Krazy Kioti – the Gene Anderson website - Ecological anthropology and education

Tabasco food; also the glossary and bibliography for the whole cookbook, at the end.

Chapter 4.  Tabasco

Tabasco was a center of civilization long before the Mayas.  With neighboring southern Veracruz, it was the center of the mysterious Olmec civilization, the earliest true civilization in North America.  The Olmecs built huge towns in the alluvial floodplains of the rivers.  They farmed corn and doubtless many other crops.  The Olmecs have long disappeared, leaving the huge, enigmatic stone heads that one sees in the parks and museums of Tabasco.  They probably spoke a language related to, or ancestral to, the Mixe and Zoque languages that survive in small, remote enclaves to the south.
When Tabasco enters history–long before the Spanish conquest–it was inhabited by the Chol Mayas.  Today, the Chol live in isolated and impoverished rural settlements, and are known as “Chontal”–a Nahuatl word that means “foreigners” or “people of alien speech.”  They are literally “strangers in their own land.”  (Across the border in Chiapas, where their major classic sites are, they are still called Chol.)  Now that Maya writing has been deciphered (except for some refractory hieroglyphs), experts can read more than a thousand years of history from the stelae and temple inscriptions.  Maya has enough of a phonetic component to show that Cholti (ancestral to Chol) was indeed the language spoken in the courts and palaces of the central Classic Maya world. It was apparently the language of Palenque, the great ruined city still central to the Chol country.
The food in those palaces must have been refined and sophisticated.  Chocolate, vanilla and probably allspice were cultivated.  Maize was used in countless ways.  The vegetables and herbs basic to Tabasco cooking were all abundant in many varieties.  Domestic animals were few, but game and fish were incomparably more abundant than they are today.  One can easily imagine the lords of Palenque or Comalcalco feasting on garfish tamales, snook wrapped in hojasanta leaves, roast pijijes, and turtle soup, topping it off with cups of chocolate flavored with vanilla and allspice.
Everyday diet of commoners was something else.  When my friend Denise Brown went to live with the Chol while studying agriculture in the area, she asked them, casually, how long it had been since they had eaten.  The answer was: “About a week.”  She was horrified–these people must be starving to death!  Yet, they looked reasonably plump and happy; something was obviously wrong here.  She quickly learned that “Chontal” don’t eat their staple food; they drink it.  In the searing-hot, humid climate of Tabasco, so much body liquid is lost through sweating that rural people live on a liquid diet.  The staple food is thin corn meal mush known as pozol (a term that means “stew” in some parts of Mexico, but not here).  By itself, Tabascan pozol is so dull that English pirates in the 17^th century gave it the punning English name of “po’soul.”  But it can be flavored with chocolate, chile, salt, and the like.  More solid items can be added to it.  The rest of the diet was usually soup or stew also.  This would include meat, fish, beans, vegetables.  Chocolate—from home-grown, home-roasted cacao seeds—was a favorite drink.  The modern world has added beer and soda.  And after all that, a day’s work in the sweat-bath climate can still leave a man or woman panting with thirst.  Since the climate has not changed much, and the work load of rural Maya has not changed much either, one can assume that the Classic Maya commoners also lived a life of pozole and soup.
The Chol world collapsed in the 9^th century A.D.  Drought and chronic warfare proved more devastating to the central lowlands (of which Tabasco is a western extension) than elsewhere in Mayaland.  Populations were small and scattered.  The forests, largely cleared for farming in the Classic period, returned.  The Spanish conquistadors found a small and impoverished population.  By and large, after early contact, they bypassed Tabasco; it had no gold, no cities, nothing except good land for farming and ranching.  Even that land was too far from markets to be worth much.  Among Tabasco products, only chocolate—and, later, sugar—were valuable enough and portable enough to be worth much attention.
Thus, until a couple of generations ago, Tabasco was a tiny, sleepy enclave.  Most of it was a world of water: the delta complex of Mexico’s greatest rivers, the Grijalva and Usumacinta, as well as other rivers draining the Mexican highlands.  Wandering sloughs threaded a vast rainforest broken by small clearings and plantations.
Oil changed all that.  Tabasco is underlain by a vast oil field, a continuation of the oil-bearing formations of Texas and Louisiana.  Tabasco is now one of Mexico’s richest states, and its capital, Villahermosa, is a boomtown.  The inevitable raw newness, vulgar displays of wealth contrasting with abject poverty, and other features of boomtowns around the world are visible. The life and culture of the “Chontal” Chol Maya, including their trials and tribulations in the corrupting madness of the oil boom, have been memorably described by Carlos Inchaustegui (1985, 1987).
To tourists in search of quaint charm, Villahermosa is a nightmare, but I can’t help loving it.  The vibrant excitement spills out of the oil offices and into the streets, restaurants and markets.  The Villahermosa market is a paradise of local fish, herbs, and foods, many of them quite strange to anyone who is not a choco (slang for “Tabascan”).  Here one gets away from the heterogeneous rush of people from all over the world that throng the streets outside.  In the market, and–still more–in the countryside, one sees the real choco: slight, wiry, incredibly strong, and often showing evidence of long mixing of indigenous strains with Spanish and African colonizers.
These people have a long heritage.  Over the centuries since the Conquest, Tabasco produced a distinctive local culture based on Maya and Spanish traditions with some African influence.  It also participated in, and gave some distinctive flavor to, the national culture of Mexico.  The great poet Carlos Pellicer—whose work is so rich in Tabascan word-music that it is almost untranslatable—is only the most famous of a distinguished line of poets.  The great linguist and philologist Francisco Santamaria, who recorded Tabasco’s folk music and lore for posterity, governed the state during the 1940′s.
Alluvial soil is rich, and Tabasco can produce almost any tropical vegetable or fruit that can be imagined.  It has, however, remained an agricultural backwater.  Sugar, the major crop today, is notoriously low-paying.  Cattle ranching, important from early days, was of the “extensive” variety: scrub cattle on poor pasture.  This almost certainly reduced the supply of meat; game-rich forests were cleared to produce a few thin steers.  This picture is changing rapidly, now that more capital is available to allow upgrading of stock and pasturage.  Vegetable-growing was also a losing game until recently: the local people were too poor to buy them, and the rest of Mexico was too far away for marketing.  Now, fruit and vegetable growing expands along with the urban economy.
Tabasco has been the cacao center of Mexico since perhaps Olmec days, and still produces chocolate in many forms.  Chocolate factories produce cocoa powder, bars, and cookie-sized tablets of chocolate mixed with sugar and spices.  The sugar is local; Tabasco is an enormous sugar producer.  It also produces a great deal of tropical fruit, especially bananas.  Cattle are also common.  Unlike most of south Mexico, Tabasco has large areas of natural grassland, and thus cattle flourish without destroying the local ecosystem.  From early Spanish colonial times onward, cattle have been important in the local economy.  Old-time cows were tough and lean, suitable for tasajo, the dried salted jerky that is a staple in the area.  It required long boiling to be edible.  Until recently, cattle adapted to tropical climates and diseases did not produce quality beef.  Breeding programs on the King Ranch in Texas, and later elsewhere, developed quality tropical cattle, and revolutionized Latin American economy—not always for the better (Painter and Durham 1995), but Tabasco has suffered less than most areas.  Today it is a major supplier of beef.
The best of Tabasco food, however, comes from the water.  Tabasco is a semi-aquatic landscape–a world of vast rivers, sloughs, marshes, wetlands, seasonally flooded fields, filled-in former channels, and alluvial land covered with rainforest or swamp.  Such deltas are the richest of all environments.  The interface between water and air, and the constant input of nutrients by the rivers, produce conditions that maximize growth.  Fed as it is by the greatest rivers between the Mississippi and the Orinoco, Tabasco was perhaps the most productive land in all North America in pre-Columbian times.  In addition, the ducks and geese of North America find the delta country an ideal winter home, and once resorted there in millions.   It is still home to fish, ducks, turtles, crayfish, lobsters, shrimps, and such unique creatures as the pigua.
Some of these animals are now, alas, too rare to be recommended as food.  The various strange and succulent river turtles–known by such local names as hicotea, pochitoque, and guao (pronounced “wow!”)–must be left out of this book, important as they were in the old days.  Now, they need careful protection to survive.  Manatees are gone, crocodiles are going fast, and where ducks flocked in millions there are now hundreds.  Overhunting, cattle range expansion, and uncontrolled pollution from the oil industry is rapidly reducing Tabasco to zoological desolation.
Tabasco was great game country in the good old days.  Recipes for iguana, armadillo, paca, deer, peccary (javelina) and other creatures of the bush are found in the cookbooks.  Alas, these animals too are rapidly becoming extinct and are desperately in need of conservation.  Good management would easily permit them to expand their populations, and become again available for managed hunting.  Indeed, there is every reason to farm them.  Paca farms, in particular, have proved successful in other parts of Latin America.  The great Chiapas zoologist, Miguel Alvarez del Toro (1991), advocates farming them in south Mexico, and says that paca ham and bacon are unsurpassed!
Isolation and rural poverty did not prevent Tabasco from developing a great cuisine; the oil-boom economy has not destroyed it.  Tabasco’s cooking is distinctive, and is very different from the cuisine of the Yucatan Peninsula or anywhere else.  Achiote is less important than in Yucatan.  The distinctive recados of Yucatan are known only through borrowed dishes.  On the other hand, herbs are more important; hojasanta, chipilín and “Tabasco parsley” (see below) are used in large quantities.  The cooking of today has unmistakable Maya roots.  The importance of local seafood, native Mexican vegetables, and maize reflects this.  So does the importance of tamales and soups.  The recipes that follow are selected to emphasize the indigenous tradition.
Recados are not usually used in Tabasco.  Chile sauces are similar to the generic ones of southern Mexico; see the Yucatan chapter.  The sauces are various mixes of chopped or mashed chiles, onions, tomatoes, garlic, and so on, usually with lime juice and salt, sometimes with other add-ins.  A strongly lime-juiced salsa is recommended for the fish dishes.
Some ingredients special to Tabasco:
Garfish.  Garfish are, or were, abundant in the rivers and sloughs of Tabasco.  The gar is a “living fossil,” and it has a satisfyingly archaic appearance–huge, scaly, toothy.  Large ones sometimes eat dogs crossing the rivers.  Gar were, in turn, a favorite prey of jaguars.  The gar’s abundance and firm, rather coarse, white flesh made it a true “people’s fish” in the old days, and even today.  It is often sold lightly roasted.  Originally, the fishermen seem to have roasted the fish lightly over open fires to make them keep longer.  Now, it’s a matter of taste tradition.
Cod or other firm white fish is a fine substitute.
Perejil de Tabasco.  In spite of the name, which means “parsley of Tabasco,” this local herb resembles dandelion greens.  It is, in fact, a widespread Caribbean native plant, known elsewhere as culantro (Eryngium foetidum).  It bears no visual resemblance to parsley, but tastes rather like it.  Parsley makes a perfectly good substitute; tender young dandelion greens are still better.  You can now find culantro in many Caribbean markets.  (The word culantro, originally apparently an obscene pun on cilantro, leads to endless confusion between the two dissimilar herbs.  Cilantro is a totally different plant with a totally different taste.  Therefore, the present plant is “Tabasco parsley” herein.)
Pigua.  This is a huge, clawed, freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium carcinus. (It is similar to the marron of southwest Australia—if that’s any help.)  It is unsurpassed among crustacea.  It is best in mixed soups.  Ordinary crayfish, small lobsters, or langostinos can substitute.
Pijije; “black-bellied whistling duck” in English. This bird’s Mexican name, pijije, imitates the duck’s whistling cry.  This small wild duck abounds in Tabasco and is commonly sold in the market.  Unfortunately, it is being overhunted.  Moreover, it nests in holes in trees, and deforestation is stressing it more than hunting.  So use a regular commercial duckling instead.
This bird is so popular in Tabasco and Veracruz that it has even been the subject of poems; one by the well-known Mexican writer José Juan Tablada is quite famous (Tablada 1998, orig. early 20^th century).  Of course, romantic poetry is so endemic to south Mexico that almost everything has had some poem written to it, but the fame of Tablada’s work shows how valued the pijije is.
Robalo: As noted elsewhere, this term in southeast Mexico generally means a fat, oily fish of the sort that would be called a “snook” in Florida; as usual, various species are involved, ranging from mackerel types to mullet-like fish.  (Robalo elsewhere in Mexico covers a vast range of fish species.) Any white-fleshed fish will do, but mackerel are really too strong-flavored for South Mexican recipes.
BASICS
Pozol or “Chorote”
The staple food of much of Tabasco.  This recipe is given here for ethnographic interest, since few readers will be likely to prepare it.
2 lb. dried corn kernels
1/2 lb. cacao seeds, toasted and peeled
Cook the corn with lime (calcium oxide, not the citrus fruit) for a few minutes.  Try a grain to see if it peels easily by rubbing in the hands.  If not, continue cooking.  If so, take the corn and wash it several times, then return to flame and simmer.  This corn is known in most of Mexico as “nixtamal” (a Nahuatl word) but in Tabasco as “chegua.”
Grind the chegua.  Grind the chocolate very fine.  Add both to water.  Strain, using the strainer to beat the mix at the same time to make it foam up.  Cook, stirring constantly.  This can be flavored with achiote, vanilla, and the like.
Various tree flowers are used in Tabasco and neighboring regions.
Tostones de Platano
Boil plantains, mash, add some flour to hold together.  Let stand 20 minutes.  Flatten into potato-chip-thin cakes and deep-fry.
This makes a great appetizer, used like tortilla chips to spoon up dips.
Totopos
A large corn cake.  Shape masa into a cake a foot across and a finger thick, and grill.  This is a staple food.
TAMALES AND RELATIVES
Bean Tamales with Chicharron and Hojasanta

