Fry Bread

Fry bread — a round of wheat-flour dough fried in oil or lard until puffed, golden, and crispy — is the most culturally complex food in Native American cuisine. It is simultaneously celebrated (as a symbol of Native identity, as the base of the Indian taco, as the centrepiece of powwows and festivals) and mourned (as a product of forced displacement — the flour, lard, and sugar rations provided by the U.S. government to indigenous peoples confined to reservations where they could no longer hunt, gather, or grow their traditional foods). Fry bread was born from the Long Walk of the Navajo (1864) and from every other forced march and reservation confinement across the American West. The ingredients — commodity flour, commodity lard, commodity sugar — were what the government provided. The technique — frying dough in fat — was what indigenous cooks created from those imposed ingredients. The dish is a document of survival and a reminder of what was lost.

A simple dough of wheat flour, baking powder, salt, and warm water (some traditions add a small amount of milk or sugar), formed into a round disc approximately 20cm in diameter and 5mm thick, then fried in hot oil or lard (175°C) until puffed and golden on both sides — 1-2 minutes per side. The exterior should be crispy and golden; the interior should be soft, slightly chewy, and hollow where the steam created air pockets during frying.

Indian taco toppings. With honey and powdered sugar (as a sweet). With beans alongside. Fry bread is the plate, the utensil, and the starch simultaneously.