The American (Beard Register) Canon
Two hundred and sixty-nine entries
Indigenous North American Breads & Pastry
Three entries
Three breads anchor this section, each made from minimal ingredients and each carrying a distinct set of techniques. Bannock moves across fire, pan, and fat; Blue Corn Piki Bread demands a precision of hand and heat that sets it apart as the most technically demanding bread in this tradition; Frybread is simple in ingredients and complex in meaning. The foundations of flour, water, and fat come first, followed by the canonical fried form, and finally the most exacting preparation.
A dark roux takes forty-five minutes to reach the colour of chocolate and underpins some of the most exacting preparations in this chapter. The method determines the dish: dry heat, wet heat, smoke, and ember each extract different things from the same ingredients. These entries move from foundational technique through the canonical preparations and into their regional and variant forms.