1/2 lb. cooked black beans
l 1/2 lb. masa
1/2 lb. lard
Salt
2 oz. chicharron cut in small pieces
Hojasanta leaves
Banana leaves
Mash the beans and mix with the masa, salt, lard and chicharron.  Chop up two or three of the hojasanta leaves and add in.
Wrap small lumps in hojasanta leaves.  Wrap these, further, in banana leaves (you can get several in one banana leaf).  Steam for an hour.
These are perfectly good without the chicarron.
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:17)
Chaya Dumpling Soup
1/2 lb. chaya leaves
2 oz. bacon
1 small onion
1 egg (or 2 egg whites, if watching cholesterol)
1 small bread rolls or 2 slices bread, soaked in milk or water
Grated cheese
1 tbsp tomato paste
Oil
Parsley, and other herbs as desired (thyme and oregano recommended)
Stock (chicken or meat)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
Chop the chaya and the onion.  Save some of the onion.  Fry the rest, with the chaya, till soft.
Grind up the bacon, bread, herbs, and the rest of the onion.  Mix with the egg, cheese, tomato paste and chaya-onion mix.  Season and form into balls.
Set the soup stock to boil.  Add the rice and chaya balls.  Warm up.  Or, even better to my taste, you can serve the soup over the rice.
Simpler, commoner variant:  just mix the chaya-onion mix with nixtamal or bread crumbs to make the dumplings.

Chaya Tamales
1 lb. masa
1/2 lb chaya, steamed and chopped
Grated cheese to taste
l-2 tbsp milk
Salt to taste
Oil for frying
5 eggs, hardboiled and chopped
Tomatoes, onion and garlic to taste
Pumpkin kernels to taste
More grated cheese to taste

Combine the first five ingredients.  Make a tortilla (uncooked) and stuff it with the eggs.  Form into a tamale or dumpling shape.  Shallow-fry in a pan.
Separately make a sauce with the tomato, onion and garlic, all blended, and fry.
Put this sauce over the stuffed tortillas.  Top with the pumpkin kernels and grated cheese.
One can imagine various stuffings other than chopped eggs.
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:16
Chipilín Tamales (simple folk form)

