History of traditional Mexican food and Appetizer recipes

Diverse traditions dating back to native indigenous communities of Mexico

History of traditional Mexican food includes culinary traditions of indigenous people like the Mayans, the Aztecs, the Toltecs, amongst many. Just like any other country where geographical differences inspire different kinds of cuisine, Mexico has its share of diversity, of geography and culinary traditions.

In the history of traditional Mexican food and appetizer recipes, maize, tomatoes, avocados, beans, capsicums and fish served the main staple of the diet in the Central American areas...

Beans, which were usually boiled, were eaten with maize; this provided a perfect protein-supplement to carbohydrate rich maize. The refrito beans, eaten popularly in Mexico even today, are boiled, mashed, fried, and served with toppings of grated cheese – evolved after Spaniards introduced cows and other domesticated animals to Central America. Before that, there was no major source of fat, except dry-fleshed game animals or birds. Arrival of Europeans meant new changes in the history of traditional Mexican food.

When the Spanish conquerors came to Mexico in the early 1500s, they introduced a slew of domesticated animals such as horses, pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens. This introduced fat into the native communities’ diets.

During the Aztec times, Mexicans used to have breakfast long after they would start their day. They stopped at about 10:00 am in the morning for a bowl of maize porridge flavoured with honey and capsicum. They would take their main meal in the early afternoon when it was too hot to do anything else. This afternoon meal mostly consisted of tortillas, with beans and a sauce made from tomatoes and pepper.

Tortillas were Mexico’s staple daily bread within the history of traditional Mexican food. Their ‘cooked food’ included stews, spiced maize porridge and stuffed tortillas. The dough was the tortilla paste. This paste was made by taking the kernels of dried maize, boiling them in water with charcoal or lime, and then crushing them with a stone roller. The paste was kneaded and slapped into thin round cakes, and cooked on a special hot plate. This plate is called, the comalli, which rested over a small fire.

Tortillas could be rolled and stuffed, in which case, they were called tacos (or enchiladas). The dough mixture could be made into tamales, in which uncooked dough was plastered onto corn husks. The husk was then spread with the a mixture of beans, capsicum, green tomato shavings and shreds of meat or fish, foiled like a envelope and then steamed. After the husk was stripped off, this dish became a portable individual pie.

It is important to note that in the history of traditional Mexican food and appetizer recipes, two of the main staple of Native diets in the Mexico before the Spaniards came were beans and maize (or corn). Beans and corn are considered to have “complementary amino acids”.

Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, which the body needs for its functioning. If any one of several amino-acids is missing from a person's diet, then the production of protein is restricted. It happens that neither corn nor beans supply the full complement of amino acids needed for protein synthesis. However, when you put the two together e, and you get full complement of amino acids needed. Put rice and corn together, or wheat and rice, or corn and potatoes, or potatoes and beans, and you don't. Put corn with beans, and you do.

The reason why this is important to know is that Europeans did not understand this, so when they introduced corn back to the “Old World”, they had serious health conditions. This health condition, known as the ‘disease of the mealies’, known as pellagra, resulted from eating too much maize and not enough complementary foods, such as beans. Because of this association with the disease, corn became an “impure” sort of foods that lost its initial popularity in Europe.

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