[Sca-cooks] Honey in Meso-America

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

OK, i found where the Sophie D. Coe book, "America's First Cuisines", 
was hiding...

She notes, on p. 89 of the chapter titled "Aztec Ingredients" that 
Aztec warehouses received annually 2,200 pots of bee's honey.

On p. 116, of the chapter "Aztec Cooks and Menus", Coe notes that in 
the writings of Sahagun are mentioned honey tamales, bee tamales, and 
(p. 117) tortillas made with honey. Hernandez mentions among the 
nixtamalized maize gruels, which were drunk as nourishing beverages, 
one with 1/10th part maguey syrup called nequatolli, and one with 
chili and honey called nechillatolli. An atolli of red amaranth 
rather than maize, with honey was hoauhatolli.

In the chapter "The Maya and the Explorers", on pp. 125-126
"One thing the expedition of Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba noticed 
on the island of Cozumel, and later in Yucatan, may still be seen in 
those places today by the visitor. It was, and is, an excellent place 
for honey production. Today the honey is produced by the European 
honey bee (Apis mellifera) , but prior to its introduction there were 
plenty of indigenous bees (Melipona sp., Trigona sp.) to do the job. 
Bee yards with thousands of hives are described by early travelers. 
Hernandez de Cordoba was said to have seen many wooden hives and to 
have been brought calabashes full of white and excellent honey. Honey 
was one of the principal products of the country and along with 
locally produced cotton cloth was traded far and wide in Mesoamerica. 
Among the Maya it was used to sweeten some of the maize drinks, the 
posolli and atolli [i mentioned in a previous post], and to make an 
exceedingly important alcoholic ritual beverage, balche'. The fact 
that a good part of one of the four surviving Maya books, the Madrid 
Codex, is concerned with bees and beekeeping underscores their 
importance.

"Was this honey used to make preserves or boiled sugar goods? We know 
that watery honey was cooked to make it more storeable, so that 
combinations like boiled honey and squash seeds or boiled honey and 
toasted maize might be pre-Columbian..."