2 lb. masa
1 bunch chipilín
1/2 lb. lard
Salt
Banana leaves
Prepare the masa as in the other recipes.  Wash, chop and mix in the chipilín leaves.  Proceed as in other recipes, cooking the masa-chipilín mix first (stirring constantly), then making tamales and steaming them for an hour.
Chipilín Tamales (festive form)
1 lb. masa
1/2 lb. chipilín leaves
1/4 lb. lard
Banana leaves (or functional equivalent)
1 lb. pork
2 tomatoes
1 bunch chives
1 small onion
Cook the pork in a little water, chop, and fry with the tomato, chives and onions, finely chopped.
Take the pork stock, stir in the masa, chipilín leaves and lard, with salt to taste.  Cook over low heat.  When thick, stir in the fried ingredients.
Wrap pieces of this mixture in banana leaves.  Steam ca. 20 min.
Serve with tomato sauce.
Empanaditas de Chaya
l lb. chaya leaves
1/2 lb. tomatoes
1 lb. onions
1 lb. masa
Oil
Salt, pepper and vinegar to taste
Cook the leaves and cut them in small pieces.
Cut up 1/4 lb. each of tomatoes and onions.
Fry the above in a little oil till onions are cooked soft.  Add some salt and pepper.
Make (but don’t cook) small tortillas with the masa.  Put some of the vegetable mixture on each, fold it over, and seal.
Fry the resulting half-moons in a little oil.
Serve with the rest of the tomatoes and onions, cut up, dressed with the vinegar and the rest of the salt and pepper.
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:14)
Garfish Tacos
1 roast garfish (or 1-2 lb. cod, baked till not quite done)
1/2 lb. tomatoes
1/2 lb. onions
Lime or bitter orange, cilantro and tabasco chile to taste.
Tortillas
Flake the fish and fry with the chopped tomato and onion.  Frying here means stir-frying or sautéing, not battering and deep-frying as for the Baja California fish tacos that have recently become popular in the United States.
Make tacos, adding the other ingredients to taste.  (The above are the Tabasco traditional add-ins, but of course you can add whatever you find necessary in a fish taco.)
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:15)
Garfish Tamales, I
1 small roast garfish (2 lb.; or substitute 2 pounds of cod or similar fish)
1 onion
Vinegar
1/2 lb. tomatoes
1 chile güero (a hot yellow fresh chile), or other hot chile, chopped
1 large sprig of epazote
Salt to taste
4 1/2 lb. masa
2 lb. lard
3 bunches of banana leaves (or substitute)
Oil for frying
To roast a gar in the true Tabasco manner, pass a stick through the mouth and out the cleaning slit, and roast over a fire.
Flake the fish.
Chop the onion; marinate in the vinegar.  Add the tomato, flaked fish, chile, and epazote sprig.  Season with salt and leave to marinate.
Mix the lard (melted) into the masa.  Add enough water to make a rather thin paste.
Cook this, stirring constantly, until a drop of it put on a banana leaf holds together and flows down the leaf.
Make small tamales: spread a tablespoon of masa on a leaf, add a tablespoon of the fish mix, roll up, tie or fold to seal.  (If lazy, make bigger tamales.)
Steam the tamales for an hour.
(Loosely based on Conaculta Oceano 2001c:17, but revised from field experience)
Garfish Tamales, II
1 medium-sized garfish
1 lb. tomatoes
2 bell peppers
2 green onions or bunches of chives
1/2 tsp. oregano
2 lb. masa
1/2 lb. lard
2 tbsp. achiote paste
Salt and pepper to taste
Leaves for wrapping
Tabasco chiles (if you can stand them; mild chiles if you can’t)
Roast the garfish over charcoal or wood fire.  Skin and bone it.  Chop up a tomato, a bell pepper, and some of the green onion or chives.  Mix the salt, pepper, 1 tbsp. achiote and oregano with this.  Fry all, then add the fish and fry till all is integrated.
Mix the masa with lard and the rest of the achiote, and some salt and soup stock, till it makes a soft, smooth paste.
Carefully add in the fish mixture.  Wrap.
Steam for about two hours.
Make a salsa by chopping together the rest of the tomato, onion, bell pepper, and green onion and the Tabasco chiles.
Pork mone
Mone is a type of steamed meatball.  This one is traditional in wakes for the dead in the area of Torno Largo.
1 lb. ground or well-chopped pork
1 large tomato
1 small onion
1 mild chile
2 hojasanta leaves
Banana leaf
Salt to taste
Lard and water for cooking
Cut up the vegetables and one hojasanta leaf.  Mix with the meat and a little lard.
Lay out the other hojasanta leaf on the banana leaf.  Spread the mixture on it, roll up, and tie.
Put in water and simmer for an hour and a half.
Serve with roasted plantains.
Variants can be made using beef, variety meats, etc.  (Several other mone recipes are in Conaculta Oceano 2001c:18.)
Tamales in the Pot
1 lb. pork chops
1 chicken
1 tortilla
3 chiles
3 cloves garlic
4 tomatoes
1 onion
8 or 9 leaves epazote
Oregano, cumin seeds and achiote to taste
3 lb. masa
1 lb. lard
1 bell pepper
6 Tabasco peppers
1/2 lb. pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
Salt
Cut the meat into 10 portions.  Boil, putting in the pork first, later the chicken, till almost done.
Brown the tortilla.  Seed and roast the chiles and soak in hot water.  Cut up the garlic, two tomatoes, and half an onion and fry them with the seasonings.  Add the tortilla and chiles and blend, using some of the broth.
Cook the meats a bit more in this soup.
Mix the masa with the rest of the broth, the lard, and some salt.  Cook, stirring constantly.
Roast and peel the bell pepper, roast the rest of the onion, toast the Tabasco peppers, and blend with the rest of the tomatoes, for a salsa.
Toast and grind the pepitas, i.e. make sikil.
Take ten small pots.  Put in each a banana leaf.  Add a bit of the masa.  Put on this the meat mixture.
Bake for 20 minutes.
To serve, turn out on a plate, remove the leaf, and cover with the sauce and ground seeds.
SOUPS
Chaya and potato soup
2 lb. potatoes
50 chaya leaves
2 oz. butter
2 quarts water
Salt to taste
Boil and peel the potatoes.  Separately, boil the chaya.
Liquefy all in blender, using the cooking water.
Put on heat, adding the butter and salt, till mixture boils.
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:24)
Cowboys’ Stew
This uses the dried and salted beef of Tabasco, which cowboys carry for rations while riding the range.
2 lb. tasajo (dried salt beef, like jerky but saltier)
2 plantains
1/4 small winter squash
10 chaya leaves
1 mild green chile
1/4 onion
1 tomato
Parsley, chives, salt to taste
Boil the meat till tender.
Add the plantain (peeled and cut up), the squash (in pieces) and the chaya leaves (separately, and in that order, letting them cook a bit before adding the next item).
Roast the chile, onion and tomato.  Peel.
When all is cooked, add the chile, onion, tomato, parsley and chives.  Cook very briefly.
Those not riding the Tabasco range will want to soak the salt out of the meat first–or just substitute fresh meat.
Fish Soup with Hojasanta, I
In rich fish stock, cook a chunk of snook belly meat with one hojasanta leaf.
Tomatoes and Tabasco parsley make good additions.
Fish Soup with Hojasanta, II
“Mojarra” can be used for this, but it’s better with belly meat or steak of snook.  Any good firm white-fleshed fish will do.
1 tomato
1 bell pepper
1 xkatik chile
3 lb. white fish (whole, or fillet with bone and skin)
4 tender hojasanta leaves
6 black peppercorns
Oregano, salt and oil to taste (the oil is optional)
Chop very fine, or blend, the tomato and peppers.  Fry for sofrito.  Add water, the fish and hojasanta leaves and the other ingredients.  Boil till fish is just done.
Fish Soup with Hojasanta, III
Ingredients as above, plus one more tomato and an onion
Chop and fry the tomatoes, onion and peppers.  Put with fish in 3 cups water.  Add the spices.  Cut up the leaves and add.
This is especially recommended as a truly incomparable and extremely simple dish.  Almost any fish will do; a mixture of seafood is wonderful.  This is a recipe in which hojasanta can be readily replaced by finocchio, in which case you have something similar to Italo-Californian cioppino.
Fish Stew
2 lb. whole fish
3 cloves garlic
1 laurel leaf
3 carrots
3 small summer squash
1 tomato
6 small potatoes
1 chayote
1 small head cabbage
1 medium-sized onion
1 bunch cilantro
4 chaya leaves
2 ears sweet corn
Salt to taste
Oil
Fillet the fish.  Make a stock by cooking the heads and bones for 20 minutes in 8 cups of water, with salt to taste.  Strain.
Chop the garlic and fry in 2 tablespoons oil.  Mash the tomato (in a blender or the like) and add.
Add in the vegetables, cut into chunks except for the potatoes, which should be whole and unskinned.  Cook till getting soft.
Add the fish fillets; cook for ten more minutes.  Mix in the mashed garlic and tomato.
Serve with white rice.  On the side, serve chopped green chiles, cilantro and onion.
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:22)
Garfish soup
l large garfish
1 bitter orange
2 plantains
1 tomato
1 onion
1 bell pepper
2 garlic cloves
Oregano, cilantro, achiote, salt and oil to taste
Scrub the fish with the bitter orange, squeezing the juice out as you do so.
Set the plantains (peeled and chunked) to boil.  When almost done, add the fish, the tomato (cut up and fried in the oil), and the other ingredients.  Simmer till fish is done.
Menudo
1/2 lb. pig’s heart
1/2 lb. pig’s spleen
1/2 lb. pork kidneys, trimmed and soaked
1/2 lb. pork liver
1/2 lb. pig’s lung
Heart veins, to taste
1 1/4 onion
1 head garlic
Whole allspice to taste
1 lb. tomatoes
Achiote to taste
1 bell pepper
1 green chile
Oil for frying
Oregano to taste
1 clove (or more, to taste)
cinnamon stick
stock or water
Cook the pork ingredients with the 1/4 onion, half the garlic, and the allspice.
When the pork ingredients are well cooked, chop them finely.
Chop the whole onion and the rest of the vegetables.
Fry, with the meat, achiote, oregano, clove and cinnamon.
Add some of the soup (but this is a stew, not a soup like north-central Mexican menudo)
If the vegetables are blended and the resulting sauce fried in oil, then added to the rest and cooked with a couple of potatoes cut in quarters, the dish is “chanfaina,” a name with Catalan antecedents.
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:23)
Plantain Soup
3 plantains
1 tbsp. vinegar
1 tomato
1 bell pepper
2 green onions (scallions)
10 peppercorns
Lard or oil
Salt
Chicken stock
1 small ranch cheese (a fresh, white, rather dry and salty cheese.  Look for queso ranchero at a Hispanic market, or substitute feta)
Boil the plantains and mash.
Blend the vinegar, tomato, bell pepper, and onions, and fry.  Grind the peppercorns and add in.
Mix in the plantain and salt.  Fry the paste again.
Mix in a bit of chicken stock to make a thick creamy texture.
Cut up the cheese and top the soup with it.
Variant: By using a vegetable stock, this becomes one of the few really good vegetarian dishes in the Tabasco file.  (For a simple form of that version, see Conaculta Oceano 2001c:23.)
Seafood Soup
1/2 lb. tomatoes
1 onion
1/2 head garlic
1/2 lb. snook
1/2 lb. crabs in shell
1/2 lb. raw shrimp
1/2 lb. clams
1 tsp. oregano
1 1/2 quarts water
2 bay leaves (or more)
5 tbsp. olive oil
5 white peppercorns
Few capers and green olives
Blend the tomato, onion and garlic. Fry in the oil.
Add the water and boil.
Add the sea food and seasonings.  Cook till done.
When cooked, add in the capers and olives.
Serve hot with quartered limes on the side.
(It would be possible to shell the shrimp and crab first and make a stock with the shells.)
Shrimp Soup
In stock made by boiling many shrimps and shrimp shells, etc., cook shrimp, bits of chile, summer squash, and herbs (parsley, Tabasco parsley, cilantro, others to taste).
Snook Stew
4 large steaks of snook
4 garlic cloves
Oil or lard as necessary
1 small onion
1 bell pepper
1 tomato
2 hardboiled eggs (optional)
2 leaves of Tabasco parsley
1 tbsp. vinegar
Croutons (made from 8 slices of bread, cut up, toasted; optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Boil a quart and a half of water.  Add the fish; cook for five minutes, take it out, remove bones and skin.
Cut up, and fry, the garlic, onion, bell pepper, and tomato.
Add these to the water and boil.  Return the fish and seasonings to same and cook five more minutes.  Slice the eggs, add, cook five more minutes.  Serve with the croutons.
Soup for the Bridegroom
The Moors brought pilaf to Spain.  In Spanish it became known as a “sopa seca,” literally “dry soup.”  This is a Mexican development of the recipe.  The Moorish flavor–chicken with clove, cinnamon, pepper and so on–has been supplemented by characteristic Tabasco ingredients.
1 lb. rice
Breast meat, and (if you want) liver and gizzard, from 1 chicken
1 large tomato, cut up
1 bell pepper, cut up
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp. cilantro, cut up
1 tbsp. Tabasco parsley, cut up fine
1 clove
10 peppercorns
1 stick cinnamon
1 sprig oregano (or 1 tsp.)
1 tbsp. achiote paste
1 tbsp. vinegar
Stock
Lard or oil
Salt to taste
Wash and soak the rice.
Boil the other ingredients and chop fine.
Fry all with the soaked (but uncooked) rice.  Add stock, to 1″ above the level of the rice mix.  Simmer till rice is done.
SEAFOOD
Bobo
“Choco” dialect for “catfish.”
1 large catfish
1 lime
2 leaves of hojasanta
4 leaves chaya
3 shallots
1 tomato
3 Tabasco chiles
1 garlic clove
Salt
Leaves of banana or the like, to wrap
Clean the catfish.  Rub with salt and lime.  Put on the hojasanta leaves.  Chop finely the chaya.  Blend the garlic, shallots, tomato and chiles.  Wrap all in the hojasanta leaves, rub with some lard, and wrap in the banana leaves.  Bake in moderate oven (350-375o) for half an hour.
Ceviche
2 lb. freshly caught fish (raw)
4 limes
1 tbsp salt
2 tomatoes
1 onion
1/4 cup cilantro
1 Serrano chile
1 tbsp olive oil
10 olives
2 avocados, sliced
Cut up the fish.  Cover with the lime juice and salt and let stand in a cool place for 4 or 5 hours.  Chop the vegetables finely.  Mix them and the other ingredients.
Ceviche is, of course, a universal Mexican delicacy; this is a Tabasco variant.  Any fresh sea food can be used (the more the better–a contrast in textures is desirable).  However, be absolutely certain the sea food is really fresh and from uncontaminated water.  Pollution has rendered Mexican seafood very dangerous when raw.  Sadly, Tabasco is one of the worst areas.
Crayfish with chile ancho
4 crayfish
2 cups lime juice
5 chiles anchos
Salt, pepper and garlic to taste
Oil for frying
Cut in half and clean the crayfish.  Marinate a while in one cup of lemon juice.
Lightly roast the chiles, clean, liquefy with the other cup of lemon juice and the seasonings.  Cover the crayfish with this and fry.
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:28)
Drunken Fish
1 tomato
2 Serrano chiles (remove seeds and membrane)
4 allspice berries, powdered
Oregano to taste
2 or more bay leaves
1 glass of sherry
3 tablespoons vinegar
1/2 stick butter
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
Salt to taste
1 large snook or other fish (whole or in steaks)
Blend the vegetables.  Add the wine, vinegar, bay leaves and spices, and a little butter.  Marinate the fish in this for half an hour.  Then add the rest of the butter, and the fish, and simmer (or bake) in a covered dish till sauce is mostly absorbed.
Fish in Adobo
Any firm but delicate white-fleshed fish is good for this.
“Adobo” is cognate with French “daube.”  It refers to a cooking process in which pieces of meat or fish are highly spiced and then simmered, or cooked in a casserole.

1 bream or similar fish, ca. 2-3 lb.
3 limes
1 onion
6 garlic cloves
10 cumin seeds
1 piece achiote (cube of paste or small bag of powder)
2 cloves
1/2 tsp oregano
8 peppercorns
2 oz. vinegar
1/2 cup oil
Clean the fish.  Slash diagonally.  Marinate for an hour in water with juice of one lime.  Then scrub the fish.  Blend the onion and garlic; add the achiote, and the spices, powdered.  Mix these with the oil and juice of the other 2 limes, and enough vinegar to make a paste.  Rub this over the fish.  Let stand one hour, then bake at 350o, basting with the sauce occasionally.

