Early Virginia Indians hunted, fished, and collected wild grains and berries, which they prepared in various ways. Meats were roasted, while grains and tubers were pounded into ashcakes and then baked.
For many millennia, boiling water was difficult, but by the Late Woodland Period (AD 900–1600), technology had improved among the Powhatan Indians of Virginia such that a large ceramic stew pot became the focus of family eating.Roasted meats, shellfish, and wild berries were all added to the stew, which boiled throughout the day.
Rather than prepare set meals, family members who spent the day gathering food or doing chores added to the stew as able and ate from it as necessary. Wild grains and, later, domesticated corn were harvested and baked into bread.
The Powhatans generally avoided seasonings, including salt, and likely enjoyed food for its texture rather than its flavor. Although the Indians domesticated beans and squash, they ate more corn (maize) than any other crop, sucking unripe ears for their sweet juice, baking cornbread, or roasting it.
They also made cooking wrappers, baskets, and mats out of the husks. What is known of Indian cooking in this period is based on research from paleobotanists and paleozoologists about what wild foods were available, as well as eyewitness accounts from English colonists. Most of these accounts concern the Algonquian-speaking Powhatans, but they likely apply to the speakers of Siouan and Iroquoian languages in Virginia.