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Aztec men sharing a meal. Florentine Codex, late 16th century. Aztec cuisine is the cuisine of the former Aztec Empire and the Nahua peoples of the Valley of Mexico prior to European contact in 1519. The most important staple was corn , a crop that was so important to Aztec society that it played a central part in their culture.
The other constants of Aztec food were salt and chili peppers and the basic definition of Aztec fasting was to abstain from these two flavorers. The other major foods were beans and New World varieties of the grains amaranth (or pigweed), and chia. The combination of maize and these basic foods would have provided the average Aztec with a very ...
Mexican cuisine continues to be based on staple elements of Mesoamerican cooking and, particularly, of Aztec cuisine: corn, chili, beans, squash, tomato, and avocado. Many of these staple products continue to be known by their Nahuatl names, carrying in this way ties to the Aztec people who introduced these foods to the Spaniards and the world.
The grain was a staple food of the Aztecs and an integral part of Aztec religious ceremonies. The cultivation of amaranth was banned by the conquistadores upon their conquest of the Aztec nation. However, the plant has grown as a weed since then, so its genetic base has been largely maintained.
Some traditional foods featured in the cuisine include: Atole (a drink made using masa) [12] and Chocolate Atole (with the addition of chocolate) also known as champurrado. [13] Two classic maize dishes are: boiling maize in water and lime, mixing with chili peppers and eating as gruel; dough preparation for flat cakes, tamales and tortillas ...
With the Mexica formation of the multi-ethnic Triple Alliance (Aztec Empire), culinary foodways became infused (Aztec cuisine). Today's food staples native to the land include corn , turkey, beans, squash, amaranth, chia, avocados, tomatoes, tomatillos, cacao, vanilla, agave, spirulina, sweet potato, cactus, and chili pepper
Spanish conquistadors hoped to find foods in the New World similar to those they were familiar with from Spain. Aztec cuisine proved to be quite different, and the staple crops had not been developed sufficiently to support the livestock and populations the Spaniards hoped to establish. They considered maize to be a better food for pigs than ...
Moctezuma's table refers to both the place and the manner in which the Aztec emperor ate his food.Important chronologists were witnesses to this daily ritual. One of these, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, extrapolated in his book, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain (Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España), how the Mexicas specific protocols and etiquette were passed down ...