Fish in Hojasanta Leaves
2 lb. seabass or similar fish
1 tomato
2 (or more) laurel leaves
1 onion
1 bell pepper
2 tsp. oil
Parsley leaves
Cilantro leaves
Tabasco parsley leaves
Chipilín leaves
Hojasanta leaves
Pepper, oregano and salt to taste
Rub the fish with the pepper, oregano and salt.  Add the tomato, bell pepper, and onion, all cut into strips.  Add the chipilín, chopped, and the oil.
Wrap in the hojasanta leaves.  Wrap the whole bundle in foil.   Bake at 350o till done (20-30 min.).
Fish in Paper (a simpler variant of the above)
For six persons:
6 pieces fish
6 cloves garlic
6 leaves of hojasanta
Salt and pepper to taste
10 green chiles
1 further clove garlic
1 slice of onion
Crush the garlic and spread it on the fish.
Roast the chiles and blend with the garlic clove and onion slice.  Briefly fry the mix in a little oil.  Spread this too on the fish.
Wrap each fillet in an hojasanta leaf, wrap the result in aluminum foil (or cooking paper), and bake at 350o.
Fish with Tabasco Parsley
1 fish or fillet, ca. 2 lb.
1 lime
Oil
1 large bunch of Tabasco parsley
3 peppercorns
1 garlic clove
1 cinnamon stick
1 slice of breaad
Salt and pepper to taste
Water to cook
Wash the fish and rub with lime, salt and pepper.  Cook in moderate oven, covering with the Tabasco parsley, pepper, garlic, cinnamon and moistened bread, blended, and fried in a little oil.
This dish is perfectly good with ordinary parsley.  Indeed, it is similar to dishes of Spain and other parts of Mexico that use ordinary parsley.
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:31
Garfish in Chirmol
If you can’t get a garfish–or maybe even if you can–you might try this with any other firm-fleshed fish, whole or filleted.
1 garfish of ca. 3 lb.
3 thin tortillas
4 garlic cloves
1 large tomato
5 shallots
3 dried chiles
1 piece achiote (small cake or cube, or a small bag of achiote powder)
5 allspice berries
1/2 lb. masa
1/4 cup lard or oil
1 bunch epazote
A little oregano
Salt
Wash and clean the fish.
Toast the chiles; remove seeds and membranes.  Toast and crush the tortillas.  Roast the tomato, onion and garlic.  Fry and mash these together.  Grind the chiles and spices, and mix in.  Simmer to thicken.  Add the fish and enough water to cover.  Thicken the soup with the masa, add the lard, epazote, and oregano, and cook.
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:32)
Garfish in green sauce
1 garfish, ca. 3 lb.–or any other fish; this will work for anything, and almost any firm white-fleshed fish is better than a garfish unless you are a loyal Tabasqueño/
This recipe is a much-transformed descendent of a medieval Hispano-Moorish delicacy (see Introduction).  One wonders what the refined gourmets of old Grenada or Cordova would have made of a garfish—a living fossil biologically, and looks and tastes like it.
4 oz. chipilín leaves
4 oz. chaya leaves
2 oz. Tabasco chile leaves
1 bell pepper
1 purple onion
5 cloves garlic
8 tsp. lard or oil
water
1/2 lb. masa
Wash the gar and cut in pieces.
Blanch and blend the leaves.  Take a slice off the onion and one from the bell pepper; blend the rest with the leaves.  Put in pot with the gar, add salt (and water if necessary), and cook over a medium fire.
Fry the slice of onion and the slice of bell pepper.  Add to the rest.
Stir in the masa.  Cook till the whole turns from green to yellow; this should indicate doneness.
Tabasco chile leaves are widely but uncommonly used as a vegetable in Mexico.  (I have also seen them as a vegetable in parts of East Asia.)
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:32)
Garfish Roasted
Possibly not the world’s most sophisticated recipe, but one of the very commonest in use in Tabasco.
1 garfish
5 shallots or onions
20 Tabasco chiles
Salt
2 limes
Roast the gar over coals.  Make a salsa of the other ingredients.
Piguas roasted
2 lb. piguas, peeled
Juice of bitter orange
Salt, tabasco chiles, garlic, pepper.
Blend the condiments.  Paint the piguas with it; leave half an hour.  Cook in a covered pan or casserole dish till they become dry and golden.
Piguas with Garlic
See note on piguas, above.
4 large piguas
10 garlic cloves
10 ground peppercorns
2 limes
Salt to taste
Shell the piguas.  Mix the other ingredients and marinate the piguas half an hour.  Proceed as in previous recipe.  Cook very quickly.
This should be intensely garlicky.
Any large prawn or langostino will do as substitute.
Shrimp in Escabeche
2 lb. fresh shrimp
1/2 cup olive oil
4 tomatillos or tomatoes
6 yellow chiles, chopped
1 large onion
10 black peppercorns
6 laurel leaves
6 allspice leaves (if you can’t find any, use some ground allspice)
1/2 tbsp oregano
1 cup vinegar
10 garlic cloves

Peel the shrimp.  Fry in a bit of oil.  Add the other ingredients (except the vinegar), the spices ground, the leaves and vegetables chopped fine or less so according to taste.  Fry a bit more, then add the vinegar and boil till seasoned (a very brief time).
Shrimp in Green Sauce
That medieval green sauce again.
2 lb. shrimps
30 chaya leaves
4 garlic cloves
1 small onion
1 lb. masa
1/2 lb. lard
Leaves of chipilín
Salt to taste
Shell and clean the shrimp.
Blend the vegetables and cook with the shrimp.
Meanwhile, mix the masa with water to make a paste.  Mix into the shrimp.  Then mix in the lard and salt.  Cook.
Snook Casserole

Large snook (6 lb.)
1 laurel leaves
1 lime
Salt
2 onions
10 allspice berries
2 cloves
2 tomatoes
6 tbsp olive oil
Parsley, 1 bunch, chopped
1 jalapeno chile, cut up
2 tbsp lard
Boil the fish briefly with one laurel leaf, half a lime, salt, onion, allspice and cloves.  Pour off and save the water.  Fry the fish in a little oil in the same dish.  In a separate pan, take 4 tsbp oil, a chopped onion, then add the tomato, roasted and mashed.  When fried, add chopped parsley and 2 tbsp of the fish broth.  Add the fish and chile.  Put in a pan greased with butter.  Breadcrumbs can be added on top.  Bake for 10 minutes.
Snook steaks
2 lb. snook steaks
2 limes
1 1/2 tomatoes
2 sweet red peppers or, better, mild and flavorful red chiles
1 onion
Butter
Olive oil
Bottled chile pepper sauce (Mexican or Caribbean) if you can stand it
Allspice
Oil for frying
Season the steaks with lemon and salt.  Fry briefly in a little oil.
Slice the vegetables.  Fry in oil with chile sauce and ground allspice to taste.
Cover the steaks with this, wrap in aluminum foil and bake for 7 minutes.
Snook Stew
2 onions, sliced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups tomato, blended
1 bunch parsley, chopped
1 bunch oregano
1 bunch marjoram
Salt and pepper
2 cups water
2 lb. snook
Blend the vegetables and herbs, and fry.  Add to the water.  When they have boiled five minutes, add the snook, cut in pieces.  Cover and simmer 15 minutes.

Sole
1 sole, ca. 1 lb
3 tomatoes
1 onion
Cilantro
2 habanero chiles
Juice of 2 bitter oranges
Salt
Clean the sole, rub with salt and pepper, and grill.  Make the other ingredients into a sauce by chopping finely and adding the salt and orange juice.

Stuffed Snook Fillet
Wrap a thin snook fillet around shrimp, octopus bits, parsley.  Cover with local white cheese, crumbled.  Mask with a sauce of onion, tomato and chile, chopped and fried.
MEAT
Barbecued Ribs a la Tabasco
2 lb. pork rib slab
2 bitter oranges
Salt to taste
4 oz. black pepper
1 head garlic
1 onion
1 clove (or more)
1 pinch oregano (or more)
Marinate the slab in the juice of the oranges, and salt, for 8 hours.
Then mix in the other ingredients and marinate overnight.
Bake in oven till done.
Traditionally a dish of Jalapa, Tabasco, served with thick corn cakes of green corn.
(Similar recipe in Conaculta Oceano 2001c:40)
Chanchac
Tabasco variant of a traditional Maya dish (Ts’anchak; see Yucatan section) made with deer when available.
2 lb. stewing beef or venison
2 oz. chives
2 oz. cilantro
2 oz. Tabasco parsley (or ordinary parsley)
1 small onion
1 bell pepper or mild chile
2 garlic cloves
3-5 whole allspice berries (or more to taste)
Cut the meat into cubes, for soup, and boil till meat is tender.  Chop the vegetables.  Add these and the seasonings to the soup and cook till just done.  Eat with relish of chopped cilantro, onion and hot chile marinated in lime juice.
Chile pepper stuffed with meat
1 lb. lean pork
2 garlic cloves
6 cloves
2 onions
2 oz. oil
15 black peppercorns, ground
1 stick cinnamon
3 tbsp vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
2 oz. raisins
5 egg whites, beaten to meringue
Ca. 5 bell peppers to stuff
1 bell pepper or mild large chile
1 large tomato
1/2 tsp oregano
Small bit of achiote
Boil the meat with one of the garlic cloves and the 6 cloves.  Take out, saving the water.  Mince the meat fine.  Chop the other garlic clove, and one onion, very fine and fry.  Add in the meat.  Grind the spices and add, along with the vinegar and sugar.  Mix these and the raisins into the meat.
Roast, peel and seed the stuffing peppers.  Stuff them, roll in the egg white and a bit of flour, and fry.
Meanwhile, make a soup of the water by blending up some onion, bell pepper, tomato and oregano, frying, adding to the water, and seasoning to taste with achiote or the like.  If desired, add masa to thicken.
Pour this sauce over the peppers and finish cooking (very briefly; just warm them up together).
If you don’t want to fry these, you can treat these as they would be treated in the Near East: leave off the egg whites and bake these in a casserole dish.
(In this case, they are baked in the sauce.)  This is healthier and, to our taste, better.
This is originally a Near Eastern dish, made with Mediterranean vegetables.  The Spanish brought it to Mexico and adapted it to local ingredients.  Variants of it are found all over Mexico.

Chirmol

Meat (any kind), marinated in bitter orange juice, garlic and salt 2 hours
5 dried ancho chiles
2 tomatoes
1 onion
1 piece achiote
8 allspice kernels
10 black peppercorns
1 pinch oregano
5 toasted tortillas
6 tbsp lard
1 spring epazote
8 roasted garlic cloves

Briefly roast the meat over charcoal or flame.  Then add to water and boil.
Vein and seed the chiles.  Roast these, the tomato and the onion; peel.  Blend.  Fry these in the lard.  Grind up the other ingredients.  Add these and the boiling stock from the meat.  Add the epazote.  Simmer till somewhat thick.  Add the meat and serve.
The Tabasco version of a Maya classic.  No doubt some form of it was central to feasts in Palenque and Yaxchilan in their glory days.
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:43)
Chocolomo
“Choco lomo” is a “mestiza-Maya” name: choko means “hot” in Maya, while “lomo” is the Spanish for “loin roast.”  This is basically a Yucatan dish (see Yucatan section), but has spread all over southeast Mexico.
2 lb. beef, cut up
1 beef heart, cut up
1 beef brain
1 beef kidney, prepared (see below)
2 garlic cloves
1 purple onion
1 bell pepper
20 black peppercorns
1 tsp. oregano
2 tsp. vinegar
1 tomato
For salsa:
1 bunch radishes
Cilantro
White onion
Bitter orange juice (or lime juice or vinegar)
Prepare the kidney: soak overnight in refrigerator; discard water; cut up the kidney, trimming off and discarding all membranes and white fibrous parts.
Boil the meats with the garlic, onion (quartered), bell pepper, tomato, and peppercorns.  When meat is close to done, add the oregano and vinegar.
Add the brains toward the very end of the cooking process, and simmer a while.  (If cooked too long or on too hot a fire, they fall apart.)
For the salsa: cut the ingredients fine.  Add the juice.
Kidneys are hard to get and rarely prepared now, in Mexico or the United States.  This is a pity; they are very good if prepared correctly.
Green Sauce (for use on any boiled meat)
Cilantro
Chipilín (or alfalfa sprouts or pea tendrils)
Chile leaves
Tender hojasanta leaves
1 onion
2 tomatillos
1 bell pepper
2 garlic cloves
Meat
Masa to thicken
Use equal quantities of all the leaves–weight of each about equal to the weight of the onion.  Blend all the ingredients.  Add to the broth of whatever meat is being used.  Cook, stirring to prevent sticking and burning.  Cut up the meat and add, allowing it to boil once more.  Serve immediately, or it may lose the green color.
Tabasco or regular parsley can be added, or other green leaves that work well.
It is desirable to blanch the chipilin before blending up.
Meatballs
2 lb. beef
1 lb. pork
1 tomato
1 onion
l bell pepper
2 garlic cloves
2 eggs
4 leaves of Tabasco parsley
1 ball of masa (i.e. about half a cup)
1 piece of achiote (cube of paste, or small bag of powder)
1 tbsp viinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Grind the meats (or just use ground meat from the store) and mix with the garlic, pepper, salt and vinegar.  Leave a while.  Meanwhile, blend the tomato, onion, bell pepper, garlic and salt.  Fry this in lard or oil.  Add a pint of water to form a broth.  Add the achiote and masa.  When boiling, mix two raw eggs with the meat mixture and forming the meatballs.  Add these to the broth, with the parsley leaves (whole, separate).  Boil about half an hour.

