Title: Popped Wild Rice
Categories: Amerind Rice Info
Yield: 1 Servings

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I've only been able to make this work with reasonably fresh real Indian rice. I don't think you can pop commercial black rice. If it's too dried out (from being broken, then heated) it can't pop. Test your rice before doing a lot. Put some fat in a frying pan, sprinkle in a little rice and stir it carefully so it doesn't burn. Maybe it will pop. (It won't fly around like popcorn, it slowly puffs itself into a long fat pillow.) If it doesn't (and you didn't burn it) throw it in with the other rice and boil it. If it does, you can eat it like popcorn for more healthful snacks, and for breakfast cereal.

traditions

Pop-rice (in deer tallow or bear fat) was traditional. They usually make it at First Rice feasts at ricing camp if anyone is there who knows how. Somebody told me the name for it, but I forgot. They poured maple syrup over pop-rice (from the tied sheaves) at sugar camp. Also in winter they melted hardened sap-candy over it and made it into balls. For winter travel, pop-rice was crushed and shaped into cakes with some deer fat and quite a lot of melted sugar and dried berries. It was lightweight, filling, nutritious, and could be eaten without a fire if enemies were around. It didn't have to be packed into pieces of clean gut, like pemmican.

Copyright 1995, Paula Giese

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