Lecture 16: Aztecs and the Roots of Mexican Cooking
Cochineal was a very important food-coloring and dye plant. It
came from a parasitic bug that lived on cacti and produced a bright
red (edible) dye when crushed. It replaced alkermes and became a
major world export item. Another food coloring is achiote, a red-
yellow seed that is used to color food like saffron does. Tobacco was known throughout Mexico and certainly was not an
innovation of the Aztecs, but the Aztecs smoked it out of tubes.
At religious festivities, men ate small black mushrooms that made
some people sing and others laugh—and eventually would cause
hallucinations, which they believed foretold the future. Then, they
made an offering to the gods, and a banquet followed with fl owers
and smoking. What they were describing was probably a type of
psilocybin, and it is interesting to note how many different religions
make use of the ecstatic drug-induced state.Coe, America’s First Cuisines.
Coe, True History of Chocolate.
McNeil, Chocolate in Mesoamerica.
Norton, Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures.
Ortiz de Montellano, Aztec Medicine, Health, and Nutrition.Cooking a Pre-Columbian Recipe
Just as it is fun to imagine what Italian food, for example, would have been
like before the introduction of tomatoes, peppers, or corn, imagining pre-
Columbian cooking is equally instructive for food history. There could be no
wheat, beef, pork, or even chicken. Herbs and seasonings would be restricted
to native plants—so no oregano or cumin—and a whole range of vegetables
would be missing. On the other hand, there are so many ingredients you can
use. This is a simple corn-and-bean dish, and of course, versions are still
made today, but it captures the spirit of Aztec cooking rather nicely.Suggested ReadingCulinary Activity