Planked Pork Leg
1 pork leg (fresh ham), ca. 6 lb.
1/2 lb. Spanish-style ham
1/4 lb. prunes, soaked and mashed
1/4 glass vinegar
1 pint red wine
1 tomato
1 onion
1 bell pepper
1/2 head garlic
10 black peppercorns
1 spring thyme (or a good deal of powdered thyme)
1 bay leaf
8 allspice berries, or 1 tsp allspice powder
Marjoram, salt, and cinnamon to taste

Remove fat from the leg.  Chop or blend up the other ingredients and rub into the leg, sticking it with a fork to allow the spices to penetrate.  Bake.  Then sprinkle with sugar and roast in a hot fire.
The original recipe called for sodium nitrate to preserve the pork in Tabasco’s tropical climate.  No need for that now.

Tabasco Stew
1 lb. stewing beef
1 lb. beef ribs
1 lb. soup bones
1/2 head of garlic
1 bunch fresh oregano
1 tomato
1 bell pepper
1 onion
1 bunch cilantro
2 ears of sweet corn
2 chayotes
2 macal tubers
1 manioc tuber
1 summer squash
2 plantains
6 chaya leaves
Salt
Cut the meat in pieces.  Put in plenty of water and boil.  Add salt and garlic.  Skim the broth.  When the meat is tender, chop and fry up the garlic, oregano, tomato, bell pepper and onion; peel and cut up the other vegetables; add all to the soup.  Cook till nearly done, then add the cilantro and simmer a bit longer.  Serve with white rice.
Potatoes are perfectly good in this in place of macal and manioc.
Tasajo with Chaya and Plantains
1 lb. tasajo (dried salted meat)
4 oz. chaya
2 plantains, peeled and chunked
3 tomatoes
1 bell pepper
1 small onion
1 bitter orange
Oil for frying
Water
Soak the meat in several changes of water.  Then boil it till it softens.
Separately boil the chaya and plantains.
Cut the meat finely, as for hash, and fry till browning.  Add the tomato, pepper and onion, all finely cut up, and then the chaya and plantain, also finely cut up.
Add the juice of the bitter orange.  Cook a little longer.  (The earlier in the process you add the orange juice, the less orange flavor it retains but the more it adds sourness to the whole.  Thus, you can vary the final product to taste.)
POULTRY
Black-bellied Whistling-duck
2 ducks
2 garlic cloves, mashed
1 tomato
1 onion
1 Tabasco chile
10 peppercorns
1 cloves
Oregano
Salt to taste
1 cube achiote
Juice of 1 bitter orange
3 tbsp lard
Boil the ducks with salt and garlic till they become slightly tender.
Chop the vegetables and grind the spices.  In a casserole dish, heat the achiote till it softens, then add the orange juice.  Add the lard, fry the other ingredients.  Add the ducks; cover and simmer till they are golden.
As noted above, use ordinary duckling for this.
Polish chicken
A festival dish in Tabasco.  The connection with Poland seems pure fantasy, though a tenuous connection via the cabbage and tomato sauce may be implied.
2 chicken breasts
A quarter of a cabbage head, chopped fine
1 garlic clove, chopped
Oil
3 tomatoes
2 peppercorns
2 cloves
1 (or more) laurel leaf
1 sprig of thyme, or 1 tsp ground or crushed thyme
1 small can of chipotle chiles
1/2 onion, sliced
Salt to taste
Tomato sauce–just blend up a tomato and spice it
Fry the chicken, cabbage and garlic until lightly browned.
Blend the tomato, spices, and chipotle.  Add to the chicken.  Add the onion, and salt to taste.  Cook dry, then add the tomato puree and cook till done.  Serve with tortilla chips.
VEGETABLES

Chaya Salad
2 lb. chaya
1/4 onion, sliced
Salt, pepper and lime to taste.
Boil and cut up the chaya.  Mix with the other ingredients.
One can add other vegetables, and/or herbs.
Chaya Souffle

2 lb. chaya
3 eggs
3 tblsp. chopped onionz
2 oz. butter
Sour cream, salt and pepper to taste
2 cooked, chopped carrots for decoration (if wanted)
Boil the chaya and chop finely.  Fry the onion in the butter; add the chaya and fry it.
Mix in the yolks of the eggs.  Beat the whites till stiff.  Mix in the fried ingredients, stirring carefully.
Turn into a buttered mold and cook 20 min. in a bain-marie.
Top or decorate with sour cream and the chopped carrots or other colorful vegetables, as desired.
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:48)
Chayote Stew
3 chayotes
1/2 onion
1 garlic clove
1 tomato
1 chile
Bunch of cilantro
Oil
Wash and peel the chayotes.  Cut in quarters.
Heat oil in a pan.  Add the onion, garlic and tomato.  Fry a while, then add the chayote.
Cover and cook till the chayote is done, then add the chopped chile and cilantro.

Chaya with Green Peppers
3 cups cooked chaya leaves, chopped fine
3 tbsp. chopped green peppers
1 tbsp. canned red pimento, chopped
3 tbsp. chopped onion
Salt, pepper and lime juice to taste
Fry the peppers, pimento and onion; add the chopped chaya and the seasonings.  Cook till hot.
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:48)
Chaya with Plantain
1 lb. pork rib roast or other cut, for boiling
Chaya to taste (1/2 to 1 lb.)
4 plantains
3 tomatoes
1/2 onion
Achiote to taste (1-2 tbsp. recommended)
Cook the pork.  When tender, add the chaya and plantain (cut up).
Cut up the onion and tomato and fry, adding in the achiote.  Then add to the meat and boil.
A rib slab is good for this dish in south Mexico, where pork is meaty and not always tender.  Americans will probably want to save the rib slab for barbecue and use a tougher, more boiling-oriented cut here.
Chaya with Squash
Special recognition for a superior vegetarian dish.
1 lb. chaya
1 lb. summer squash
1 chopped onion
3 chopped tomatoes
1 cup sweet corn kernels
Salt, pepper and chile to taste
Cook the chaya and chop.  Fry with the squash (cut up), onion, tomato and corn.
Fry for about 20 minutes or till well cooked.
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:48)
Chayote Torta
10 chayotes
5 eggs
2 oz. raisins
2 tbsp. butter
1 cup lard (this can be cut down, or even left out, for a low-fat version)
2 cups sugar
Salt to taste
Boil, peel and mash the chayotes.
Mix the other ingredients into this paste.
Bake in a greased mold at 350o for about 20 minutes (until browning on top).
“Torta” is cognate with French “torte,” but the Spanish word means several quite different things: sandwiches, omelets, and baked egg dishes like the following.  These egg dishes are of Moorish origin (compare the Persian kuku dishes).
Guacamole a la Tabasco
2 avocados
4 hot chiles
Juice of 1 bitter orange or 2 limes
2 tbsp olive oil (optional)
1 onion, chopped fine
6 peppercorns, ground
Peel and slice the avocados.  Roast, peel, seed and mash the chiles.  Mix these with the bitter orange juice, and then mix in all the other ingredients.  Serve, garnished with raw onion rings and the like.
DESSERTS
Atole
A version of the standard Mexican corn drink.  Various atoles and pozoles are the staple food of much of Tabasco.
1 lb. masa
3 pints milk, scalded
3 pints water
Pinch of cinnamon or anise
Sugar to taste
Dissolve the masa in the water.  Strain through a colander.  Add the milk and spices.  Simmer, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes.  If too thick, add water to dilute.
This can be made with chocolate also: dissolve one tablet of Tabasco chocolate in the atole as it cooks.
Variants can be made with cooked corn meal or sweet corn.
Champurrado
1/2 lb. masa
3 pints water
1/2 lb. brown sugar
4 oz. chocolate
Make as for atole.
Chaya and Plantain Upside-Down Cake

