How did algonquins preserve food?

Answer 1

a) salting

b) drying

c) both

The main way of preserving food was to salt it. This is why the government monopoly on salt, accompanied by the salt tax (gabelle) was so much resented.

Fish, especially cod, was generally dried. Often, it would already have been salted on board ship, to preserve it over a long voyage. This is why French has a special word - la morue - for dried salt code, to distinguish it from fresh cod, le cabillaud. Indeed, fresh cod is often referred to as morue fraicheI, showing just how predominant the preserved variety used to be.

You can still get dried salt cod in French shops. Brandade de morue is a very fine dish indeed.

Meat was always salted; preservation saved having to keep cattle through the winter. Jerky, in fact, is dried salt beef.

Food is salted by packing it in barrels between layers of salt. When the meat is needed, it has to be soaked in fresh water for a day.

Answer 2

Like all eastern woodlands tribes the Huron regularly processed excess foodstuffs for storage and use during the long winter months.

Longhouses served not just for sleeping, cooking and living areas but also as storehouses for food. High in the rafters, dried meat was hung so it was preserved in smoke from the hearths, which also kept flies away. Pits in the floor served for storing baskets of dried maize, melon, sunflower seeds, pumpkin and beans. The baskets were very tightly woven and fitted with lids to keep out insects and rodents.