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Haudenosaunee boiled cornbread

Name: Haudenosaunee boiled cornbread with beans
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Yield: 4 small loaves (about 10 cm across)
Cuisine: Indigenous peoples of the Americas
Ingredients: 240 g nixtamalised white flint corn flour; 120 g cooked kidney or cranberry beans; 420 ml boiling water; 0.25 tsp salt; 3000 ml water; maple syrup; sunflower or walnut oil, or rendered fat

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History

"Predates the use of ovens in the Northeast" (Mohawk chef). Corn is sold through the Iroquois White Corn Project, Ganondagan

Sources

DSection 'Boiled Corn Bread' (Onondaga name given): hulled corn is pounded and sifted, mixed with boiling water to a stiff paste, often with beans or berries, slapped into disks about 7 inches across and slid into boiling water for about an hour. Waugh quotes Lafitau (Moeurs, vol. II, p. 94): the bread is 'a mass of flour kneaded without ... either leaven or salt. They cover it with corn leaves and cook it in the ashes or in the kettle. They often also add oil, grease, beans and fruits.' Footnote: Bartram (Observations, pp. 60-61), at a conference at Onondaga Castle, N.Y., in 1743, 'states that the cakes of boiled bread were 6 or 7 inches in diameter and about 2 thick'. Also cites Sagard (Voyage, vol. I, p. 94) for the Huron process. (1724 (Lafitau); 1743 (Bartram at Onondaga); 1916 (Waugh)). Iroquois Foods and Food Preparation (Canada Geological Survey Memoir 86, Anthropological Series 12; Ottawa, 1916), pp. 80-82, F. W. Waugh; Cornell University Library scan hosted by the Culinary Historians of Canada (text extracted and read)
DReview table of historical Three Sisters preparations: Sagard (1632), Huron: ground corn 'beaten to a paste with water, formed into balls, wrapped in corn husks, boiled'; the Jesuit Relations also describe corn bread made from boiled kernels, ground, formed into discs and boiled; Parker (1910) and Waugh (1916) for the Iroquois. (1632 (Sagard, Huron)). Historical Indigenous Food Preparation Using Produce of the Three Sisters Intercropping System, Foods 10(3), 2021, Tania M. Ngapo et al. (PMC8001537)
S'Predates the use of ovens in the Northeast' (Mohawk chef, already in the record).. existing record note (data/dumplings/haudenosaunee-boiled-cornbread.yaml), not re-checked

Found by research in October 2026; awaiting editorial review.

Haudenosaunee boiled cornbread with beans

4 small loaves (about 10 cm across)Prep 15 min · Cook 35 mineasyFold: none

Ingredients for 4

Dough

240 gnixtamalised white flint corn flour (Iroquois white corn flour; fine masa harina is the usual substitute)
120 gcooked kidney or cranberry beans (drained; half lightly mashed and half left whole)
420 mlboiling water (add a little more if the dough is crumbly)
0.3 tspsalt (optional; a modern addition)

Cooking

3000 mlwater (for boiling the loaves)

To serve

maple syrup (optional)
sunflower or walnut oil, or rendered fat (optional)

Method

Bring a large pot of water to a gentle rolling boil.
Mix the corn flour, the salt if using, and the mashed beans in a bowl.
Pour in the boiling water and stir hard until it forms a stiff, even dough. Fold in the whole beans.
Wet your hands in cold water, since the dough is very hot, and shape it into 4 balls. Flatten each into a thick round about 10 cm across.
Slide the loaves one at a time into the boiling water.
Keep at a mild boil until the loaves float and are firm right through. Larger loaves need up to 45 minutes. · timer 30 min
Lift out with a slotted spoon and let them drain.
Serve warm, plain or with maple syrup, oil or fat. Leftovers are good sliced and fried.

Notes. Boiled cornbread is a living food of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Tuscarora). It is made for ceremonies and community gatherings as well as everyday meals, and families have their own ways of making it; this draft is a home version, not a ceremonial recipe. The flour comes from white flint corn that is hulled with hardwood ash (nixtamalisation), which frees niacin and makes the corn and beans together far more nourishing. Kidney beans are common; some families grow a dedicated "corn bread bean". Older practice used no salt. Some cooks add berries, nuts or maple. Iroquois white corn flour is sold by the Iroquois White Corn Project at Ganondagan. Text to be reviewed by a Haudenosaunee cultural advisor before publishing.

Written for the atlas from several sources, cross-checked: Oneida Corn Bread Recipe, Ganondagan State Historic Site (Iroquois White Corn Project); Taste the Region: Haudenosaunee Corn Bread, Dave Smoke McCluskey (Mohawk) via Scenic Hudson. Not yet kitchen-tested.

History sources are from the atlas and not yet independently checked.

Family independent