Hand stones and grinding slabs were employed for preparing seeds and
berries. Some pounding was done. Seeds could be roasted underground or
could be made into a kind of gruel. Meat, according to McCall (Daniels,
ed., 1941), was roasted over the fire or jerked. In this connection
some statements of E. G. Palmer concerning the Paiute are of interest.
The Paiute were very similar in culture to the Ute and before 1700 were
probably indistinguishable from them (Schroeder, 1953). In particular
Palmer mentions cooking by heating rocks, covering the desired edibles
with wet grass and sprinkling them with water to create a kind of steam
bake. About their food in general Palmer says, “As to food the Pah Utes
will eat anything that will not prove absolutely poisonous soon after
being swallowed.”
Gifford notes roasting and eating of both yucca and cacti. He also
lists the use of surface salt and clay for flavoring. Small animals
were pounded up whole and cooked. Bone was cracked for marrow or ground
up and eaten if possible.