Ward Churchill Probably Uses a Fry Baby

My scholarly post on fry bread has garnered a number of erudite comments.

Fry bread is some sort of gross yet tasty thing American Indians eat. Seems like there are a thousand different recipes on the web, but the basic idea seems to be that you mix water and flour, make balls out of it, and deep-fry it in lard. And this stuff is supposed to be a traditional Indian food.

In the post, I commented on the implausibility of frying without metal. It's kind of hard to believe that Indians were frying primitive doughnuts in 10,000 BC with no pots or pans. And filling them with jam would be just plain impossible.

Chris Byrne advanced the theory that they did it in clay thingamajigs. All I can say about that is, I will believe it when I see it. I have fried many, many things. Some of them bordering on the unnatural. And I can tell you that I have zero confidence in my ability to raise grease to frying temperatures in a clay pot. The general rule with clay and open flame is that it cracks and falls apart, and the grease runs all over your moccasins.

Here's an article claiming that fry bread was invented by starving Indians trying to figure out what to do with unfamiliar foods handed to them by the US government. That, I can believe.

In any case, this stuff supposedly gives you diabetes and heart disease, so it's imperative that I learn how to make it without delay.