What should we try when we come to Yucatán?

Posted on 28 noviembre, 2013 Actualizado enn 28 noviembre, 2013

Yucatecan cuisine is the outcome of the history of a folk, it has undergone many substantial changes over time, as with the arrival of different cultures, both conquering as pro interculturalization , new elements were provided in a matter of ingredients, techniques and procedures for the preparation and preservation of food, utensils, and dishes.

The three main ways in which one can diachronically  classify it are: the Mayan or pre-Hispanic cooking, mestizo cuisine and finally, contemporary cuisine. Existing transition periods among them.

The origin and foundation of Yucatecan cuisine is found in the Mayan cuisine, in the historical period known as pre-Hispanic Mexico , that is , the one belonging to the pre-Columbian Americas . Being the Mayans a non-Western culture, food preparation methods differed significantly from those known at the time –XVI century– by European historians. First and foremost the employed ingredients were not exactly the same as the ones we currently employ in Yucatecan cuisine since these were limited to those that could be obtained in their surroundings –local products or ingredients– as well as those obtained through trade with other peoples from Mesoamerica . Among these ingredients there are crops such as corn –distinctive ingredient of Mesoamerican cultures and the most important to the Mayans– chilis, pumpkins, salt –obtained from Celestun’s salt lakes and used as a product to be traded and bartered with other cultures such as the Aztecs–, beans, cacao, yucca, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, etc. . Besides the above mentinoed ingredients one could also add others such as game – deer, rabbit, peccary, pheasant, turkey, tapir, iguana, etc.–, and fishing in nearby rivers and lakes as well as on the coasts. Of course the recollection of wild ingredients was present such as the gum –consumed as a dessert to clean one’s teeth–, and some fruit trees. It is noteworthy that Mayan cuisine was characterized partly by the selection of the ingredients according to the benefits they could provide beyond the taste or appearance they could give to their dishes.

The types of food at that time were : everyday food, the one consumed daily with simple dishes and local ingredients (from the community), the festive one, with a little more elaborated dishes, prepared galore and with both local and bought ingredients, and the third, the ceremonial, which involved selecting the best ingredients from the region or community.

Among the procedures and techniques for food preparation was the use of ceramic hotplates, griddless placed over the embers which food was cooked on. Corn, for instance, was shelled and put to soak in lime water for one night so that the next day it were lightly cooked and stripped of the thin skin that covered it. This corn was ground with stones and from the semi ground result some «balls» were obtained, and these were given to workers, travelers and hikers to be disoluted in water and then drunk in cups, such a drink was known as k’eyem (pozole) . As they did not use to drink wate, the Mayans the most ground corn, molded in small balls which they drank in hot water with a little pepper (chile) and cocoa. Examples of pre-Hispanic Mayan dishes, taking into account that there are no records of them, are be the tóoksel, papadzules the p’aak sikil, pipián, and onsikil, among others.

During the Spanish conquest of the Yucatan Peninsula, many cultural elements were introduced as a result of the clash and subsequent cultural agreement generated from the cohabitation of the Mayans and the Spaniards. As one could have expected the food would be influenced in one way or another, because the conquerors would bring their culinary customs –as any other cultural group would when being thus far from home–. Among the first changes of the Yucatan peninsula cuisine is the emergence of new ingredients –those brought by the Spaniards from their land as well as their colonies and travels outside the Iberian Peninsula, such as olive oil, wheat flour, cane sugar, onion, garlic, spices such as pepper, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, nutmeg, raisins, almonds, walnuts, the introduction of citrics (orange, lemon, grapefruit, etc.. ), fruits such as banana, papaya, watermelon, mango, melon, tamarind, and meat such as chicken, beef, and pork. Among the tools and kitchen utensils provided are those made of metal such as pots, knives and pincers. Among the procedures and techniques of food preparation are the use of the oven, preparing stews, bread, confectionery, and other methods of preserving food different from the existing ones (smoking , salting, and drying) as the use of syrup, brine and vinegar –Arab in origin–, as well as some sausages and hams –which are also forms of preservation–

Thanks to the coexistence of local and foreign elements (described here) a culinary fusion resulted known as mestizo cuisine. Examples of mestizo dishes of the Yucatecan cuisine –which show the above mentioned fusion– are the three meat stew (puchero de tres carnes), mondong both Andalusian and k’aabiik style, tamales wrapped in banana leaves, roasted suckling pig, and escabeche.

During the last decade of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century a significant influence of French pastries made it to Mexico, which to some extent subtyl affected the Yucatecan cuisine. An example of this is the tres leches cake that is eaten and prepared –in a determined way– in the Yucatan Peninsula, as well as pastries, and the general use of meringue in pastry. By mentioning this non-conquering foreign influence –like the French– it is also important to include the Lebanese diaspora that took place in the early twentieth century, when a large number of Lebanese immigrants fleeing the Ottoman rampage, entered the peninsula. These people, as happened once with the Spaniards, brought their own traditions, including their cuisine. The Lebanese influence in Yucatan cuisine is quite evident however not very vast. Examples of Lebanese cuisine that permeated the Yucatan are kibis –Lebanese – Arabic kibbeh– and what we know as niños envueltos originally called ma’hshi malfouf .

By this time thanks to a better possibility to communicate with other parts of the country and the world –one is to take into account that the peninsula was segregated from the rest of the country for a long time due to geographic issues– the obtention of different grocery ingredients was feasible. One of the most emblematic imported ingredients is the Edam cheese, colloquially known as queso de bola, which was adapted to the local cuisine through the dish known as queso relleno, whose history dates back to the landowners times when the laborers gathered the cheese coating – which was thrown away by the owners of the haciendas after having eating its inside–and they filled it with stewed meat. Also noteworthy is the Cuban influence on the food of the peninsula in dishes like picadillo, arroz con pollo , fried bananas, and rum.

More or less during this time the distillation of liquor in the state began. From these times two distilleries still remain: Casa Argáez, Casa Aristi and the Yucatan Brewery.

At present the most representative food of the region is the result of a modernization of the dishes consumed since ancient times, examples of this are the Sunday cochinita sanwiches, the nocturnal panuchos and salbutes , the kibis – reachable almost anywhere– the polcanes, the codzitos, etc .

When one refers to the Yucatecan cuisine, it is bound to include the endemic one –so as to say– from our current neighboring states of Campeche and Quintana Roo. From the former we have the frequent costum of consuming seafood and even preparing traditional dishes with them such as the pan de cazón. From Quintana Roo we get the tikin xik fish, which is also sea food due to the broad and vast coasts of the state as well as the first.

In conclusion, this brief and generl outline of Yucatecan cuisine allows us to draw ourselves a picture of the origins of some of our dishes, ingredients, and even the evolution of them in some cases. It is interesting to see how many of the things we consume today do not have a completely «Yucatecan» origin and the way in which many tools and techniques or procedures for the preparation and preservation of food came to us . After reading this text, we can surely be aware of how Yucatecan is what we are eating and thus stop thinking that kibis are something the Mayans cooked in the past.

References

Fray Diego de Landa. (s.f.). Comidas y Bebidas de los Indios de Yucatán. En Relación de las cosas de Yucatán. s.l.