​

​

HISTORY OF MEXICAN CUISINE 

​

     Mexican cuisine is the unique language of a millennia-old culture. An oral history; pardon the pun. When you eat Mexican food you are learning about not only the people, but the climate, the agricultural practices, the religions, traditions and rituals of the country. In 2010, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the cuisine of Mexico as a cultural heritage. Also honored was a place called France.

​

     Mexico's traditional food chain can be traced back several thousand years to indigenous Mesoamerica. The people inhabiting Mexico developed a comprehensive food culture when they first planted corn, beans and squash together on a mound of soil. Early observers noted the symbiotic relationship of these three plants. The maize grows first, providing a stalk for the beans to scale toward the sun. The squash leaves stay low to the ground keeping water from evaporating, while guarding its flourishing companions against weeds. 

​

     This nourishing trio of plants known as the "three sisters" formed the staple diet in Mexico's ancestral agriculture. Corn, beans and squash also complement each other nutritionally. Corn supplies carbohydrates and a variety of amino acids. Beans are protein rich, and supply the amino acids that corn lacks. Summer squash is a rich source of Vitamin A and C, magnesium, fiber, folate, riboflavin, phosphorus, potassium and Vitamin B6. When planted together, the trio reduce the nutritional strain on the soil. Corn is nitrogen leaching and beans are nitrogen fixing. At the end of the season, the crop residue was used by the early farmers to build up the soil’s organic matter.

​

     As the Mexica (early Aztecs) became skilled at farming, they planted more seeds and rotated crops. They grew amaranth, sage, chile peppers, annatto, chia, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yucca, jícama, cassava, chayote, nopales, and peanuts. Fruit, such as guavas, papayas, pineapple, mamey, and chirimoyas, were also harvested. Popcorn was a favorite snack as were sweet treats made from the baked leaves of the maguey agave.

​

     In a world void of beasts of burden, and with a growing urban settlement on Tenochitlan, space on the island was at a premium. The early Aztecs developed a sophisticated farming system involving raised beds they called "chinampas" or "floating gardens." The chinampas were extremely fertile pieces of land, and yielded several crops annually. With the advancement in agriculture—and barring heavy rainfalls or swarms of insects—a farmer only needed to work three months a year to harvest enough produce to feed his family for a full year. 

​

     To get enough protein, deer, iguana, peccary, raccoon, wildfowl, and rabbit were hunted. In the swamps and the sea, fish was caught and frogs, tadpoles, and shrimp collected. A variety of insects and larvae were also consumed. Algae, made into cakes, provided a rich source of protein, vitamins and minerals. Now that the people were living a sedentary life, turkeys (totolin), dogs (xoloitzcuintles), ducks and honeybees were domesticated.

​

     Daily meals were prepared with a metate y mano (mortar and ground stone). Made from lava rock or stone, the surface is slightly concave and used to mash the ingredients. Another tool used was the molcajete (mortar and pestle). The food was cooked in a comal (griddle) or olla (cooking pot) over a stone hearth. Meat was often wrapped in plantain leaves and boiled or steamed. 

​

     By the 1400s, the Aztec Empire was thriving, and social status determined what people ate. Aztec campesinos (commoners) had a low fat and predominantly vegetarian diet. They ate twice a day; the first meal after a few hours of morning work. The main meal was consumed during the hottest time of the day. Tortillas, beans, squash, avocados, fruit and salsas were common fare. Noble Aztec families ate more and had a greater variety of foods which included meat dishes and chocolate.

​

     The turning point in Aztec history began when the eastern and western hemispheres first met. It was on a Good Friday in the year 1519, when Hernan Cortés landed near present-day Veracruz. The worldly travelers brought with them their own culture along with their historical exchanges in Europe, including the Romans, the German nomadic tribes, and Moorish influenced Spain. 

