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History of Salsa
The word
"salsa" is the Spanish word for sauce. The salsas many of us think of
are salsa frescas or salsa cruda, fresh sauces served as a condiment
aside a Mexican meal. These uncooked sauces might be pureed until
smooth, semi-chunky, or the uniformly chopped pico de gallo.
The Chile - Tomato Combo
The making of of a sauce by
combining chiles, tomatoes and other ingredients like squash seeds and
even beans has been documented back to the Aztec culture..
We have Spanish-born Bernadino de Sahagun to thank for the detailed
culinary history of the Aztec culture. His extensive writings
documented every food common to the culture. This is an excerpt
from Sahagun's writings about the food vendors in the large Aztec
markets:
"He sells foods, sauces, hot sauces, fried [food], olla-cooked,
juices, sauces of juices, shredded [food] with chile, with squash seeds,
with tomatoes, with smoke chile, with hot chile, with yellow chile, with
mild red chile sauce, yellow chile sauce, sauce of smoked chile,
heated sauce, he sells toasted beans, cooked beans, mushroom sauce,
sauce of small squash, sauce of large tomatoes, sauce of ordinary
tomatoes, sauce of various kinds of sour herbs, avocado sauce. (Sahagun,
translated 1950 -1982).
Ingredients Then and Now
The paragraph above refers to many of the ingredients in our modern-day
salsas.
Large tomatoes - We believe this references is to a large
red tomato similar to what we eat to day.
Ordinary tomatoes - most likely this reference is to the
tomatillo or tomate verde.
Smoked chiles - The chipotle or smoked jalapeno was a staple in
the Aztec diet.
Avocado - cultivated by the Aztecs the avocado was an important
source of fat and protein and was used in a sauce similar to what we
call guacamole.
Salsa in American Cookbooks
The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink reports that the 1st mention
of the term "salsa" appeared in print in the U.S. in
**1962. Further, they
mentioned that as of 1991 the sales of salsa surpassed that of our U.S.
staple, ketchup.
**Our research has documented recipes for salsa were
printed in a U.S. cookbook published in 1898. The book was
Encaracion Pinedo's El Cocerina Espanol (The Spanish Cook).
She included a recipe for "Salsa Picante de Chile Colorado" a spicy red
chile sauce as well as "Salsa de Chile Verde" a green chile sauce.
Both salsas were fresh, uncooked salsas.
References
America's First Cuisines by Sophie Coe
The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink |
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Learn More
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about Mexican Food History
Recipes and Related Reading
Tomatillo Salsa
-
Gourmetsleuth Recipe for
Tomatillo Salsa with onions, garlic, lime, serrano chiles and cilantro
Molcajete Salsa with Roasted Chilies
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Gourmetsleuth - Recipe for Molcajete Salsa with Roasted Chilies. Roasting
tomatoes and chiles brings out the flavor of this traditional salsa.
Tres
Salsas
Gourmetsleuth - Recipe for Tres Salsas Includes recipes for Pico de Gallo,
Guacamole, and Salsa cruda
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