cold flour n Also coal flour, cole ~ [Prob calque, directly or through Fr farine froide, from a Muskogean language; see quots 1721, 1775 ] chiefly Sth, TX hist Cf nocake n
= pinole n.
[1721 in 1744 Charlevoix Histoire Nouvelle France 3.332, On le réduit quelquefois en farine, que l’on appelle ici Farine froide, & c’est une des plus commodes & des meilleures provisions, qu’on puisse faire pour les voyages. [=They [Native americans] sometimes reduce it [=maize] to flour, which is called here cold flour, and it is one of the best and most convenient provisions that one can make for traveling.] 1758 Le Page du Pratz Histoire Louisiane 2.4, Les Naturels l’accommodent de plusieurs façons pour varier leurs mets; la meilleure est celle d’en faire de la farine froide. [=The natives treat it [=maize] in various ways to vary their diet; the best is to make it into cold flour.]] 1775 (1962) Romans Nat. Hist. FL 68, They [=the Chickasaws] have also a way of drying and pounding their corn, before it comes to maturity; this they call Boota Copassa (i. e.) cold flour; this, in small quantities, thrown into cold water, boils and swells as much as common meal boiled over a fire; it is hearty food. Ibid 96, The [Muscogee] women are employed, besides the cultivation of the earth, in. . making cold flour for travelling. 1821 in 1904 TX State Hist. Assoc. Qrly. 7.287, Engaged 2 bushels of cold flour, & 50 lbs bacon. 1844 Gregg Commerce 1.280, Pinole is in effect the cold-flour of our hunters. It is the meal of parched Indian corn, prepared for use by stirring it up with a little cold water. 1849 in 1983 Holmes Covered Wagon Women 1.259 SW, Here we found plenty good water and muskite beans but no grass. These beans grow in clusters on the muskite trees. They are termed by the emigrants “bread fruit” because they grow in the desert, they are sweet and when ground make good cole-flour and mush. 1859 Marcy Prairie Traveler 33 West, The most portable and simple preparation of subsistence that I know of, and which is used extensively by the Mexicans and Indians, is called “cold flour.” It is made by parching corn, and pounding it in a mortar to the consistency of coarse meal; a little sugar and cinnamon added makes it quite palatable. 1860 Claiborne Life Dale 36 GA (as of 1793), Our accoutrements were a ’coonskin cap, bearskin vest, short hunting-shirt, . . a wallet for parched corn, coal flour, or other chance provision, a long rifle and hunting-knife. 1906 Reagan Memoirs 39 TX (as of 1839), “Cole’’ flour was made in this way: common ashes were sifted into a pot or kettle and heated until the ashes boiled like plaster of paris; shelled corn was poured into the boiling ashes, and stirred until the grain could be broken between the fingers. It was then poured out into a sheet and sifted to separate the ashes from the corn. The corn was then ground (we used steel mills) into meal, and it was ready for use. It was eaten dry or stirred in water or made into mush, and its use was very common in the early days of Texas. 1948 Mathews Some Southernisms 48, There are those who remember that in their younger days it was customary for children to take those seeds of popcorn that failed to pop, and grind them in the family coffee mill, obtaining thus a meal which when suitably sweetened with sugar and moistened made a preparation that children enjoyed under the name of cold flour.