The family dinner

The dried leaves from the amaranth plant were put inside of the cooking vessel, adding some additional taste and nourishment. Some seeds from the same plant had been added even though they were rarely eaten unless accidentally collected. The wild plant had only recently been somewhat cultivated and now grew closer to the villages in small patches but never enough to consider it a staple crop. This was like the agave plant which the Pueblo made sure to never pick too much of so it would continue to spread and grow on the hillsides.

A hardy soup however was not in need of any agave, just amaranth and fish or meat that slowly boiled together. Some dried berries and plants were added as spice and thickening agents. Corn gruel was prepared so it could be heated just in time for the soup to be done. In the wide ceramic bowl, the gruel was prepared as a coating with a depression in the middle where the soup would be poured into. The idea was for the flavour to slowly be absorbed by the gruel which also acted as a mash.

The wide bowl was shared by the whole family, the only personal belonging brought to the meal was a spoon or other utensils. A good upbringing could be seen by the way each and everyone was eating, it was determined by the movement and speed of the spoon, a question of how fast one was eating from the family/communal plate. The one who ate too fast had broken the good custom and expected decency, that person would simply eat too much. At the start of the meal everyone took turns eating in order from the elderly to the guests followed by the women and children and lastly the family patriarch. Towards the end of the meal when only some food was left on the plate it would be offered to any guest/-s or otherwise be consumed by the patriarch. Everyone would drink beverages made from fermented corn or agave depending on what was available.

The morning meal

Each morning it was expected that each family member would consume only a light meal to not upset their stomachs or reduce their abilities to farm, forage or hunt. Usually a morning meal consisted of freshly made flat bread where some berries, nuts or if available smoked meat would be added and wrapped into a small pouch usually small enough to be eaten in one go. Children would often be offered agave and bread. The elderly was not expected to eat until midday, hence why they always ate first during the family meals. It was widely believed that the few elderly found in Pueblo society did not need to eat as much as earlier in life, not that it stopped them from eating anyway.

A hunters tradition

During hunting trips, the hunters prepared a single loaf of cornbread estimated to be sufficient just for their journey to their hunting grounds. It would ceremoniously be eaten alongside a fermented beverage made from prickly pears that had been stored inside Nuur-va funnel beaker vessels. The eldest and most experienced hunter would take the ends of the loaf and soak them in the beverage and drink it only when the bread had dissolved, where this custom arrived from is uncertain even for the Pueblos. The drink was shared from either a communal mug or pouch, passing it down the ranks.

The hunters were cleanly and keen to remove anything that could cause a smell, and therefore even cleaned themselves properly before and after eating. In a stream they would line up in accordance to rank where the experienced hunter would stand furthest upstream and the youngest furthest downstream.