​

     Being that it was Montezuma’s first encounter with people from the wider world, he welcomed the weary travelers with a great banquet the likes of which the Spaniards had never seen before. One of Cortés’ rodeleros (shield bearers) by the name of Bernal Díaz del Castillo would later write of the banquets he witnessed in Teotihuacan: 

​

First course: "Fowls, turkey, pheasants, partridges, quails, tame and wild geese, venison, musk swine, pigeons, hares, rabbits, and numerous other birds and beasts." 

​

Second course: "Tortillas, kneaded with eggs and other sustaining ingredients, and these tortillas were very white, and they were brought on plates covered with clean napkins, and they also brought him another kind of bread, like long balls kneaded with other kinds of sustaining food, and pan pachol, for so they call it in this country, which is a sort of wafer." 

​

Third course: "Every kind of fruit which the country produced." 

​

Drink: "Every now and then was handed to him a golden pitcher filled with a kind of liquor made from the cacao." 

​

     Eventually, tensions mounted between the Aztecs and the Spaniards and octli or pulque-induced fights broke out. 

​

     After the conquest of Teotihuacan and its remaining inhabitants, Cortés sent his ships back to Spain filled with gold, silver, fine textiles and the ingredients that would forever change the gastronomy of other cultures. It's difficult to imagine Italy without tomatoes, Ireland without potatoes, and cold winter nights without a cup of hot Swiss chocolate.

​

     The ships returned to Nueva España with the flavors from their beloved homeland: garlic, olive oil, onions, oregano, coriander, cinnamon, cloves and other herbs and spices. Aztec jaws must have dropped as unimagined animals arrived in their former city: cows, pigs, chickens, goats and sheep. With the new animals, new foods and methods of preparation were introduced, such as cheese, butter and lard. The Spaniards also introduced products from other parts of the world. 

​

     Finding the local quality of the native dishes to be inferior to their own, the encomenderos (the Spanish soldiers who were granted a village and its Indian inhabitants) expected their Aztec women not only to learn to speak Spanish and adopt their religion, but recreate their foods. The women got around the latter by absorbing the Spanish flavors while keeping their own form of cooking intact. The scarcity and cost of the ingredients kept the Spaniards from demanding a total gastronomic assimilation from their entrusted natives.

​

     The Catholic Church’s influence was reflected when missionaries began arriving in 1523. The Spanish nuns invented much of today's more sophisticated Mexican dishes. They created cajeta, buñuelos, and an eggnog called rompope. Other dishes that originated in the colonial period include Lomo en adobo (pork loin in a spicy sauce), chiles rellenos, guacamole, and escabeche. 

​

     Mole poblano is the most famous of the nuns' creations. Mulliwas a typical sauce of the Nahuas which combined a variety of chiles. For a dinner in honor of the new archbishop, one of the nuns of the Convent of Santa Rosa thought it would be best to alter the mulli to keep it from being too spicy for their respected guest. She added chocolate, peanuts, sesame and cinnamon to the sauce and mole was created.

​

     During the tumultuous colonial period (1580 to 1640), approximately 200,000 African slaves were brought to Mexico as a labor force to fill the gap left by the decimated native population. One of the most important contributions of African cooking was the use of the peanut in dishes. Although the peanut originated in the Americas, peanuts were brought to Africa by the Portuguese. The peanut recipes returned to Mexico with the African slaves in the form of meat stews, fish and vegetable dishes. Ground with onions and chiles, the Africans created such seed-based sauces as pippins and salsa macha. 

​

     After Mexico's independence was declared in 1821, there was a strong anti-Spanish sentiment in the fledgling country. Many of the cooks of the period preferred to highlight the non-Spanish elements of their cuisine, so the indigenous dishes acquired a nostalgic cachet. Some of the native dishes had evolved with European ingredients (such as the adding of lard to tamales), from which there was no turning back.

