[Sca-cooks] Mayan Cuisine

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

From
Sophie D. Coe. "America's First Cuisines". Austin TX : University of 
Texas Press, 1994.
Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University, and wife of noted 
archaeologist Michael D. Coe - both of whom are specialists in 
Meso-America. She is now dead, alas.)

[i am synopsizing, and one paragraph may contain material from 
several pages - if you need the page numbers, write to me off-list]

The Maya had several different words associated with eating. There 
was one very used only if one didn't know what was being eaten, 
otherwise the verb differs according to what is being eaten. One verb 
is used for foods which are chewed and the pulp spat out, as we do 
with sugar cane. Another verb is used for foods the "melt in your 
mouth", like modern candies, but we don't know what food this was 
applied to pre-conquest. Another is used when bread, in the broadest 
sense, is eaten, and yet another when eating things like meat, 
mushrooms, and chile. And finally there are two verbs the use of 
which depends on the texture of that which is being eaten - one for 
"mushy, gelatinous, overripe, and overcooked things (for example, 
brains, bananas, and avocados)"; the second is for "discrete firm 
objects, among them young maize, popped maize, beans, and squash 
seeds".
[Coe does not give the specific verbs]

The basis of Maya food was maize. Practically every ceremony recorded 
involved maize, from birth when the umbilical cord was cut over a 
maize cob, and to death when some maize dough was put in a corpse's 
mouth. Without maize, a meal was not a meal.

Maize was processed, cooked, and eaten a variety of ways, from solid to liquid.

In fact, a common, perhaps the most common, way of eating maize was 
to mix (portable) maize dough with water and drink it. The Nahuatl 
name for this is posolli.

Another way of preparing a liquid or semi-liquid maize was to mix 
maize dough with water and cook it. The result could be anything from 
a thin gruel to a thick "jelly", depending on the proportion of dough 
to liquid. The Nahuatl name for this is atolli.

There are many variations on posolli and atolli - sometimes they were 
sweetened with honey (and the Mayas kept hives of indigenous bees), 
and/or mixed with fruit - and there are some regionally different 
names for them as well, but these are the first basic ways of 
consuming maize - uncooked liquid and cooked liquid.

Maize was also prepared in solid form, which was often somewhat 
generically referred to by the Spanish as "bread", although it is 
unlike the bread we eat today. Mayan tortillas are generally quite 
thin, unlike the somewhat thick handmade Aztec tortillas (which one 
can still find in some restaurants today). These flat breads or cakes 
could be cooked several ways. Least common was on a comal, a flat 
round clay cooking dish supported on three stones,which was heated 
over a fire (these stones could also support a pot for cooking 
something else). Another way of cooking was on a polished flat schist 
(rock) slab, prepared specifically for use as a cooking device, over 
a fire. And finally, the most common way was to put the dough 
directly into the coals or ashes of a low fire. When cooked, the ash 
was brushed off. Thus a homestead would have several "hearths", not 
to mention the pib, the hole in the ground dug by the men for 
roasting, baking, and barbecuing. (Men and women did not cook 
together, nor is it likely that they ate together)

There were tamales, and a range of cooked maize "breads" between 
tortillas and tamales. Tamales could be just cooked wads of nixtamal 
maize dough, or they could have fillings of beans, chopped meat of 
some sort, squash seeds, with or without chile

There are five major kinds of maize, varying in their sugar and 
starch content, and the hardness of the stored product: dent, flint, 
flour, sweet, and pop... Within these categories are more variations, 
in size of cob and size of kernel, color of plants and color of 
kernels, the length of time they take to ripen, etc. And these 
different kinds and colors were put to different uses.

It is important to note that the ground maize was not made just from 
ground dried kernels. Rather, it underwent a process of 
"nixtamalization". Ripe maize grains were first soaked, then cooked 
in water with lime (the mineral,  not the fruit) or wood ashes. This 
allows for the skins to be removed, which makes them easier to grind 
and provides for a more pleasant texture to the finished product. 
Nixtamalization also enhances the protein value of maize for humans. 
There is evidence that the nixtamalization process was being done in 
Guatemala between 1500 and 1200 BCE. When Europeans adopted maize, 
they ignored the nixtamalization process - and depending on 
unprocessed maize as one's primary food can lead to dietary 
deficiencies such as pellagra and kwashiorkor.

