[Sca-cooks] Mayan Cuisine

[Lonnie D. Harvel]

Wonderful! Thanks!

lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:

> 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
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