There was no frying culture pre-Conquest because there were no fatty animals and probably no system of pressing oil from seeds though there is now a hint that it might have been expressed from cotton seeds. We’ll see. Good point about pigs earlier having less fat and worth bearing in mind.

And yes, much of the fresh sausage making did come to the Americas. It’s the long-keeping ones that don’t. Like long-keeping cheeses.

But may be haciendas are the answer. May be there was a tradition of preserved pork there. There are few recipes for the same reason there are few recipes for bread. And maybe the habit of an occasional fiesta with carnitas is something that the hacenderos put on for the peons.

Hmm. Another post brewing.

One area is the mountains around Jalapa, Veracruz, where today they are apparently making some good hams and cured meats.

I am having to lean more toward your statement Rachel of the sheer amount of meat available - led to a lack of need for cured meats.

I am especially confounded because the province in Spain from which most of the conquistadors of New Spain were culled was Extremadura. This is the chorizo making center of Spain.

Interesting that the inclusion of a new world ingredient found [chile] its way back to the ‘mother country’ and now appears without fail in the country’s most famous cured sausage; yet the technique of curing was not brought across the pond to Mexico.

Bernal Diaz even writes about the first feast of the conquistadors in New Spain in his relation of the Conquest. The menu could of appeared anywhere in Renaissance Spain - hardly any inclusion of New World dishes. I recall them feasting on some fowl in Escabeche among other dishes. They were obviously going to lengths to eat like they did in Spain - yet why no chorizo.

It might be worth looking into the differences between one fresh sausage that appears both in Mexico and Spain. The blood sausage - I believe called Moranga in Mex and Morcilla in Spain. Why was this tradition carried out if meat was so plentiful? [Ive got a great recipe for Moranga in Salsa de Morita thats begging to be made!]

Even today around Christmas time Mexicans are indulging in Bacalao - salt cod. I cannot think of something more “non-mexican” that this ingredient yet the power of Religion may be so strong that this tradition continues to exist.

Other foodstuffs that beg to be looked into are grapes, olives and wheat. Apparently the ripped out the grapes and olives to create a monopoly of the Spanish product.

I cannot thank you enough for sharing your thoughts with us Rachel! Engrossing topic!

” I think of the planting of grapes and olives and producing wine and cured olives… indeed, one would think that the ambient temperature for storing terracotta jars of brined olives and wine would be just about right for storing cured meat….or at least keeping fat-sealed vessels for more than a few days. Of course, simply putting something liquid in an unglazed vessel helps to cool it, because of the evaporation.” holly@almostitalian.com

I wonder if the parallel here is the cooking technology. Todays pigs are different to iron age, medieval or even early modern pigs. The huge amount of fat for preserving or frying we associate with pigs is quite possibly relatively modern.

If you don’t have a food culture of frying then, roasting or boiling are you options. Did Mesoamerica have a frying culture before the introduction of the pig? Was the original carnitas cooking method a sort of transition technique that makes less sense if you only look at the modern dish/

What was the relationship between the land owner and the tenant farmer in Mexico? In large parts of Europe, even though the pig was raised by the tenant, on slaughter, prime parts (or even all) of the pig might go to the land owner as part of the rent package. If are left with little other then offal and off-cuts it is difficult to develop a preserving culture.

A lot of the European “peasant” preserving of meat actually is done by relatively wealthy small land owners, rather then the stereotyped dirt poor peasant.