The Maya also made a maize based beer (and other fermented beverages, 
among them balche' made with honey and sometimes including natural 
plant hallucinogens when intended for ceremonial ritual use)

Depending on where they lived, Maya had a variety of animals (i 
included fowl and fish) for meat. But primary among them was the 
turkey. While turkey is often noted as the bird cooked for festivals, 
there was an indigenous breed other than that originating in North 
America. "Our" turkey, whose range extended into Mexico and which can 
be domesticated, is Meleagris gallopavo, while the Central American 
turkey is Meleagris ocellata, which was not domesticated. Northern 
turkeys were apparently found in Central America by the time of the 
Spanish explorers, but not on Yucatan. The Maya domesticated several 
other birds, as well. Turkeys featured in ceremonies for healing, 
planting, and praying for rain, but were eventually replaced by 
chickens brought by the Spaniards. Turkeys were most often jointed 
and boiled.

Honey was the basis for sweets, which were not popular everywhere. 
One that existed in some places was honey cooked for quite some time 
poured over roasted squash seeds.

Maya settlements had orchards of fruit trees, which the Spanish cut 
down when forcibly relocating whole populations to Spanish built 
towns centered around a church. Cultivated trees included avocado, 
cacao, and papaya, and other cultivated fruits included pineapple 
(yeah, i know, they don't grow on trees), and sapote, as well as some 
indigenous fruits that have no name in English.

Here are a couple *very* traditional recipes with some Colonial 
additions found in:
Copeland Marks. "False Tongues and Sunday Bread: A Guatemalan and 
Mayan Cookbook". New York : M Evans and Company, Inc., 1985.

Pulique (that's three syllables - poo-lii-KAY)
Serves 12

1 whole 10 pounds turkey
10 cups water
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
1 cup masa harina (corn processed for making tamales)
1/2 teaspoon achiote, also called annatto

Cook turkey in water with salt, onion, and cilantro in large covered 
pan or roaster over moderate heat for about 2 hours, or until turkey 
is tender. Turn several times during process. Remove turkey and set 
aside. Leave broth in pan.

Mix 1 cup broth with masa harina and achiote and form into a moist 
ball. Bring remaining broth to a boil, add cornmeal ball, and mix it 
well. Simmer mixture over low heat for 15 minutes, stirring 
frequently. The seasoned broth should be lightly thickened by the 
masa harina and a pale pinkish color.

Cut turkey into moderate sized pieces. Traditionally the broth and 
the turkey are served separately.

Copeland Marks says he likes to serve the corn-broth poured over the 
turkey in individual bowls.

To make this for school, you can probably use turkey parts, if you prefer.

-------

Pinolillo (pronounced more or less: pee-no-lee-yo)
Makes 1 Quart

1 pound dry corn kernels
4 ounces cacao beans
6 whole allspice berries
6 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Water
Sugar or Honey

Toast corn in dry skillet over moderate to low heat until the kernels 
are light brown

Toast cacao beans in dry skillet over moderate to low heat until 
lightly charred. Remove and discard skins.

Process to a fine powder the corn, cacao, and spices.

Take 2 tablespoons of the powder and mix it with 2 cups water and 
sugar or honey to taste. Beat this to a froth and serve at room 
temperature.

Copeland Marks says:
Supermarket cornmeal and cocoa powder can be substituted for corn 
kernels and cacao beans. The cornmeal can be lightly toasted in a dry 
skillet until it turns a beige color. Cocoa powder has already been 
processed and does not require toasting. Proceed with the other steps 
as above.

Anahita suggests:
1) that you buy *un-Dutched* cocoa powder at a health food store or 
use the same weight of melted unsweetened cooking chocolate. Dutched 
cocoa powder has had all the cocoa fats removed that would naturally 
be in the cacao beans.
2) that you can use some of the dry masa harina you bought for the 
turkey rather than buying cornmeal, toasting it as suggested.

I hope this is of some help.

Anahita