Next to chile, salt, or iztatl, was the condiment most used, and most of the supply came from the Valley of Mexico. The best was made by boiling the water from the salt lake in large pots, and was preserved in white cakes or balls. It was oftener, however, led by trenches into shallow pools and evaporated by the sun. The work would seem to have been done by women, since Sahagun speaks of the women and girls employed in this industry as dancing at the feast in honor of the goddess of salt in the month Tecuilhuitontli. A poor quality of salt, tequizquitl, brick-colored and strongly impregnated with saltpetre, was scraped up on the flats around the lakes, and largely used in salting meats. Las Casas mentions salt springs in the bed of fresh-water streams, the water of which was pumped out through hollow canes, and yielded on evaporation a fine white salt; but it is not certain what part of the country he refers to. The Aztec kings practically monopolized the salt market and refused to sell it to any except tributary nations. In consequence of this disposition, republican Tlascala, one of the few nations that maintained its independence, was forced for many years to eat its food unsalted; and so habituated did the people become to this diet, that in later times, if we may credit Camargo, very little salt was consumed.[357]
THE NAHUA CUISINE.
We now come to the methods adopted by the Nahuas in preparing and cooking food. Maize, when in the milk, was eaten boiled, and called elotl; when dry it was often prepared for food by simply parching or roasting, and then named mumuehitl. But it usually came to the Aztec table in the shape of tlaxcalli, the Spanish tortillas, the standard bread, then as now, in all Spanish America. It would be difficult to name a book in any way treating of Mexico in which tortillas are not fully described. The aborigines boiled the corn in water, to which lime, or sometimes nitre, was added. When sufficiently soft and free from hulls it was crushed on the metlatl, or metate, with a stone roller, and the dough, after being kneaded also on the metate, was formed by the hands of the women into very thin round cakes which were quickly baked on earthen pans, or comalli, and piled up one on another that they might retain their warmth, for when cold they lost their savor. Peter Martyr speaks of these tortillas as "bread made of Maizium." They were sometimes, but rarely, flavored with different native plants and flowers. There was, however, some variety in their preparation, according to which they bore different names. For example totanquitlaxcallitlaquelpacholli were very white, being folded and covered with napkins; huietlaxcalli were large, thin, and soft; quauhtlaqualli were thick and rough; tlaxcalpacholli, grayish; and tlacepoallitlaxcalli presented a blistered surface. There were many other kinds. In addition to the tlaxcalli, thicker corn-bread in the form of long cakes and balls were made. Atolli varied in consistency from porridge, or gruel, to mush, and may consequently be classed either as a drink or as food. To make it, the hulled corn was mashed, mixed with water, and boiled down to the required consistency; it was variously sweetened and seasoned, and eaten both hot and cold. According to its condition and seasoning it received about seventeen names; thus totonquiatolli was eaten hot, nequatolli was sweetened with honey, chilnequatolli was seasoned with chile, and quauhnexatolli with saltpetre.
Beans, the etl of the Aztecs, the frijoles of the Spaniards, were while yet green boiled in the pod, and were then called exotl; when dry they were also generally boiled; but Ixtlilxochitl mentions flour made from beans.
Chilli, chile, or pepper, was eaten both green and dry, whole and ground. A sauce was also made from it into which hot tortillas were dipped, and which formed a part of the seasoning in nearly every Nahua dish. "It is the principal sauce and the only spice of the Indias," as Acosta tells us.
Flesh, fowl, and fish, both fresh and salted, were stewed, boiled, and roasted, with the fat of the techichi, and seasoned with chile, tomatl (since called tomatoes), etc. The larger roasted game preserved for eating from the sacrifices in the month of Itzcalli is termed calpuleque by Sahagun. Pipian was a stew of fowl with chile, tomatoes, and ground pumpkin-seeds. Deer and rabbits were barbecued. Peter Martyr speaks of "rost and sodden meates of foule."
Fruits, for the most part, were eaten as with us, raw, but some, as the plantain and banana, were roasted and stewed.
So much for the plain Nahua cookery. Into the labyrinthine mysteries of the mixed dishes I shall not penetrate far. It is easier for the writer, and not less satisfactory to the reader, to dismiss the subject with the remark that all the articles of food that have been mentioned, fish, flesh, and fowl, were mixed and cooked in every conceivable proportion, the product taking a different name with each change in the ingredients. The two principal classes of these mixed dishes were the pot-stews, or cazuelas, of various meats with multitudinous seasonings; and the tamalli, or tamales, meat pies, to make which meats were boiled, chopped fine, and seasoned, then mixed with maize-dough, coated with the same, wrapped in a corn-husk, and boiled again. These also took different names according to the ingredients and seasoning. The tamale is still a favorite dish, like tortillas and frijoles.
Miscellaneous articles of food, not already spoken of, were axayacatl, flies of the Mexican lakes, dried, ground, boiled, and eaten in the form of cakes; ahuauhtli, the eggs of the same fly, a kind of native caviar; many kinds of insects, ants, maguey-worms, and even lice; tecuitlatl, 'excrement of stone,' a slime that was gathered on the surface of the lakes, and dried till it resembled cheese; eggs of turkeys, iguanas, and turtles, roasted, boiled, and in omelettes; various reptiles, frogs, and frog-spawn; shrimps, sardines, and crabs; corn-silk, wild-amaranth seeds, cherry-stones, tule-roots, and very many other articles inexpressible; yucca flour, potoyucca, tunas; honey from maize, from bees, and from the maguey; and roasted portions of the maguey stalks and leaves.
The women did all the work in preparing and cooking food; in Tlascala, however, the men felt that an apology was due for allowing this work to be done by women, and claimed, as Sahagun says, that the smoke of cooking would impair their eye-sight and make them less successful in the hunt. All these articles of food, both cooked and uncooked, were offered for sale in the market-places of each large town, of which I shall speak further when I come to treat of commerce. Eating-houses were also generally found near the markets, where all the substantials and delicacies of the Nahua cuisine might be obtained.[358]