1 1/2 cups butter
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 plantains
8 pitted prunes
5 eggs
2 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 can evaporated milk
Vanilla
3 cups cooked and chopped chaya
In a cake mold, put 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup sugar, slices of plantain, and prunes.
Beat a cup of butter with the rest of the sugar, mixing in the eggs one by one.
Mix the flour and baking powder.  Mix this into the above.  While mixing it in, add slowly the milk (mix the vanilla into the milk) and the chaya.
Turn the mix into the mold.
Bake at 325o for 1 hour.  Let stand till cool.  Turn out onto a plate.
If worried about cholesterol, you can use half as much butter, and 7-8 egg whites (discarding the yolks).  Do not, however, use margarine or oil instead of butter.  It won’t work.
Chocolate Made at Home
This recipe is offered for interest.  It’s too much work for a result that is inevitably inferior to good commercial chocolate (unless you have industrial equipment).  It would almost be easier, and certainly more fun, to go to Tabasco and get chocolate there.  It is sold there in many forms, from raw seeds to pure bitter chocolate to the elaborate, spiced chocolate tablets described here.  I prefer the straight bitter chocolate.
This recipe is a standard way to make the chocolate tablets typical of Tabasco.  However, for real chocolate tablets, you have to ferment the beans, and that is an expert technical job out of the reach of the ordinary cook.  You can get raw beans in Central American markets and try this yourself, roasting the beans like almonds in an oven, till they are just brown.  Raw beans are hard to work with–the line between too raw and too burnt is a fine one, and only an expert can roast them properly.  Also, they have a different taste from processed chocolate.
2 lb. cacao beans (seeds of the cacao tree)
1 lb. English-style biscuits (similar to nonsalty crackers or not-very-sweet cookies)
4 oz. almonds
1 1/2 lb. sugar
4 oz. cinnamon sticks
5 egg yolks
Heat a griddle.  On this, heat the cinnamon and then pulverize it.  Then toast the cacao beans until browned.  Peel and grind up.  Soak the almonds in hot water, peel, and toast till golden.
Blend the yolks, almonds, sugar and biscuits.
Mix all the above and pass through mill again.
Form into the characteristic Mexican chocolate tablets: flat disks 2″ to 3″ across and about 1/8″ to 1/4″ thick.
Break up one of these and mix with hot water, for cocoa.
Cocoyol fruits
The hard, sour fruits of a local palm tree.  They are only marginally edible even after this treatment, but they were often the only fruit around; they crop in the worst droughts, and were a famine staple in the old days.  They remain popular.  This product is thus of solely local appeal, but is added for ethnographic interest.
50 cocoyoles
4 cones of raw sugar (i.e. about 2 lb.)
Wash the cocoyoles a long time.  Cook in water.  Add the sugar and cook down to a thick syrup.
Grapefruit Conserve
6 lb. grapefruit
3 or more lb. sugar
Grate the peel, separating the white inner part.  Remove, but save, the membranes, seeds, etc., saving the pulp and juice.  Mix these latter with the sugar.
Boil these.  Put the white peel, membranes and seeds in a cheesecloth bag and cook with the rest until the syrup starts to thicken.  Then take out this bag and squeeze the juice out of it, back into the pot.
Add the peel and cook 10 minutes.
Put into jars, seal and label.
If properly canned (check that the seal is tight) this will last three months.  Of course, you can store it in the refrigerator for quite a long time without an airtight seal.
Guava ears
2 lb. lemon guavas (guayavas)
2 lb. sugar
Juice of 3 limes
3 fig leaves
4 cinnamon sticks
Cut the guavas in half and remove the seeds.  As this is done, put each guava half in the lime juice, to prevent browning and add flavor.
Meanwhile, prepare a syrup: boil a quart of water with the cinnamon and fig leaves.  (These make the syrup thicker and stickier, but can be dispensed with.)  Then add the sugar.
When this syrup thickens, add the guava halves.  Cook down till syrup is thick, stirring frequently.
(Conaculta Oceano 2001c:52)
Monkey Ears
Same recipe as above, but using small wild papayas instead of guavas, and panela (Mexican brown sugar) instead of white sugar.  The fig leaves provide an enzyme that tenderizes the papayas.  The cinnamon can be omitted.  This is a very characteristic Tabasco sweet.  The wild papayas are sharp and sour, counteracting the sweetness of the syrup.
Orange Cake
1 lb. cake flour
Grated peel (zest) from 1 orange
Zest of 1 lime
2 tsp baking powder
10 oz. butter
6 oz. sugar
4 eggs + 4 egg whites
1/4 tsp salt
6 oz orange juice
Orange marmelade
1 packet of confectioners powdered sugar
Mix the flour, zests and baking powder.
Separately, beat the butter and sugar until creamy.  Add in the whole eggs one by one.
Beat in the flour, salt, and orange juice, adding alternately, little by little.
Grease two cake molds and pour in the batter.  Bake 45 minutes at 350o.
Use the orange marmelade between the two layers.
Top with meringue of the beaten egg whites and powdered sugar (or any other frosting desired).
Tascalate
3 large tortillas, without salt
2 tablets of Tabasco chocolate
Cinamon stick
Water
Small amount of achiote powder or dissolved paste (optional, but usual)
Sugar or chile powder to taste
Toast the tortillas in low heat until very crisp but not brown.  (Beware–they go from moist to burned with almost no intermediate stage.  Watch them like a hawk.  In South Mexico they are often just sun-dried.)  Then crush them with the chocolate and cinnamon.  Add to water and sweeten to taste.  This can be drunk as is, but is better cooked a minute and cooled.
An easier variant, universal in Chiapas and southwest Mexico, uses toasted corn meal.
The combination of chocolate and chile is traditional, and I much prefer chile powder to sugar in this recipe.  Tascalate is a very refreshing drink, and making it too sweet ruins it.

Mayafood glossary

Achiote.  A hard red seed (Bixa orellana), ground up for both pigment and flavoring.  It has a distinctive spicy flavor.  Achiote powder is essential to Maya cuisine.  Maya k’iwi’ or k’uxub.

Allspice.  A spice native to Mexico and the Caribbean.  It is the fruit of a rainforest tree, Pimenta dioica, which can become a forest giant in Yucatan.  The name derives from a early claim that it combined the flavors of the major Old World spices; this claim seems to have had more to do with promoting the New World than with reality.  The spice is, however, very flavorful, and is basic to Maya cuisine.

Baalche’:  Honey fermented in water, flavored and preserved from spoiling with the bark of the baalche’ tree (Lonchocarpus spp.).  A traditional ritual drink, offered to the gods and spirits as well as the participants in the ritual.  Now often just sugar water with perhaps a trace of bark.

Beans.  Black beans dominate south Mexico, being especially important in Tabasco, Chiapas and Quintana Roo.  Beans were never very important in Yucatan, because they do not grow well, yielding only a few hundred pounds per hectare at best.  The soils are shallow, and bean roots need to go deeper into the soil than maize roots (though not so deep as squash).  Black beans (bu’ul) simply boiled over an open fire, with epazote and perhaps a chile added, are the universal accompaniment to almost every meal.   Small limas (iib) are also of very ancient lineage, but are much less popular in spite of their diversity and excellent flavor.  They come in many varieties, and the Maya have expended some creativity on naming these; one is the “tinamou egg” (shiny and brown like the egg of the tinamou, a common game bird), one the “peccary’s eyelashes” (its broad, dramatic stripes resemble the long, thick whiskers that protect a peccary’s eyes).

Cacao.  In English, the tree that produces chocolate; chocolate is made from the seeds—cacao beans—of the cacao pods.  English cocoa is a transform of the word.  In Spanish, the word cacao includes chocolate itself.  The word itself is Maya (though probably borrowed from another language, at least a couple of millennia ago).  As a Maya word, it is spelled kakaw under current Maya spelling conventions.

Chanfaina.  A Spanish stew usually involving organ meats.

Charcuterie.  French term—and thus the international food term—for the making of processed meats, especially sausage, ham and bacon.

Chaya.  From Yucatec Maya chay. A spinach-like leaf crop; the bush Cnidoscolus aconitifolius cv chayamansa, of the family Euphorbiaceae.  It is usually propagated by cuttings; my student Jeff Ross fouind that all the chaya plants in Yucatan are derived from a single plant!  (See Ross-Ibarra and Molina-Cruz 2002.)

Chayote.  A Mexican squash with a large single seed.  It is cooked in soup.

Chicosapote, chicozapote.  See Sapote.

Chile.  Nahuatl—and now universal—term for the plants and fruits of Capsicum spp.  See text.

Chocolate.  From Nahuatl chocolatl or chocolate (the “e” being pronounced), originally the drink made from cacao beans.  Atl is Nahuatl for “water.”  The choco- root is variously explained; it may be Maya choko “hot.”

Ciruela.  In standard Spanish, the plum (Prunus spp.), but in south Mexico the abal, a very different fruit, Spondias purpurea.  Large domestic varieties look like plums—soft reddish fruit around a large pit—but have a quite different taste.

Cocido.  Spanish for a very soupy stew, without the heavy spicing and thickening of mole.

Coriander.  A small plant of the carrot family, whose fruits (“seeds”) and leaves are both extremely important flavorings in Mexico.  It comes from the Near East; the plant’s uses spread with the Arabs, and with Moorish foodways.

Cumin.  Like coriander, a plant of the carrot family whose small dry fruits (“seeds”) are a very important spice in Near Eastern cooking, and, thanks to Moorish Spain, in Mexican cooking as well.  An advantage of cumin is that it improves digestion of beans and reduces the notorious side effects of bean-eating; thus it is a very common addition to beans in Mexican food, though less in the south than in the rest of the country.

Epazote.  Nahuatl word—literally meaning “skunk herb”!—for a native Mexican flavorinig herb, Chenopodium (=Teloxys)  ambrosioides. It is usually used to flavor beans; a sizable sprig is thrown into the bean pot, sometimes with the beans, often later.  The plant’s seeds are a powerful killer of intestinal worms, and the plant is often used for this purpose, though an overdose can have dangerous consequences.  It appears to be a recent borrowing from central Mexico, since there is no Maya word for it.

Granadillo, maracuyá:  A large, excellent species of passion fruit, Passiflora sp.

Guanabana.  A large fruit similar to soursop and cherimoya.  Technically Annona muricata.

Hojasanta.  Piper auritum, a relative of black pepper, but native to tropical America.  Its huge leaf has a fennel-and-black-pepper taste, and is thus used to wrap fish and tamales to flavor them.  More recently it has been cut up and added to fish soup (exactly as fennel is in Mediterranean Europe).  Its use is almost confined to Maya Mexico and neighboring Central America.  It is acuya in Nahuatl (from acacoyotl, “coyote reed,” a delightful name of uncertain origin), momo in Chol Maya, and mak’ol or mak’olam in Yucatec.  The Spanish means “holy leaf”; I have no idea where the holiness comes from.
Large fennel bulbs (finocchio), cut up, or just young leaves of fennel, make a very good substitute.

Maize.  Technical term for what Americans call “corn” (originally “Indian corn”), Zea mays.  From Arawak mais via Spanish maíz. 

Mamey.  A large, soft fruit with a large seed, native to Mexico and central America.  Scientifically Pouteria mammosa.  The West Indian mamey, Mammea americana, is related and similar, but rarely grown in Mexico.  The fruit looks and tastes rather like candied yam (sweet potato).

Maya.  Originally the self-name (more correctly spelled Maayaj) of the people of the northern Yucatan Peninsula.  The name is related somehow to the ruined city of Mayapan.  The Spanish began a process that has continued since, of generalizing the name to refer to speakers of related languages.  Thus one now speaks of the Mayan language phylum, with 25-30 different languages.  The original Maayaj are now called the Yucatec Maya, Yucatec being a Spanish coinage (see text).

Mole.  In Mexico, a general term for soupy stews highly spiced with chiles.  From Nahuatl molli “sauce.”  Guacamole is avocado sauce (avocadoes being aguacatl in Nahuatl).  Mole poblano is a very complex dish based on a standard Moroccan chicken stew but with added Mexican ingredients.  Oaxaca is famous for the kaleidoscopic variety of its moles, classically described as coming in “seven colors”—this phrase is another bit of Arab influence, since “seven colors” is a standard Middle Eastern metaphor for “all the colors of the rainbow” and thus “wondrous variety.”  The word mole is, however, rare in the Maya world, where one is apt to hear of k’ol instead (this being the Yucatec Maya equivalent word).

Moors.  The Muslims of old Spain and North Africa.  “Morocco” is a derivative.  From Spanish moros, going back to Latin maurus and possibly to Arabic maghrib (“sunset,” Morocco being the Far West of the Arab world).  The Arabs controlled varying parts of Spain from 711 to 1492.  Arab Spain was a major center of culture, including cuisine, and many dishes and foods were introduced to the west through it.  Andalusia was the cultural center, the cities of Grenada and Cordova being especially important.

Nahuatl.  The language of the Native peoples of central Mexico, including the Aztecs and their neighbors.  Still spoken by hundreds of thousands of people, but declining.  It produced a huge and valuable literature, and became a common language of administration in the Spanish colonial empire, thus spreading Nahuatl words throughout the region.  Moreover, the Spanish borrowed Nahuatl words for local products unknown in Spain, from “coyote” to “chocolate.”  Thus Nahuatl words are now common worldwide.  The Nahuatl nominative ending tl became te in Spanish; apparently some dialects of Nahuatl used te or t before the Spanish came, and the Spanish borrowed the te, finding it easier to pronounce.  Similarly, the other common nominative ending, li or lli, became le, as in tamale, Nahuatl tamalli.

Oregano.  General term for several species of flavoring herbs in the mint family.  They belong to the genera Origanum and Lippia.  The usual one of American grocery stores is Origanum vulgare, but the Maya one is Lippia dulcis. They taste similar; any oregano will work, as far as the recipes are concerned.

Paca.  A large rodent, Agouti paca, considered excellent eating.  Maya jaaleb.

Peccary.  Native wild piglike animals of the family Tayassuidae; jabalí in Spanish, whence “javelina” in English of the southwestern US.  Two species occur in Mayaland (see text).

