Mayan Mole

[Mottmott]

My grandaughter has tapped me to help her with her 6th grade class project while studying the Maya. She's volunteered to prepare a mole and found a recipe on Epicurius. Alas, I know nothing about Mexican cuisine (beyond a single empanada recipe I often make), but I'm sceptical that that recipe is historically authentic.

Are there easily accessible sources (in English) for both the history of Mayan cuisine and for an authentic recipe? Unfortunately there's only a little more than a week til we produce the mole.

[Panosmex]

I'm thinking that mole is not a Mayan specialty. Its origins are in Puebla and Oaxaca, although you can find mole in all parts of Mexico now.

A more typical Mayan dish would be Pollo Pibil.

¡Buena suerte!

My grandaughter has tapped me to help her with her 6th grade class project while studying the Maya. She's volunteered to prepare a mole and found a recipe on Epicurius.  Alas, I know nothing about Mexican cuisine (beyond a single empanada recipe I often make), but I'm sceptical that that recipe is historically authentic.

Are there easily accessible sources (in English) for both the history of Mayan cuisine and for an authentic recipe? Unfortunately there's only a little more than a week til we produce the mole.

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[Holly Moore]

History of Mole

A friend who does PR for a Mexican restaurant and lived in Mexico for a number of years subscribes to the 16th Century nun version.

[theabroma]

Check out Diana Kennedy's books, especially the Art of Mexican Cooking. Rick Bayless' books. Also, Patricia Quintana's El Mulli, the book of moles (if you read Spanish).

Mole, as a chile and nut rich pureed sauce sometimes thin and almost brothy, and sometimes thick, is not widely associated with the Mayan lands of the Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco, Chiapas, etc. Those regions have other saucy dishes which are their signature, but moles are not one of them.

It is, however, a pre-Conquest dish - Sahagun describes it from his informants, in the Floretine Codex. The two most famous moles, Mole Poblano and Mole Negro Oaxaqueno, have been to finishing school, so to speak, and have benefitted enormously from the addition of many herbs, spices, and nuts (almonds, sesame), and thickening of white bread - all, or mostly all, foods brought through Spain to the New World, but most ultimately from the Levant.

If you go to festivals around the State of Puebla and eat 'mole Poblano' in homes here and there, you will find that it is a far simpler event than the grand 25+ ingredient event attributed to the nuns at the Sta Rosa Convent in Puebla, but the flavor is nearly as rich and complex due to the expert blending and handling of the chiles. A mole Poblano needn't contain chocolate to taste chocolatey ... you just have to know your peppers and how to coax the maximum flavor from them.

There are an army of other moles, however, older and more traditional that the famous twins: mole verde - a sauce of pumpkinseeds, green chile poblano, and various greens - a tender, fresh jade color; and yellow mole, made with Oaxacan chile chilcoztli, and served with a side puree of anisey, deep green hoja santa; pepianes - moles whose sauce is based on toasted green pumpkinseeds; and huaxmole, with a red chile and guaje seed sauce. And then there is that other green mole: guacamole, or 'mole of avocados.'

It's a big and old and very Mexican subject. Check Diana. That is the source. Especially in English.

Regards,

Theabroma

[djyee100]

I'll have to agree with Panosmex, mole is most authentically from central Mexico, especially Oaxaca. Why did your granddaughter think that mole is Mayan and choose it for her report?

Also, most moles require a fair amount of prep and cooking and possibly some hard-to-find ingredients. This is not a cooking project for a 6th grader.

If you can find it, check out Spirit of the Earth: Native Cooking in Latin America by Beverly Cox and Martin Jacobs, which has both traditional and modernized Mayan recipes. http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Earth-Native-...02962028&sr=1-2

And here are a couple links: http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodmaya.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_cuisine

Chocolate drinks have been attributed to the Maya, predating the Aztecs (who were most known for it), and might be a better subject for a school report (if someone else hasn't claimed it).

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...Vchocolate.html

good luck!

[rancho_gordo]

Just to add another opinion, I think in many circles a pipian would be considered a mole and it's certainly associated with the Yucatan, and pre-hispanic. In fact, I think it would be cute to call it a "Mayan mole". And to further complicate things, I have a recipe for Mole estilo Campeche which may not be Mayan, but it's from the region.

[caroline]

And may I gently suggest that there are other possibilities not yet mentioned about the origin of mole, particularly of the classic mole poblano, namely that it owes more to Spain or rather al-Andalus than it does to the prehispanic tradition in the Americas. This has been discussed before on eGullet. Or you can find my articles on the subject as well as a lot of subsequent clarification, if you go to my blog and look at the page on the history of Mexican food and if you click "Mole and the like" in the categories section.

www.rachellaudan.com

Cheers,

Rachel

[caroline]

And may I gently suggest that there are other possibilities not yet mentioned about the origin of mole, particularly of the classic mole poblano, namely that it owes more to Spain or rather al-Andalus than it does to the prehispanic tradition in the Americas. This has been discussed before on eGullet. Or you can find my articles on the subject as well as a lot of subsequent clarification, if you go to my blog and look at the page on the history of Mexican food and if you click "Mole and the like" in the categories section.

www.rachellaudan.com

Cheers,

Rachel