[Sca-cooks] hot sauce

[David Mann]

-----Original Message-----
From: Jane Sitton <jane.sitton at radioshack.com>

> How can we get corn tortilla chips into this?  I'm sure there were some sort
> of corn (maize) based tortilla type bread, but I've never seen anything to
> indicate it being fried in oil.
>
> Madelina
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I don't think tortilla *chips* are period.  Corn tortillas, yes.  Here's the pertinent passage from
"Crónica de la Nueva España" (Chronicle of New Spain, 1554)by Francisco Cervantes de Salazar.  The full text, in Spanish, is online at:
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/

Salazar has been discussing the importance of maize in the Indian diet.

Para hacer el pan, que es en tortillas, se cuece con cal y, molido y hecho masa, se pone a cocer en unos comales de barro, como se tuestan las castañas en Castilla, y de su harina se hacen muchas cosas, como atole, que es como poleadas de Castilla, y en lugar de arroz se hace del manjar blanco, buñuelos y otras cosas muchas, no menos que de trigo.

My translation:
"To make bread, which is in flat cakes, they cook it with lime, and being ground up and made into dough, they set it to cook on some earthenware dishes, just as they toast chestnuts in Castile, and from its flour they make many things, such as atole, which is like the poleadas [gruel/porridge] of Castile, and instead of rice, they make from it blancmange, fritters, and many other things, no less [than is made from] wheat."

Note: in European Spanish, "tortilla" is the diminutive of "torta" (cake).  The Spanish term for omelette is "tortilla de huevos" (literally little cake of eggs), but even in the 16th century, they were already shortening it to "tortilla".  In Latin American Spanish, "tortilla" became synonymous with a flat cake of cornmeal.

In "Historia natural y moral de las Indias" [Natural and Moral History of the Indies, 1590], José de Acosta also mentions the Indians making tortillas from maize, which they cook on the fire and eat while still hot.


Brighid
rcmann4 at earthlink.net

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