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Sabroso - Winter2008
HOW TO
By Jeff Becker
Photography by Jeff Becker, Dave Harkness and Claudia Carle
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According to Ranger Dave Harkness, who leads a foodways program at Fort Selden State Park, for much of history, bread was cooked in communal ovens, with three or four families sharing the duties of making and maintaining an oven. The first bakeries were in fact just places where people gathered on a certain day to bake the bread for the week. Since the quality of flour varied greatly (in fact even the color of flour was long a status symbol—the whiter the flour, the better off one was) and the cuts atop each loaf were a family’s way of marking their bread from that of their neighbors, whose flour may not have been as good.
Here in the Southwest, the history of bread, both leavened and unleavened, is rich. The Native American tribes that have inhabited the Southwest since shortly after the time of Christ baked a variety of breads (including many that were mixed with Mesquite ashes for unknown reasons) that were made from grains ground into a mush and baked in the slow coals of open hearths or atop hot stones. In the 16th century, the Spanish introduced yeast and the technology of the horno (beehive-shaped) oven (that they had taken from the Moors).
Much of history can be explained like this—some people from some far off place, in this case the Spanish, arrive and bring with them a number of foreign implements, in this case a host of new ingredients and technologies for cooking them. The native peoples then take these new items and make them their own, and so it was with the Spanish and the Pueblo people of New Mexico. As the marriage of cuisines is often much more graceful and creative than the marriage of two separate cultures, food reminds us that before all the other nonsense pulls us apart, we are joined by the basic need to eat. Whatever our ancestry, we are entwined with others through our foods. Bread, especially in this area, is one such example, as the Pueblo people and other tribes up and down the newly acquired Spanish territories adopted the technology of the horno oven and leavening agents and made them their own. Rightly, the ovens were later used by settlers from other cultures as they moved into the area, and the ovens have been a part of New Mexico history for as long as there was a Camino Real, a Jornada del Muerto and a variety of people that needed to eat.
At the Fort Seldon State Monument, Harkness leads a series of classes that help reconnect people with the food and the history of this region. Through his workshops, members study one very important, and aesthetic, culinary contribution to the Southwest—the horno oven. The workshops span two consecutive weekends, where participants learn the craft of horno oven making by building an actual horno, and learn the heritage of cooking in one as they fire their horno and then, finally, bake in it. The workshop, however, is not limited to bread, as Harkness also shows participants how to cook a host of outdoor meals, including one mean “Gringo” chile.
Sponsored by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, these workshops serve as a unique and hands-on opportunity for the people of the Borderlands to experience and appreciate the history of our area.
“One dough can be many different things according to how it is baked,” Harkness says, a metaphor that can be applied to many things. The best reason, maybe, to learn how to build an horno and bake in it, is the quality of the bread that comes out of it. Retaining the flavor of the wood used to heat the oven, the crust is crisp and golden, the inside still moist—the perfect loaf that we humans have so long enjoyed. d
For more information about the Horno oven workshops and other food ways events at Fort Selden State Park, call 575.526.8911. |
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