​

     A great wave of migration during the late 19th and early 20th centuries brought Mennonite, Welsh, Italian, Lebanese, and Chinese immigrants to the new nation of Mexico. With the assimilation of each new culture, came worldly gastronomic influences. 

​

     The Welsh were the first to arrive in the 1820s, where they worked in silver mines in the northeast of Mexico City. The Cornish introduced a number of leisure activities to Mexico, including the sport of soccer. They also brought pasties, now known as pastes. These small pastries are stuffed with a variety of sweet or savory fillings, and still considered a local specialty in Hidalgo. 

​

     In the aftermath of the Mexican-American war of 1846-48, the southwestern borders may have shifted as the United States acquired New Mexico, but the Mexicans remained behind. Many Mexican ingredients and culinary techniques entered the diets and kitchens of the North American pioneers. New Mexican and TexMex styles of cooking were born. 

​

    Speaking of TexMex...

​

     A Southwest American Indian legend connects chili to a Spanish nun named Sister Mary of Agreda, a town in northeast Spain. She is believed to be the one who put the first chili recipe on paper in the 17th century. How the recipe made it from Agreda to America is unclear, as is the case with most legends.

​

     Mexico was invaded, once again, in 1862 and this time by the French. Ferdinand Maximilian’s reign in Mexico was brief and tragic, but French cooking left its mark. French-inspired Mexican dishes include chiles en nogado (stuffed chiles in a walnut sauce), and conejo en mostaza (rabbit in mustard sauce). Also left behind were a variety of breads such as bolillos and conchas.

​

     In 1882, a group of five hundred Northern Italians settled in Puebla, Mexico. The Northern Italian diet was similar to that of the immigrants’ new country, although there were key differences in the preparations of these ingredients. Corn was made into polenta rather than into masa-based dishes. Rice was prepared as a risotto. The altering of main dishes aside, the Northern Italian legacy continues in Chipilo cheese and butter.

​

     Chinese immigrants came to Mexico in the 1880s as cheap labor for major projects including railroads and irrigation. As a result, Chinese ingredients like soy sauce became a regular part of some Mexican diets. That influence can still be tasted in dishes like pescado zarandeado. Chinese migrants also brought stir-fry to northern Mexico, particularly the state of Sonora. 

​

     In 1890, 450 German families arrived in the southern state of Chiapas. Extensive coffee cultivation quickly made Sosonuco one of the most successful German colonies. They also brought beer brewing techniques, and today, the German’s influence can still be tasted in two popular beer brands, Negra Modelo and Dos Equis Ambar.

​

     Beginning in the late 1800s, the first wave of Lebanese immigrants arrived in Mexico, driven from their homeland by the oppressive Ottoman regime. During the Six Day War of 1948, a second wave of immigration brought thousands of Lebanese to settle in Veracruz. They developed a dish adapted from shawarma-style or spit-grilled lamb. A century later Lebanese spit turns out tacos al pastor, now made with pork.

     In 1920-22, roughly 6,000 Mennonites migrated from Canada to Northern Mexico. They brought Northern and Eastern European culinary traditions to their new country. The cheese they created was first known as queso menonita, but eventually spread in popularity to the rest of Mexico and took on its present name of queso Chihuahua.

     Mexican cuisine had minimal importance or prestige in the 1970s. It was thought that the national cuisine should not reach the big tables, leaving aside national traditions and ingredients. As a result, many traditional ingredients of pre-Hispanic cuisine began to disappear. In the 1980s, Mexican cuisine experienced a renaissance. Chefs created the nueva cocina mexicana in order to restore as well as reinvent traditional dishes.

​

     A tour through the cuisines of Mexico is a history lesson for the palate. Years of conquests and waves of immigration have resulted in the introduction of new ingredients and techniques that have enhanced Mexican cooking and expanded the country’s definition of authentic cuisine. At the same time, at its roots are the native foods and dishes that were known to the Aztecs and continue to be enjoyed today, not only in Mexico, but around the globe.