Changes in Foods Available with the Rise of the Aztec Empire With increased agriculture possibilities once settled (such as the chinampas shown below), the Mexica during the Aztec empire had much greater access to a larger variety of food dishes. |
Daily MealsRitual/Festival Meals |
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General Aztec DietImage Below: Chinampas at Xochimilco, Mexico, 1920's-1930's By: Edward Van Altena (photographer) Agricultural ProductsThe Aztecs used the large variety of agriculture products available to them to create an assortment of unique dishes. Maize for example was prepared in a variety of ways. It was eaten raw for its juices or toasted over a fire. It was often ground finely and added to liquid to form the gruel known as atole, which was a masa, or dough (Kiple 2000:1248). Most commonly this was formed into a tortilla, a round, flat, toasted bread, which was a staple of Mesoamerican food from the classic time. The tortillas were created by first soaking the the shelled corn in an alkali solution, followed by grinding the corn into a four on a metate or grinding stone, than shaping the tortillas by hand and cooking them on a clay griddle called a comalli (Smith 1996:65). This process was a fundamental lesson taught from mothers to daughters, and has been referred to as nixtamalization (Coe 1999:13). Also a popular dish made from maize were tamales, which were a more ancient, steamed food. "Xoars, a maize dough was shaped into balls, often with some beans, chiles, or sometimes meat in the center, then wrapped in maize leaves and steamed in a large clay pot" (Smith 1996:66). There were even more products made with Maize, as well as similar and unique products from other raw goods, although none with the importance of tortillas and tamales. Although beans, generally served with the tortillas or in tamales, helped to compliment the wide Aztec use of Maize, in a dietary sense (Kiple 2000:1249).
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Other Aztec Foods While agriculture, in particular Maize and beans, made up a major portion of Aztec food, other gathered and hunted foods existed and were a smaller part of the Aztec diet. There was a variety of foods gathered from the lake, including fowl of various sorts, fish, frogs, water insects and algae (Davidson 1999). This algae was called Tecuitlatl and was collected from the surface of the lakes in the valley of Mexico and was particularly important as a source of protein, vitamins and minerals. According to sixteenth-century reports, sufficient amounts of algae were available to make it nutritionally significant (Kiple 2000:1249). Beyond the lake there were also other insects, amphibians and reptiles that were gathered and as far as domesticated animals, the Aztecs had rabbits, dogs (xoloitzcuintli) and turkeys (Kiple 2000:1249). |
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