Sofkee

Sofkee is a sour corn mixture with a thickness that ranges from drink to porridge. Across what is now the southeastern United States, Native American households kept a pot of sofkee over the fire, where family and visitors could help themselves using a carved wooden spoon. The Muscogee and Seminole tribes, who live primarily in present-day Oklahoma and Florida, typically enjoyed their versions after they had fermented, imparting a signature sour flavor.

Preparations (and how the dish is spelled) vary among tribes, but all sofkee-makers begin the same way: by cooking cracked corn in water that’s been made alkaline with wood ash, which softens the corn and enhances its nutritional value and flavor. Today, this sour, soup-like mixture is frequently served as a drink, hot or cold. It can be sipped from a cup or thickened to a porridge-like consistency and spooned from a bowl.