Three Thousand Years of the Traditional Mexican Kitchen :: Tres Mil Años de la Cocina Tradicional Mexicana

A drawing from the 16th century Florentine Codex showing the pre-Hispanic making of tortillas.  The utensils the woman uses for the preparation of tortillas de maíz (corn tortillas) are the same utensils that are used today--3000 years from the time tortilla-making was begun.  That's not a typo: 3000 years.  Tamales came first, about 4000 years ago, and after them came tortillas, their younger relations.  The olla (clay pot in the foreground) was used for nixtamaliz-ing corn (processing dried corn kernels in a hot water and calcium hydroxide bath).  The woman is using a metate (volcanic rock grinding stone) and its metlapil (like a rock rolling pin) to grind the nixtamalize-d corn (and some of its water) into dough.  To the right in the drawing is a comal (clay griddle), used to cook the tortillas over an open wood fire; the three circular items around the comal are, as far as I know, supposed to represent the rocks that support the comal above the flames.  Drawn above the comal is a molcajete (volcanic rock round grinding bowl, like a mortar) and its mano (the pestle used to do the grinding).  ALL of these utensils continue to be used in today's traditional Mexican kitchen.


This 1924 painting by Diego Rivera represents the same activities drawn in the Florentine Codex--plus the indigenous man tending a corn plant--that show us the preparation of a tortilla from its beginnings as a plant through the grinding of the dried, nixtamalize-d corn, to the woman wearing a head covering patting the testal (the round ball of masa (corn dough) from which a tortilla is formed, to the woman toasting tortillas on a comal.  


The clay comal that I bought from its maker and use in my modern kitchen.  Its diameter is fourteen inches, plus the slightly elevated sides.  Compare it with the comal shown in the painting above.  


A Mexican kitchen circa 1830s, painted by the French artist Theubet de Beauchamps.  Note that the woman grinding corn on the metate is kneeling on a woven palm mat known as a petate.  A small-ish petate was used as a kneeling mat, a larger one was used as a sleeping mat in lieu of aa different kind of bed.  At the end of life, a person with very few financial recourses would be rolled up and buried in his or her sleeping petate.  In the center of the painting, behind the tall clay jug, you can see the fire built in a fogón (the circle of rocks) and the comal where the tortillas are toasting.


I took this photo approximately 10 years ago.  The style of clothing has changed, but the rest remains the same. 


This Mexican kitchen photo dates to circa 1850.  The artist is unknown, although prints of the painting are widely available today (even at Walmart, to give you an idea of how well-known and commonplace it is).  This is a typical kitchen of the period, one that would have been in the home of a fairly well-off family. I would wager a guess that both of these women are indigenous servants, not members of the home's family. These kitchens are still in use today, in some homes; friends of mine here in Morelia have a close-to-identical 19th century kitchen in their home. 

The arches at ground level are for storing firewood; the square holes beneath the stove's surface are for burning the wood to cook the food.  The clay pots, all of which have rounded bottoms, fit into the holes on the surface of the stove; today, stoves in modern homes have gas or electric burners.  The woman standing at the stove and wrapped in a rebozo (long rectangular shawl used for warmth and a multitude of other things) is wielding a ventilador--the typical hand-woven palm fan used to blow air into the fire.

The shelf above the woman kneeling on the floor can be lowered and raised by a primitive pulley; that shelf is used to store staples like dried ears of corn, wheat flour, sugar, salt, chunks of cal (calcium hydroxide), chunks of tequesquite (a naturally-occurring leavening agent), and some other things that one would want small rodents to access.  The large clay vessel on the floor to the left of the painting holds potable water; the small clay jar next to it is used to take water out of the large jar.  The woman grinding corn at the metate is kneeling on a petate, which is hidden by her voluminous skirts.  At the time this painting was made, there was usually no ventilation (flues, chimneys, etc.--and usually no windows) for removing wood smoke from a kitchen.  These middle-19th century kitchens in well-off homes had actual STOVES, a new-fangled convenience compared to cooking directly over a wood fire on the ground.  In poor homes and/or in rural areas, open-fire cooking was done both outside in a patio and inside on the kitchen's dirt floor.  Obviously huge amounts of smoke billowed everywhere, including into the cocinera's (cook's) eyes and lungs.  These circumstances are still very common today in rural zones.

