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Maize, Nixtamal and the Comal

Maíz

Specialised

⚠ THE TECHNIQUE IS THE CIVILISATION. NIXTAMALIZATION — cooking maize in an alkaline solution of lime or wood ash, then hulling and grinding it — is a Mesoamerican invention of great antiquity, and it is not merely a processing step: it releases bound niacin, improves protein quality and makes the dough cohere. ⚠ POPULATIONS THAT ADOPTED MAIZE WITHOUT THE TECHNIQUE — in Europe, in the American South — DEVELOPED PELLAGRA; those who had it did not. The nixtamal is ground to MASA on a metate or in a mill, and cooked on a COMAL. From that one process: the tortilla, the tamal, the pupusa, the atol, the pinol, the chuchito, the nacatamal, the güirila. ⚠ EVERY COUNTRY IN THIS FILE SHARES THE TECHNIQUE AND NONE SHARES THE DISHES.

Atlas — where and when

Communities and languages

  • Maya community documented
  • Pipil community documented
  • Lenca community documented

Languages: Spanish, K'iche', Q'eqchi'

What is recorded

  • Nixtamalization — treating maize with an alkaline solution before hulling and grinding — is a Mesoamerican process that releases bound niacin and improves protein availability. Populations that adopted maize as a staple without the technique, including in Europe and the southern United States, developed pellagra; populations using nixtamalization did not. The technique underlies the tortilla, tamal, pupusa, atol and nacatamal across the region. documented
  • Maize domesticated from teosinte in Mesoamerica, with the earliest secure archaeological evidence in the Balsas region of Mexico; nixtamalization appears later and is the process that made maize a viable staple. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • part of Mesoamerican Indigenous Foodways documented

    Nixtamalization, masa and the comal are the Mesoamerican foundation shared across the isthmus.

  • related to Mexican Cuisine documented

    ⚠ A shared technique, not a shared cuisine. Central American food is not a subset of Mexican food.

Recorded as relating to this foodway

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.