Blue Corn Piki Bread

Hopi Nation, Arizona, and other Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest — piki is specifically associated with Hopi culture; the technique and the piki stone are family heirlooms passed from mother to daughter; the bread is made for ceremonial occasions, weddings, and as gifts

The most technically demanding bread in Indigenous North American cuisine — a paper-thin, blue-grey cornmeal wafer made by the Hopi and other Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest from a batter of finely ground blue corn flour and juniper ash water (which provides the blue-grey colour and the alkaline chemistry of nixtamalisation without the corn-boiling process), cooked by spreading the batter in an almost translucent layer over a super-heated, polished stone slab (a piki stone) with a bare hand. The hand is wiped quickly over the stone, leaving a paper-thin coat; the batter cooks in seconds and is peeled off in large, flexible sheets that are then stacked and folded into rolls. Piki bread is made by Hopi women who train for years to achieve the required skill; the hand-on-stone technique without burns requires developed calluses and complete mastery of heat.

Ceremonial food — made for Hopi kachina dances, weddings, and as a traditional gift; eaten dry as a snack or softened by dipping in stew; the flavour is subtly of blue corn and juniper ash, slightly mineral; its value is cultural and community-bound as much as culinary