A Mexican kitchen dating to the end of the 19th century.  The household collection of hand-hammered copper cazuelas (cooking pans) hangs on the wall above the table, and there's one on the floor, center stage.  The two women on the right are handling a live turkey--native to Mexico--and the kitchen cat is peering around the corner of the stove.  This kitchen is remarkable for its ventilation and light.


Two cocineras tradicionales (traditional cooks) from the state of Michoacán, where I live, are cooking on a wood-burning stove built of adobe (mud and straw) with an outer coating of yeso (plaster), in this case a thick layer of plaster, and painted with the oxidized brick color that was as far as I have seen the most common color used for this type stove.  Alberto Ríos Szalay took this photo within the last ten years. 


This kitchen still exists in Casa Zuno, which was built starting in 1923 in Guadalajara, Jalisco.  This elaborate and elegant home belonged to José Guadalupe Zuno Hernández, who was governor of the state of Jalisco at the time the house was built.  He and his wife donated the house to the University of Guadalajara.  From 1993 until today, it has been the seat of the Historic Archives of the city and state.  Above the stove are typical pottery decorations that are common in a kitchen of the era.  All photos by Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise credited. 


The kitchen at Casa Azul, the Frida Kahlo museum in Mexico City.  The home was built in 1904 and opened as a museum in 1958, retaining the family furnishings and decorations.  Above the stove (blue painted with yellow diamond shapes), you can see tiny pots forming the names "Frida" (to the left) and "Diego" (to the right).  Above the window are doves stretching a large ribbon between their beaks.


Here's an early 20th century addition to one Mexican kitchen: a wood-burning beehive oven tucked into the corner.  Most kitchen work in this era continued to be done on the floor, rather than at a table or a counter.  Most ovens were built outside the kitchen, in the patio, to avoid the intense heat they generated.


Above is the room dedicated to the traditional Michoacán kitchen at the Museo de Artes y Oficios (Museum of Arts and Trades) in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.  The stove is free-standing in the middle of the room, rather than having been built against a wall.  Above the shelves at the end of the room, you can see a banner made of little pots (and again held by doves).


The kitchen in the family home of the painter Rodolfo Morales (RIP).  Morales lived in this house in Ocotlán, Oaxaca, from his birth in 1925 until his death in 2001.  It's one of my favorite Mexican kitchens--filled to bursting with pots ranging from the tiniest to the largest.  Click on the photo to enlarge it; you can see that the stove burners have been converted from burning wood to gas.  


Finally, here is an outdoor kitchen in a rural area of Michoacán.  Built to use for cooking in the heat of spring (the hottest time of year in this part of Michoacán is from late March until late May), you can click on this photo (or on any of the photos on Mexico Cooks!) to get a better look at their detail.  At the left of this photo, you will see the steam in the air from a pot of cooking beans.  When I took this picture, about 13 years ago, I knew this was soon to be a vestige of an earlier time, a beautiful remnant of Mexico's past and present.  

I hope you have enjoyed this time travel, from the beginning of the recorded history of Mexico's traditional kitchen right up until today.  If you'd like to tour with me, take a look at the link below and let's make a plan.  

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

Comments

[Tony]

Fascinating!

[Christos]

AWESOME WORK ! some of your kitchens remind me of kitchens i encountered in greece around 1955.clay pots, selfing raised above ground and entire built in wall firewood stoves and beehive wood burning ovens ! We are all familiar with kitchens so your work finds a sweet spot in our hearts . thank you for sharing

[Cristina Charneski]

what a wonderful post. Thank you so much for writing and sharing it.