FermenteaWhere food goes to change
Equipment · Baking surfaces and griddles
A carefully smoothed sandstone slab used by Hopi piki makers as a heated cooking surface, set above a fire in a dedicated piki-making space.
The piki stone is a prepared sandstone slab whose working face is smoothed so a very thin corn batter can cook and lift away as a sheet. A Hopi-authored account by Victoria Spencer and Marlene Sekaquaptewa reports finished stones about 12–16 inches long, 16–24 inches wide and 2–4 inches thick, weighing roughly 35–45 pounds. The ranges describe examples in that account; they are not one standard pattern.
The account describes quarrying, drying and hand-smoothing the sandstone before use. It also records careful family care and the passing of stones across generations. The equipment is therefore both a cooking surface and a valued possession within a living food tradition.
In the published description, the slab rests on supports in a dedicated piki-making space, with a wood fire below and a hood that carries smoke away. The 2025 Heard Museum resource likewise describes a smooth sandstone stone heated by cedar wood. A Smithsonian American Art Museum painting from about 1937–1943 offers a historical visual depiction of a woman making piki on a flat stone above a fire; it is an artwork, not a plan for the hearth.
The slab's prepared face is central to its use: piki makers spread the batter thinly, then lift the cooked sheet from the hot surface. This specialized setting and practiced work do not establish a safe substitute in a domestic oven, on a gas burner or on a generic griddle.
The Hopi Tribe places its villages on three mesas in northeastern Arizona. The Penn Museum account describes piki making in Hopi villages, while a Heard Museum resource published in 2025 says piki remains commonly made at Hopi. The practice is also described as significant in everyday and ceremonial life; this record treats the stone as equipment within that context rather than as a generic baking surface.
The University of New Mexico's Maxwell Museum exhibit records a distinct piki stone from Pottery Mound, near Los Lunas, New Mexico, dated A.D. 1350–1490. That specimen is evidence for an archaeological Pueblo-region stone identified for piki. It does not establish that the Hopi practice began then or that the same family or object has been used continuously since that time.
The University of New Mexico records a piki stone from Pottery Mound dated A.D. 1350–1490. Hopi-authored and Hopi-community museum sources describe the stone's continued place in piki making, including a 2025 public resource. The archaeological object does not date the beginning of Hopi practice or prove uninterrupted continuity.
Sources describe a wood fire beneath a heavy stone that becomes very hot and a hood for carrying smoke away. The record is descriptive, not instructions for building, curing or operating a hearth.
The source documents the stone in Hopi piki making; it does not establish interchangeability with modern griddles, ovens or unrelated cooking methods.
Source →Reported size and weight ranges describe finished stones in one account; they are not an engineering specification for a hearth or support.
Source →The Hopi-authored account describes use in Hopi villages; the Hopi Tribe locates its villages on three mesas in northeastern Arizona. Not an exclusive origin claim.
A UNM exhibit records a specimen identified as a piki stone from this Pueblo site; this is not an origin claim for the living Hopi tradition.
A shallow rack base and tall vented cover process jars in atmospheric steam. NCHFP limits the method to tested high-acid or acidified recipes requiring no more than 45 minutes, including altitude adjustment; this is not pressure canning.
A covered iron vessel used in Maine bean-hole cooking, set into a preheated stone-lined pit and buried for a slow cook.
A deep, lidded pot with a removable rack processes jars beneath boiling water. It is intended for foods with tested boiling-water processes; low-acid foods require pressure canning.
A contemporary household enclosure for preparing mā, fermented breadfruit, documented in Hawai‘i using food-safe buckets, coolers or large sealable bags in place of a pit.
Containers for salt-curing fish and meat range from broad-mouthed stoneware crocks to tubs, cut-down barrels and chests. Their material, depth, cover and ability to retain or drain liquid shape how the food sits in salt or brine.
A bulk brining vat holds cucumbers and other vegetables under cover brine for fermentation and storage. North Carolina sources document a mid-century wooden tank yard and later outdoor fiberglass systems.
Threaded, heat-processing jars hold food and a fitted lid during a tested canning process; jar size and process belong to the specific recipe.
A chocolate refiner or melanger uses powered rotation and stone rollers to refine cocoa mass. Some models also process nut and seed pastes; design, material and operating limits vary.
Protected Italian vinegar made only from cooked grape must, fermented and aged in a battery of wooden barrels for at least 12 years: sweet, sharp and syrupy.
Airag is Mongolia’s fermented mare’s-milk drink, traditionally churned with saved starter in a reusable cowhide khokhuur.
Appam, or hoppers, are South Indian and Sri Lankan rice pancakes made from a fermented coconut-and-rice batter and cooked in a curved pan to a crisp lacy rim and a soft, spongy centre.
Auricularia tremellosa is a wood ear fungus of the genus that supplies most dried wood ear sold in China; its own food record is thin, and the culinary practice described here comes from the closely related wood ear species.
Ayran is Turkey’s cold, savoury yogurt drink: plain yogurt is loosened with water and lightly salted, then whisked smooth or aerated into a soft cap of foam.
A thin stone griddle used over an open hearth. Norwegian archaeology documents the established tradition from the early Middle Ages; a Viking-period origin is only a cautious suggestion linked to Shetland.
Crushed or milled barley cooked in water until the starch softens and the mixture thickens, the plainest way a northern household turned stored grain into a meal, here with apple and hazelnut.
Black carrot is the anthocyanin-pigmented Eastern carrot (Daucus carota var. atrorubens), the purple root that preceded orange types and still colours kanji and şalgam.
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Victoria Spencer and Marlene Sekaquaptewa, Expedition Magazine, Penn Museum (1995)Equipment · Traditional use · Materials · Dimensions · Care
Piki of the Hopi IndiansThe Hopi-authored account describes a smooth, seasoned sandstone slab used for piki, supported above a fire with smoke carried away by a hood.
It reports finished stones at about 12–16 inches long, 16–24 inches wide, 2–4 inches thick, and 35–45 pounds.
It describes the practice and family care of the stone; this record does not turn its historic account into a construction or firing guide.
Cited in: A stone made for a thin sheet of piki; Set above a fire
Heard MuseumTraditional use · Materials · History
HopiThe museum's 2025 public Hopi resource describes piki as commonly made at Hopi today and identifies a flat, smooth sandstone slab heated by a cedar-wood fire beneath it.
Cited in: Set above a fire; A Hopi tradition and a separate archaeological find
The Hopi TribeGeography
Welcome to the Hopi TribeThe Hopi Tribe locates Hopi lands in northeastern Arizona and describes 12 villages on three mesas.
Cited in: A Hopi tradition and a separate archaeological find
University of New Mexico field school collection, Maxwell Museum of AnthropologyArchaeology · Dimensions · History
The Testimony of Hands: 98.53.345, piki stoneThe exhibit identifies an archaeological piki stone from Pottery Mound, New Mexico, dated A.D. 1350–1490, and gives its length as 40 centimetres. This is an object-specific Pueblo-region attestation, not a date for the origin of Hopi practice or proof of an unbroken lineage.
Cited in: A stone made for a thin sheet of piki; A Hopi tradition and a separate archaeological find
Smithsonian American Art Museum; painting by Carl Moon, circa 1937–1943Image · Visual reference
Hopi Woman Making PikiThe museum catalogs an oil painting depicting a Hopi woman making piki at a flat stone surface over a fire; the artwork is a historical depiction, not a technical specification. The page labels the work free to use; this catalogue links to it rather than republishing its original.
Cited in: Set above a fire