Several weeks ago I wrote a Back Then column that provided a Cherokee recipe for making yellow-jacket soup. I was surprised at the number of comments the column elicited from both Cherokee and non-Cherokee readers. There seems to be a wider interest than I’d supposed in some of the more “exotic” Cherokee dishes. Before taking a quick look at several more of them, let’s first consider aspects of the ancient Cherokee doctrines concerning food.

During the late 1880s, anthropologist James Mooney spent parts of three years in the Big Cove community of Cherokee recording their history and lifestyles. In regard to food, he observed in Myths of the Cherokee (1900) that, “The Indian is a thorough believer in the doctrine that ‘man is what he eats.’ A continuance adherence to the diet commonly used by a bear will finally give to the eater the bear’s nature, if not also the bear form and nature. A certain term of ‘white man’s food’ will give the Indian the white man’s nature, so that neither the remedies nor the spells of the Indian doctor will have any effect upon him.” In other words, food was not only important for sustenance but also as a spiritual regimen.

In The Southeastern Indians (1976), University of Georgia anthropologist Charles Hudson noted that, “The Southeastern Indians did not eat regular meals. They ate whenever they were hungry ... They ate food from pottery or gourd containers or from shallow wooden bowls carved out of gum, poplar, box elder, sycamore, or elm. They ate with large spoons made from gourds, wood, or bison horn, and they also ate with their fingers.”

Hudson also noted — in regard to the more seemingly “exotic” foods in their diets — that, “When faced with the prospect of starvation, the Southeastern Indians knew techniques for eating snakes, lizards, frogs, snails, and insects. Indeed into the present century some Cherokee women knew a recipe for making a soup out of yellow jacket larvae and a recipe for fried locusts.”

The following recipes are excerpted from Cherokee Cooklore: Preparing Cherokee Foods, which was written by Samuel E. Beck and Mary Ulmer Chiltoskey (wife of Goingback Chiltoskey, the legendary woodcarver). The 72-page pamphlet was first published by the Chiltoskeys in 1951.

“Toads (Wi-Lo-Si) — Catch toads, twist off their heads, pull off the skin while all the time holding the animal under running water lest the meat become very bitter. Parboil, then cook as any other meat.”

“Knee-deeps (Du-S-Du) — Catch early frogs, called knee-deeps, scald and skin. Parboil and cook like other meats.”

“Blood pudding — When butchering an animal have a bucket handy with salt in the bottom to catch the blood as soon as the animal is stuck. Stir the blood to keep it from clotting. When the pouch is removed, clean it well, add a little fat to the blood as it is put into the pouch and add black pepper. Sew up the opening of the pouch, put into a pot of water and boil until done. Set aside to cool before slicing to serve.”

“Crayfish (Ge-Tv-Nv) — Catch crayfish by baiting them with groundhog meat or buttermilk. Pinch off the tails and legs to use. Parboil, remove the hulls and fry the little meat that is left. When crisp it is ready to eat. May also be made into soup or stew after being fried.”

“Locust (V-Le) — Gather the locust (cicada) at night immediately after they have left their shells, wash and fry them in a small amount of grease. Eat these hot or cold. Be sure that you gather the locust before the sun hits them or they will not be good. If you gather them before they split out of their shells, they only have to be peeled to be ready to wash and fry.”

Hudson correctly observed that many Southeastern Indian foods “live on today in traditional Southern cooking.” These would include, of course, staples like corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, etc. But some of the more “exotic” foods listed above were also accommodated into the diets of both white and black Southerners.

For instance, when I was growing up during the middle of the 20th century in Virginia, we gigged frogs, skinned them, and fried their legs. It was and still is a delicacy. We used to catch crayfish with our hands and fry the meat from their tail along with whole minnows that we caught with cane poles. The dish was as tasty as French fries. (I have no idea as to how one would go about catching crayfish with buttermilk.) On several occasions, I was offered blood pudding but declined. Toads and locusts were never an option.

George Ellison is a writer who lives in Bryson City. He wrote the biographical introductions for the reissues of two Appalachian classics: Horace Kephart’s Our Southern Highlanders and James Mooney’s History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees. Readers can contact him at P.O. Box 1262, Bryson City, N.C. 28713, or at ellisongeorge@cs.com.