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Hickory nuts, found
in the fall, are used to make a Cherokee dish known
as kanuchi. Kanuchi is a hickory nut soup.
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Cherokee Nation
citizen Roberta Sapp, of Kenwood, cracks hickory nuts
using rocks passed down to her from her grandfather,
who taught her how to make kanuchi.
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Once hickory nuts
are cracked into small pieces, they are sifted through
a basket to remove as much of the shell as possible.
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Shelled hickory
nuts are mashed in a coffee can by Cherokee Nation citizen
Roberta Sapp, who uses a stick with a blunt end.
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When hickory nuts
are mashed, oil is released from the nutmeat that helps
it form into a ball and keep its shape, also known as
a kanuchi ball.
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Kanuchi turns out
as a hickory nut soup made with rice or hominy and added
sugar for taste. It can be eaten hot or cold and is
a favorite in the Cherokee culture.
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KENWOOD A staple food that Cherokees look
forward to in the fall is kanuchi, a hickory nut soup.
Cherokee Nation citizen Roberta Sapp makes the well-known
dish annually, having learned the tradition from her grandfather.
Gathering: "Kanuchi is like a dessert, a sweet drink
that has rice in it or has hominy in it," Sapp said. "You gather
hickory nuts, then you clean them and crack them as small as you
can."
Hickory nuts are usually gathered in the fall, cleaned
of their husks and sometimes dried before being used.
Process: When cracking hickory nuts, tools are needed
to make the process easier.
Sapp uses rocks, a basket and a bat-like stick that have been passed
down to her from her grandfather.
"I grew up around my grandpa making it all the time,"
she said. "He handed over his rocks that he cracked them with, and
his stick that you mash it with and the old basket that he sifted
with."
Sapp places one nut at a time in the center of a
large oval stone that is flat on top. Then she uses a smaller similar
stone to pound the hickory nut until it is completely crumbled.
Once enough nuts are cracked, she takes the basket
and sifts the meat from the shells. Any leftover shell pieces are
picked out by hand until mostly nutmeat is left, slightly more than
a handful.
Sapp places the meat into a bowl-like object to
begin the mashing process. She uses an old coffee can with a thick
metal piece welded to the bottom. She uses the stick to mash the
nutmeat until the oil is released and can be formed into a 3-inch
to 4-inch ball.
Kanuchi balls can be refrigerated or frozen and
last up to two years, Sapp said.
Cooking: The kanuchi ball is broken into a bowl
with hot water and stirred until it has a soup consistency. The
soup is then strained of all the nutmeat before being added to cooked
rice or hominy.
"Once the ball is made, I boil water, cook my rice,"
she said. "When the rice is ready I'll smash the ball back up and
pour my hot water in there and then I'll strain it into a pan. You
keep going until all the meats gone. Then you put rice in it."
Kanuchi can be eaten hot or cold and sugar added
for taste.
"There's a lot of people that like it," Sapp said.
"But I guess since it's like a sweet drink, you can either drink
it or eat it with a spoon, with the rice in it. It has a really
good taste, the hickory nuts do. Even if you crack them and eat
them, they have a really good taste."
Tradition: Sapp has been making kanuchi for about
50 years. She intends to pass her tools down to one of her daughters,
who also makes the dish. "My daughter Tina can make it and we'll
probably pass this stuff on to her. When we can't do it no longer
we'll probably give it her."
Sapp said it's important for younger kids to learn
traditions such as kanuchi.
"I think it is really important for the younger
kids to know since it's like an old Indian drink. That's how I look
at it. It started from somebody way back probably. Sometimes I wish
I had asked questions but I never did. Even the basket I have, I
don't know who made it or how long they had it. It's different.
It's not like what we make. But I think it's important to pass it
on to one of your kids if they want to learn it. If not, then pass
it on to one of your family members that will do it and keep it
going."
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