, as far as this country is concerned, were carried on by the ancient  of New Mexico and Arizona.

Most of their cooking was done out-of-doors in pits dug in the ground, from eighteen to twenty-four inches deep. These were made in rows, or singly, with rims raised about eight inches above the ground. They were covered with stone slabs and sealed with mud during the cooking operation. A hot fire was first made in them, and, when the desired temperature was attained, all the fire and ashes were taken out, a large pot of corn-meal mush was put in, and the pit sealed for several hours, or until the mush was thoroughly cooked.

Later, when they built masonry houses, they had well-made chimneys and fireplaces. One of the illustrations shows a fireplace with a “hood” to carry away the smoke and the fumes from the cooking—a contrivance that few modern houses possess.

Corn was cultivated and acorns were gathered, this latter usually being done by the women, who also did the cooking. Meal was made from the corn or the acorns, and a batter prepared from this meal was baked in thin cakes on a stone slab directly under the fire hood. The temperature of this stone was kept right for cooking by adding