Field & Kitchen
The crops, and the equipment that stands between a crop and a meal. An alkaline soak that made maize edible, a stone slab cut from one block, and a pit of hot rock used as an oven.
5 entries
Section 03 of 06
Section 03 of 06
Entries in Field & Kitchen
The crops and what is built on them.- 010 NixtamalNixtamalised maize · Mesoamerica Maize cooked in an alkaline solution before grinding. It loosens the hull, changes the smell, makes the dough hold together and unlocks nutrients that raw maize will not give up. Nearly every maize kitchen in the region runs through this one step.
- 011 The metateMetate and mano · Mesoamerica A stone grinding slab and its hand stone, cut from volcanic rock and roughened again as it wears smooth.
- 012 Cacao before chocolateCacao paste · Mesoamerica Fermented, dried, roasted and ground — and drunk bitter, foamed and spiced long before any of it was sweetened.
- 013 The potato, in pluralNative potato varieties · Cusco, Peru Thousands of cultivated varieties in the Andes, kept apart on purpose, and the freeze-drying method that turns them into something storable for years.
- 014 The earth ovenEarth oven · Across the region Hot stones, a covered pit and several hours. The same method under a dozen names.