The History behind Mexican Cooking
The Conquistadores on their arrival to the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan (present day Mexico City) discovered that the diet of people comprised mainly of dishes made with corns, chilies and herbs, largely with tomatoes, beans or nopales. They mixed their own diet of rice, pork, beef, garlic and onions with the native food of pre Columbian Mexico which included maize, chocolate, vanilla, fruits such as guava, avocado and pineapple and some meats and local varieties of fish.
The traditional staple grain is corn but now, rice is as prominent and Mexico has a rice harvest in abundance. As per Karen Hursh Graber, a renowned food writer, the first introduction of rice from North Africa to Spain in the fourth century resulted in the influx of rice from Spain to Mexico from the Veracruz port in the early 16th century. Graber claims that this was among the first instances of fusion of the best cuisines of the world.
Some very exotic dishes are cooked in Aztec and Mayan style in villages. The ingredients come from rattlesnake, spider monkey, ant eggs and some other insects.
From Pre Columbian to Conquistadors
The Spanish explorers, led by Hernan Cortes, were attracted towards Mexico’s gold treasures. They not only conquered the country but brought back the food from the New World. This food then became staple diet for people across the world.
Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a compatriot of Cortes, recorded everything he experienced and this included details of the foods, battles and extreme conditions experienced by his compatriots. He recorded the history of Spain’s conquest of Aztec Mexico which was ruled by Montezuma. In between all this, Diaz also describes the opulence of food stores of Montezuma.
Cortes discovered that human flesh that had been offered as a sacrifice to Gods was an edible food in Mexico. Shocked by this ritual, he persuaded Montezuma to ban this practice.
Diaz noted that their diet was so rich that banning the ritual sacrifice would have been easy. Fowls, partridges, quail, ducks, rabbits and other small animals were cooked daily. Of course, there was the chocolate, in abundance. Cakes made of maize were properly brought out in plates with neat napkins. Diaz described the cakes as made with eggs and other healthy ingredients.
Diaz described maize plantations as omnipresent in New Spain. It was used in making dough known as masa from which came tamale and several other foods such as the tortilla. Maize was also popped and utilized in ornaments by young women during special occasions. In fact, maize was always in the focus of rituals. Diaz concluded that it was the basic of all Mexican food, although he did not deem it a cuisine.
Although conquistadors faced the Aztecs in Mexico, their diet was basically established in the Mayan civilization. Mayans used to worship corn and developed agricultural tools and procedures to grow corn.
Mayans were skillful farmers and could cultivate most of their staple food such as maize, beans, chilies, tomatoes and squash. Fruits and plants always grew in plentiful. Diaz especially mentioned prickly pear in his travelogues. Spirulina, an algae growing on water, was a major source of protein. A light alcoholic drink, Pulque, was made from the Maguey plant.
Beans were extremely vital to Mayans and other indigenous cultures and they used to plant corn and bean in the same hole, so that the bean could creep around the stalk of corn. Another type of bean, the scarlet runner bean, was grown in the central highlands of Guatemala and Mexico. Nowadays, people in Yucatan and Veracruz favor black beans while those in north favor pink ones.
Yet another important crop was the small amaranth seed which was raised in floating gardens by Aztecs. It is not very popular now as it was a part of cannibalistic ritual of Aztecs and the Spaniards did not favor it. Both maize and amaranth was used to prepare dough and dedicated to Gods. Several people used to eat pieces of dough, among them the humans who were to be sacrificed.
Tomatoes made their way from South America to Mexico while chilies in various varieties grew in plentiful. These are still the most vital ingredient in Mexican cooking and are used in sweetening or adding a punch to the dish.
Cortes reported seeing wild turkeys in the markets of Mexico City. In some Mayan excavations in the Yucatan and Guatemala region, bones from oscillated turkeys were found. These were found near the northern region of Mexico and are relatively smaller with peacock like spots. These were named pavo meaning pea hen by the Spanish.
While local ingredients provided them staple foods, it was the cooking procedures of the Mayans which provided them a healthy diet. They learned to cook corn with lime, steep it and remove the kernel. The lime released many nutrients from the corn which could be used by the human body. Even though they were not aware of vitamins, their cooking methods gave them a nutritious diet.
A look at the Spanish Foods Brought to Mexico
“We then ate a sumptuous dinner which they had prepared for us in their native style.” (Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain)
The Spanish explorers introduced the Old World foods into the diet of the Indians. Maize was not replaced but the diet became richer. The Mexican cooking as we know today originated from this fusion of old and new ingredients.
Amongst the most vital introduction were domesticated animals. Pigs were the most popular ones as they were self fattening and easy to transport. These provided meat and lard which made the most sweeping change to the Indians’ diet. Mexicans never fried food until the introduction of pork.
After pigs, chicken, sheep, goats and cattle too assimilated and were grazed mainly in the central and north central regions. The traditional Mexican dishes that we see today appeared only after the conquistadors brought them.
The Spanish brought new grains such as wheat which gave rise to wheat tortillas. Sugarcane was brought from the Caribbean; Cortes himself had large areas of lands for growing sugarcane.
The Spanish took the Caribbean route to come to Mexico and this too influenced Mexican cooking. With Spanish flavors beginning to assimilate with the Indians’, the cuisine as we know today begin emerging. This was the comida novohispana. Frijoles, quesadillas and mole sauces emerged. The foods remained the same after independence of Mexico and the regional cuisines developed.
While the Spanish came as explorers, they transformed into conquistadors by forcing out the Aztecs. Hence, the Europeans dominated a civilization created by the early people. But how did the local foods survive? Probably, because of extreme poverty.
With extreme poverty, malnutrition and starvation normally follows. Mexico was always rich in nutritious foods. Even though the Spanish didn’t practice slavery, a caste system was created swiftly in Mexico. The pure Spanish occupied the top while in the bottom lay indigenous people. In this structure, each caste was represented by a food. For instance, wheat bread was preferred by the Spanish, while the corn stayed as the staple food. The wheat tortilla was cultivated in the northern region and thus affected cooking in the border areas.
Mexicans at that time generally lived on the streets. When they had to eat, they found that the native stuff was sold at cheap prices. Women travelled the streets and set up small fires to sell food. There were also grilling stands on every nook and corner. This was the Mexican food as it used to be cooked centuries before.
The elite class accepted these foods when dining with family but not outside. They considered these native foods as valuable, yet these should only be eaten in private.
When recipe books first came out in Mexico, they didn’t show any regard for native foods. Although these recipe books indicated that no one was consuming native food, most of the readers of such books were housewives. These ladies all had native cooks who were largely illiterate and learned their skills from older generations’ recipes. Hence, the native cook was making foods which the cookbooks disdained. The Mexican food thus survived.
The colonization by Spanish lasted several Viceroys and throughout the French reign of Maximillian and Carlotta. With the revolution of 1910, Mexico began proclaiming its native inheritance. The food created by the early natives now became the nation’s pride. While it can be called Mexican food, in reality, it deserves the word ‘cuisine’. It is subtle in nature and is among the world’s best cuisines.
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Mateo Gomez is a Mexican Food lover and founder of AllAboutMexicanFood.com. To learn about making a delicious Mexican Breakfast, including a great recipe huevos rancheros, head over to AllAboutMexicanFood.com.
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