Pib.  Maya for the earth oven known elsewhere as “pit barbecue” or “luau.”

Platano.  The large, starchy banana varieties that have to be cooked to be edible are so called in Latin America.  English “plantain” is a corruption of this word, influenced by the utterly dissimilar English herb called “plantain.”  Starchy bananas are much less commonly eaten in Mayaland than are sweet bananas.  Usually, the starchy ones go into mixed stews or are sliced and fried.  (“Plátano,” in turn, means “sycamore” in Spain itself.  You can see why scientists use scientific names instead of popular ones.)
Platanos can be found in any large market today.

Saka’, sak ja’.   The word Saka’ is derived from sak ja‘, “white water,” which name well describes the stuff.  Usually, in Mayaland, a term for various atoles—corn drinks made of toasted corn meal, fresh mashed corn, or corn meal or flour with other ingredients.  Extended to include pozol—masa (ground nixtamal) beaten up in water.  The masa dough is formed into balls, which are often carried to the fields for a lunch, and mixed with water as needed.  This is no gourmet fare.  Its Nahuatl (Aztec) name, pozol, was ironically modified by English pirates in the old days to “poor soul” (pronounced “po’soul”; see Esquemeling 1967, orig. 17^th century).

Sapote.  From Nahuatl tzapotl “soft fruit.”  Zapote in Spanish.  In south Mexico usually implies the chicozapote, Manilkara zapota (=Manilkara achras). Central Mexico has many other, unrelated, sapotes, and outside Mexico the mamey is often called a sapote.

Sikil.  Whole squash seeds, dried and roasted, then ground to powder (shell and all—thin-shelled seeds are used).  A very important food—basic to traditional daily cooking in much of Mayaland, especially the Yucatec areas.  Now less common than formerly.  It is ritually important.  Designs of sikil are put into the pib-baked waj used in major ceremonies.  One elder ritualist says that the corn dough represents the body, the sikil the blood; this refers to the ancient gods making humans out of corn dough and then animating the dough images by shedding their divine blood thereon (Faust 1998).
Sikil is basic to many recipes, and substitutes are hard to find.  Pepitas—shelled roasted squash seeds—are available as snacks in most comprehensive United States markets, and can be ground for an acceptable substitute.  Ground sunflower seeds would do in a pinch, but would not be very authentic.  West African markets sometimes carry egusi, a usable African equivalent.

Waj.  Maya for maize bread of any kind.  Now usually implies tortillas, but tortillas are relatively new to Maya culture, having been acquired from central Mexico, possibly after the Spanish conquest.  The original waj were thick corn cakes baked in the pib, and such waj are still common.

MAYALAND CUISINE:
REFERENCES
Aguirre, Maria Ignacia.  1980. Prontuario de cocina para un diario regular.  Mérida: Comision Editorial de Yucatán.  (New edition of a book from 1832.)
Alcorn, Janis.  1984.  Huastec Mayan Ethnobotany.  Austin: University of Texas Press.
Álvarez del Toro, Miguel.  1985.  Así era Chiapas.  Tuxtla Gutierrez:  Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas.
—  1991.  Los mamíferos de Chiapas.  Tuxtla Gutierrez:  Govt. of Chiapas.
Anderson, E. N.  1996.  Ecologies of the Heart.  New York:  Oxford University Press.
—  2003.  Those Who Bring the Flowers.  Chetumal, Quintana Roo:  ECOSUR.

—  2005a.  Everyone Eats.  New York:  New York University Press.

—  2005b.  Political Ecology in a Yucatec Maya Community.  Tucson:  University of Arizona Press.

Anderson, E. N., and Felix Medina Tzuc. 2005.  Animals and the Maya in Southeast Mexico.  Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Atran, Scott.  1993.  “Itza Maya Tropical Agroforestry.”  Current Anthropology 34:633-700.

— 1999a. “Itzaj Maya Folkbiological Taxonomy.”  Medin and Atran 119-203.

— 1999b.  “Managing the Maya Commons: The Value of Local Knowledge.”  In V. Sandoval (ed.): Ethnoecology: Situated Knowledge/Located Lives.  Tucson: University of Arizona Press.  Pp. 190-214.

Atran, Scott, and Edilberto Ucan Ek.  1999.  “Classification of Useful Plants by the Northern Petén Maya.”  In Reconstructing Ancient Maya Diet, Christine D. White (ed.).  Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. Pp. 19-59.

Banrural.  Voluntariado Nacional.  Programa de Revalorizacion de la Comida Tradicional Mexicana.  1987.  Comida familiar en el Estado de Tabasco.  Mexico: Banrural.
— 1988a.  Comida familiar en el Estado de Campeche.  Mexico: Banrural.
— 1988b.  Comida familiar en el Estado de Chiapas.  Mexico: Banrural.
— 1988c.  Comida familiar en el Estado de Quintana Roo.  Mexico: Banrural.
— 1988d.  Comida familiar en el Estado de Yucatan.  Mexico: Banrural.
(Note:  These Banrural cookbooks have been reissued in more elaborate editions, by Conaculta [Mexico's natural cultural bureau], but I have not seen them.  The old ones are good enouigh for my purpose, i.e. finding versions of classic recipes to fine-tune on the basis of my own experience.)
Barrera Marin, Alfredo; Alfredo Barrera Vasquez; Rosa Maria Lopez Franco.  1976.  Nomenclatura Etnobotanica Maya.  Merida: CRY-INAH.

Bartolome, Miguel Alberto. 1988.  La Dinámica social de los Mayas de Yucatán:  Pasado y presente de la situación colonial.  Mexico City:  Instituto Nacional Indigenista.
Bayliss, Rick, with Deann Groen Bayless.  1987.  Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico.  New York: William Morrow and Co.
Benedict, F. G., and Morris Steggerda.  1936.  The Food of the Present-day Maya Indians of Yucatan.  Washington, DC:  Carnegie Institute of Washington, Publication 456, Contribution 18.

Berlin, Brent; Dennis Breedlove; Peter Raven.  1974.  Principles of Tzeltal Plant Classification.  New York:  Academic Press.
Bolens, Lucie.  1990.  La cuisine andalouse, un art de vivre, XIe-XIIIe siècle.
Breedlove, Dennis, and Robert Laughlin.  1993.   The Flowering of Man.  Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
Bricker, Victoria.  1981.  The Indian Christ, The Indian King: The Historical Substrate of Maya Myth.  Austin:  University of Texas Press.
Carney, Judith.  2001.  Black Rice.  Cambridge, MA:  Harvard University Press.
Carrillo Lara, Silvia Luz.  1995.  Cocina Yucateca Tradicional.  2nd edn.   (Ciudad de) Mexico, Mexico: Diana.

Casas, Penelope.  1996.  Delicioso!  The Regional Cuisines of Spain.  New York:  Knopf.
Clendinnen, Inga.  1987.  Ambivalent Conquests.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press.
Coe, Sophie.  1994.  America’s First Cuisines.  Austin, TX:  University of Texas Press.
Coe, Sophie, and Michael Coe.  1996.  The True History of Chocolate.  New York:  Thames and Hudson.
Conaculta Oceano.  2000a.  La cocina familiar en el estado de Chiapas.  Mexico City:  Conaculta Oceano.
—  2000b.    La cocina familiar en el estado de Yucatán.  Mexico City:  Conaculta Oceano.
—  2001a.  La cocina familiar en el estado de Campeche.  Mexico City:  Conaculta Oceano.
—  2001b.  La cocina familiar en el estado de Quintana Roo.  Mexico City:  Conaculta Oceano.
—  2001c. La cocina familiar en el estado de Tabasco.  Mexico City:  Conaculta Oceano.
Crosby, Alfred. 1972.  The Columbian Exchange:  Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press.
—1986.  Biological Imperialism.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press.

Danforth, Marie Elaine.  1999.  “Coming Up Short:  Stature and Nutrition among the Ancient Maya of the Southern Lowlands.”  White 103-118.

De Jong, Harriet.  1999.  The Land of Corn and Honey.  Haarlem, Neth:  Author.

Demarest, Arthur.  2004.  Ancient Maya:  The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press.
Diaz Bolio, Jose.  1974.  La Chaya: Planta maravillosa.  Merida: author.
Dumond, Dan.  1997.  The Machete and the Cross.  Lincoln:  University of Nebraska Press.
Dunmire, William.  2004.  Gardens of New Spain:  How Mediterranean Plants and Foods Changed America.  Austin:  University of Texas Press.
Duran, Diego.  1994.  The History of the Indies of New Spain.  Tr. Doris Heyden.  (Spanish original ca. 1581.)  Norman, OK:  University of Oklahoma Press.

Esquemeling, John.  1967.  The Buccaneers of America.  (Orig. 17^th century.)  New York:  Dover.

Falconi Vera, Araceli.  n.d.  La Cocina de Araceli.  Villahermosa, Tabasco: Gobierno de Tabasco.

Farriss, Nancy.  1984.  Maya Society under Colonial Rule.  Princeton:  Princeton University Press.

Faust, Betty B.  1998.  Mexican Rural Development and the Plumed Serpent.  Westport, CT:  Bergin and Garvey.

Fedick, Scott (ed.).  1996.  The Managed Mosaic.  Salt Lake City:  University of Utah Press.

Flannery, K. V. (ed.).  1982.  Maya Subsistence; Studies in Memory of Dennis E. Puleston.  New York: Academic Press.
Flores de Vallado, Soledad.  1985.  Lo mejor de la cocina Yucateca.  Merida, Yucatan: Editorial Vallado.  2 v.
Foster, George.  1993.  Hippocrates’ Latin American Legacy:  Humoral Medicine in the New World.  New York:  Gordon and Breach.
Gerlach, Nancy, and Jeffrey Gerlach.  1994.  Foods of the Maya.  Freedom, CA: Crossing Press.

Gerli, E. Michael (ed.).  2003.  Medieval Iberia: An Encyclopedia.  London:  Routledge.
Gill, Richardson.  2000.  The Great Maya Droughts.  Albuquerque, NM:  University of New Mexico Press.
Gitlitz, David M., and Linda Kay Davidson.  1999.  A Drizzle of Honey:  The Lives and Recipes of Spain’s Secret Jews.

Gómez-Poompa, Arturo; M. F. Allen; Scott L. Fedick; J. J. Jiménez-Osornio (eds.).  2003.  The Lowland Maya Area:  Three Millennia at the Human-Wildland Interface.  New York:  Haworth Press.

Haenn, Nora.  2006.  Fields of Power, Forests of Discontent:  Culture, Conservation and the State in Mexico. Tucson:  University of Arizona Press.

Hamman, Cherry.  1998.  Mayan Cooking: Recipes from the Sun Kingdoms of Mexico.  New York:  Hippocrene Books.

Harrison, P. D., and Turner, B L.  1978.  Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture.  Albuquerque, NM:  University of New Mexico Press.
Hernandez F. de Rodriguez, Concepcion.  n.d.  Cocina y Reposteria Practica.  Merida, Yucatan: author.  17th edn., rev.

