Bean
Bread (Tsu-Ya-Ga)
- 1
cup of cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
2 cups milk
1/4 cup melted shortening
1 beaten egg
2 tbsp honey
- 4
cups drained brown beans
Mix
all of these ingredients, except
beans, thoroughly, and then fold in
the beans. Pour into greased, heated
pan. Bake at 450 until brown (usually
30 minutes or so) According
to Aggie Lossiah, this is the old
traditional recipe: "Sure, corn
meal is the main part of bean bread.
Corn meal is the main part of the food
eaten by us Indians. Beans are used
too. If you folks will visit with me
for a while, I'll show you how bean
bread ought to be made. How my old
Cherokee granny made it when we lived
in that cave of the Tennessee River,
only I have a few pots and pans like
my old granny never had. Maybe I'll
give you a a taste of some that I
cooked yesterday, if you want it. You
passed my corn patch yonder as you
came up the mountain. That's flour
corn, the best kind to eat. Right in
that patch is where I gathered this
corn I'm going to use. I'll set the
beans to cooking here by the fire in
the fireplace whilst we go out to the
branch to skin the corn. First, pour
some water into this iron pot here
over the fire. Sift in some good wood
ashes. Pour in the shelled corn. Stir
once in a while and let cook until the
bubbles begin to come up. Take out a
grain to test it with the fingers, to
see if the skin is ready to slip. That
is the way we tell if it has been in
the lye water long enough. Wash the
corn in a basket seive to get rid of
the skins. Put the corn into the
wooden beater (Ka No Na ) and beat it
with a heavy piece of wood. Yes, use
the little end; the big end is to give
weight. Feel the meal to see if it is
fine enough. The hot beans and their
soup are poured into the pan of meal,
No, leave out the salt. Work quickly
so the mixture will not get cold. Work
the mixture into a ball. Flatten the
ball because we are making
"broadswords" as my
granddaddy called them. Wrap the corn
blades around the dumpling. The blades
were pulled green and hung up by the
little end to dry, then scalded to
make limber. Fold the ends under to
hold or tie with a strong grass. We'll
cook these in the iron pot out by the
branch. The clear water I left out
there should be boiling by now.
The bean dumplings will have to boil
about an hour." Do no put any
salt in Bean Bread or it will crumble.