Hervik, Peter.  1999.  Mayan People within and beyond Boundaries:  Social Categories and Lived Identity in Yucatán.  Amsterdam:  Harwood Academic Publishers.
Hovey, Kevin, and Dominique Rissolo.  1999.  “The Process and Sociocultural Significance of Gopher Trapping in a Modern Yucatec Maya Community.”  Journal of Ethnobiology 19:261-276.
Hunn, Eugene.  1977.  Tzeltal Folk Zoology.  New York: Academic Press.
Inchaustegui, Carlos.  1985.  Chontales de Centla.  Villahermosa: Govt. of Tabasco.
—  1987.  Las Margenes del Tabasco Chontal.  Villahermosa:  Govt. of Tabasco.
Irigoyen Rosado, Renan (ed.).  1991.  Guisos y postres tradicionales de Yucatan.  Merida, Yucatan: Maldonado Editores.
Iturriaga, Jose N.  1993.  La Cultura del Antojito.  Mexico City: Diana.

Jones, Grant.  1989.  Maya Resistance to Spanish Rule.  Albuquerque:  University of New Mexico Press.

— 1998.  The Conquest of the Last Maya Kingdom.  Stanford:  Stanford University Press.

Katz, Solomon; M. Hediger; L. Valleroy.  1974.  “Tradiitional Maize Processing Techniques in the New World.”:  Science 184:765-773.

Kennedy, Diana.  1989.  The Art of Mexican Cooking.  New York: Bantam.
— 1972.  The Cuisines of Mexico.  New York: Harper and Row.
— 1984.  Mexican Regional Cooking.  Cambridge: Harper and Row.

— 1998.  My Mexico.  New York:  Clarkson Potter.
Kouki, Mohamed.  1995.  Cuisine et Patisserie Tunisiennes.  Tunis: Dar Ettourath Ettounsi.

Landa, Fray Diego de.  1937.  Yucatan Before and After the Conquest.  Tr./ed. William Gates.  (Spanish original, 1566.)  Baltimore:  The Maya Society.

LeCount, Lisa.  2001.  “Like Water for Chocolate:  Feasting and Political Ritual among the Late Classic Maya at Xunantunich, Belize.”  American Anthropologist 103:935-953.

Lentz, David L.  1999.  “Plant Resources of the Ancient Maya: T he Paleoethnobotanical Evidence.”  White 3-18.

Leon de Gutierrez, Luz.  1974.  El Libro de los Guisos de Chaya.  Merida: Jose Diaz Bolio.
Linck, Ernestine Sewell, and Joyce Gilbert Roach.  1989.  Eats:  A Folk History of Texas Foods.  Fort Worth:  Texas Christian University Press.

Long, Janet.  2000.  “Tomatoes.”  Kiple and Ornelas 2000:351-358.
Love, Bruce.  1984.  Wahil Kol, a Yucatec Maya Agricultural Ceremony.”  Estudios de Cultura Maya 15:251-301.
—  2004.  Maya Shamanism Today.  Lancaster, CA:  Labyrinthos.
Magennis, Ann L.  1999.  “Dietary Change of the Lowland Maya Site of Kichpanha, Belize.”  White 133-150.
Mann, Vivian; Thomas Glick; Jerrilynn Dodds (eds.).  1992.  Convivencia:  Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Medieval Spain.  New York:  George Braziller with The Jewish Museum.
Manzur de Borge, María.  2001.  Lo mejor de la comida libanesa.  Mexico City:  Paz México.
Marks, Copeland.  1985.  False Tongues and Sunday Bread.  New York:  M. Evans
and Co.
McNeil, Cameron (ed.).  2006.  Chocolate in Mesoamerica:  A Cultural History of Cacao.  Gainesville, FL:  University of Florida Press.
Mexico Desconocido (magazine).  1994.  Bebidas Nacionales.  Guia Mexico Desconocido #18.
Miller, Loretta Scott.  2003.  A Yucatan Kitchen: Regional Recipes from Mexico’s Mundo Maya.  Gretna, LA:  Pelican.
Montes de Oca de Castro, Maria Luisa.  1990.  Ayer y hoy en la cocina yucateca.  Merida, Yucatan: author.  4th edn., rev.

Morales Rodríguez, María Teresa, and Juana Rosa Martínez García.  1999.  La cocina tradicional cordobesa.  Córdoba:  Ateneo de Córdoba.
Morton, Lyman.  1996.  Yucatán Cook Book:  Recipes and Tales.  Santa Fe:  Red Crane Books.
Murillo Cisneros, Esperanza.  1992.  Tapachula de mis recuerdos.  Tuxtla Gutierrez: Govt. of Chiapas.
Neri, Nimo.  1998.  Cocina yucateca. Mexico City:  Selector.
Painter, M., and William Durham (eds.).  1995.  The Social Causes of Environmental Destruction in Latin America.  Ann Arbor:  University of Michigan Press.
Paul, Alexandra, and Paul A. Cox.  1995.  “An Ethnobotanical Survey of the Uses for Citrus aurantium (Rutaceae) in Haiti.”  Economic Botany 49:249-256.

Peraza Lopez, Maria Elena.  1985.  Patrones alimenticios en Ichmul, Yucatan: Sus determinantes socioeconomicas, ecologicas y culturales.  Thesis, Universidad Autonima de Yucatan, Escuela de Ciencias Antropologicas.
Perezgrovas Garza, Raúl.  1990.  Los carneros de San Juan:  Ovinocultura indígena en los Altos de Chiapas.  San Cristóbal de Las Casas:  Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas.
Perry, Charles.  2005.  A Baghdad Cookery Book.  Blackawton, Totnes, England:  Prospect Books.
Petrich, Perla.  1985.  La alimentiacion Mocho: Acto y palabra.  Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas: Universidad de Chiapas.
Petrich, Renee.  ms.  De Maiz, langostas y rice and beans.  (Undated ms. Seen through kind permission of the author.)
— 1995.  La cocina y los alimentos mayas: un analisis cultural.  Presentation, Third International Maya Congress, Chetumal.
Pilcher, Jeffrey.  1998.  Que vivan los tamales!  Food and the Making of Mexican Identity.  UNM.
Quintana, Patricia. 1986.  The Taste of Mexico.  New York: Stewart, Tabori and Chang.
Reed, David Millard.  1999.  “Cuisine from Hun-Nal-Ye.”  White 183-196.

Reed, Nelson.  1964.  The Caste War of Yucatan.  Stanford:  Stanford University Press.

Relaciones Histórico-geográficas de la Gobernación de Yucatán.  1983.  Ed. by Mercedes de la Garza.  México:  UNAM.

Restall, Matthew.  1998.  Maya Conquistador.  Boston: Beacon.

Reyes Gavilán y Moenck, María Antonieta.  1942.  Delcias de la Mesa:  Manual de Cocina y Reposteria.  8^th edn.  Havana:  Cultural.

Rodinson, Maxime; A. J. Arberry; Charles Perry.  2001.  Medieval Arab Cookery.  Blackawton, Totnes, England:  Prospect Books.

Rodríguez Lazcano, Catalina.  1991.  Hanal Pixan, ceremonia Maya de los muertos.  Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico:  Museo Regional “El Obispado.”

Ross-Ibarra, Jeffrey, and Alvaro Molina-Cruz.  2002.  “The Ethnobotany of Chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius ssp. Aconitifolius Breckon):  A Nutritious Maya Vegetable.”  Economic Botany 56:350-365.
Rus, Jan; Rosalva Aída Hernández Castillo; Shannan L. Mattiace (eds.).  2003.  Mayan Lives, Mayan Utopias: The Indigenous Peoples of Chiapas and the Zapatista Rebellion.  Lanham, MD:  Rowman and Littlefield.
Ruz vda. de Baqueiros, Lucrecia.  1991.  Cocina Yucateca.  Merida, Yucatan: author.
Salcedo Hierro, Miguel.  1995.  La cocina andaluza.  Sevilla: Centro Andaluz del Libro.
Sanchez de Pineda, Dolores.  1988.  Comida tradicional de San Cristobal de las Casas.  Mexico: Luz Olivia Pineda Sanchez.
Schwartz, Norman B.  1990.  Forest Society:  A Social History of Peten, Guatemala.  Philadelphia:  University of Pennsylvania Press.
Sharer, Robert, and Loa Traxler.  2005.  The Ancient Maya.  5^th edn.  Stanford:  Stanford University Press.
Sierra Franco de Alvarez, Aurora.  1990.  Cocina regional guatemalteca.  Guatemala: Piedra Santa.

Simeti, Mary Taylor.  1989.  Pomp and Sustenance;  Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food.  Hopewell, NJ:  Ecco Press.
Spieler, Marlena.  1991.  Flavors of Mexico.  Los Angeles: Lowell House.
Stephens, John Lloyd.  1963 (orig. 1843).  Travels in Yucatan.  New York: Dover.
Stonich, Susan.  1993.  “I Am Destroying the Land!”  The Political Ecology of Poverty and Environmental Destruction in Honduras.  Boulder:  Westview.
Tablada, José Juan.  1998.  “Los Pijijes.”  In:  Ocho siglos de poesía en lengua castellana, Francisco Montes de Oca (ed.).  Mexico City:  Porrúa.  P. 521.
Taube, Karl.  1989a.  “The Maize Tamale in Classic Maya Diet, Epigraphy, and Art.”  American Antiquity 54:31-51.

— 1989b.  “Ritual Humor in Classic Maya Religion.”  In:  William Hanks and Donald Rice (eds.):  Word and Image in Mayan Culture.  Salt Lake City:  University of Utah Press.  Pp. 351-382.

— “The Olmec Maize God: The Face of Corn in Formative Mesoamerica.”  Res 29/30:39-81.

Terán, Silvia, and Christian H. Rasmussen.  1993.  La milpa de los Mayas.  Mérida:  authors.

Terán, Silvia; Christian H. Rasmussen; Olivio May Cauich.  1998.  Las plantas de la milpa entre los Mayas.  Mérida:  Fundación Tun Ben Kin.

Turner, John Kenneth.  1911.  Barbarous Mexico:  An Indictment of a Cruel and Corrupt System.  London:  Cassell and Co.
Tuxill, John.  2005.  Agrarian Change and Crop Diversity in Mayan Milpas of Yucatan, Mexico:  Implications for In Situ Conservation.  Ph.D. thesis, Yale University.
Valent, Dani; Jim Masters; Perihan Masters.  2000.  World Food: Turkey.  Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia:  Lonely Planet.
Velasquez de Leon, Josefina.  1952.  Cocina Yucateca.  Mexico City: Academia de Cocina.
— 1987.  Platillos regionales de la Republica Mexicana.  Mexico City: Diana.
Villalón, Teclo, and Pedro Plasencia.  1999.  Cocina extremeña.  2^nd edn.  Madrid:  Everest.
Vogt, Evon.  1969.  Zinacantan: A Maya Community in the Highlands of Chiapas.  Cambridge, MA:  Harvard University Press.
—  1993.  Tortillas for the Gods:  A Symbolic Analysis of Zinacanteco Rituals.  Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.

Watson, Andrew.  1981.  “A Medieval Green Revolution: New Crops and Farming Techniques in the Early Islamic World.”  In: Udovitch, Abraham (ed.): The Islamic Middle East, 700-1900.  Princeton: Darwin Press.  pp. 29-58.
Weatherford, Jack. 1989.  Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World.  New York:  Ballantine Books.

White, Christine D. (ed.).  1999.  Reconstructing Ancient Maya Diet.  Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Wilk, Richard.  2006.  —  2006.  Home Cooking in the Global Village:  Caribbean Cooking from Buccaneers to Ecotourists.  New York:  Berg.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 at 1:27 am and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.