Rachel Laudan » Mexico http://www.rachellaudan.com A Historian's Take on Food and Food Politics Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:16:24 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Men’s Labor (Farming) vs Women’s Labor (Cooking): Tortillas http://www.rachellaudan.com/2011/12/mens-labor-farming-vs-womens-labor-cooking-the-case-of-mexico.html http://www.rachellaudan.com/2011/12/mens-labor-farming-vs-womens-labor-cooking-the-case-of-mexico.html#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:29:17 +0000 Rachel Laudan http://www.rachellaudan.com/?p=4105 Note. If you’ve been to this page before, I’ve now (pm 5 december) edited the figures. Many thanks Larry.

 

I’ve just been reading E.A. Wrigley‘s Energy and the English Industrial Revolution which I highly recommend if you are interested in the transformation wrought by fossil fuels.

In passing, he gives these figures for the labor involved in growing maize in Mexico ca 1940. A hectare is roughly the area inside an athletic track.

Cultivating a hectare of maize by hand.   1,140 man hours

Cultivating a hectare of maize with an ox. 380 man hours (plus 200 ox hours)

His figures come from Cornell entomologist turned agricultural economist, David Pimentel “Energy Flow in the Food System,” in Pimental and C.W. Hall, eds.,  Food and Energy Resources (London, 1984).

They reminded me that I have always been frustrated that the “food system” so often ignores what happens after the harvest.  So here’s my effort to get an order of magnitude figure of the relative work expended by men and women in putting tortillas on the table prior to oxen, mules, tractors and mills.

In 1970, maize yield per hectare was 1,194 kg ( INEGI, 1999 cited in “El maíz en México,” by Massieu Trigo and Lechuga Montenegro).  Assume that you needed 1 kg of maize per adult per day when it was providing 65% of the calories, allowing for seed corn and wastage in storage.  Assume a family of two adults and four others, say three children and an old person (probably low), with the four others needing 1/2 kg of maize a day.  Multiplying 4 kg by 365 days and dividing by 1,194 you find that a plot of 1.2 hectares was needed.  And that means 1,368 man hours to grow maize for the family.

Now what about turning all that maize into sometime you could put in your mouth.  Assume that it took about 5 hours a day to grind the maize for a family of six.  Add in time to collect firewood, de-grain the maize, haul the water to nixtamalize it, and shape and cook the tortillas.  Say another hour a day for this (a low estimate I think).

That means 2190 woman hours to turn maize into tortillas for the family.

That is to say, processing maize took more time than growing it even prior to animal power. Once the man had the help of an ox or a mule, the woman spent four to five times as much time processing and cooking as the man spent farming.

Given what hard work grinding is, I would guess the woman spent at least four times as much energy processing and cooking as the man spent farming.

These are just back of the envelope calculations. Does anyone have any corrections or modifications to make?  Or any pointers to studies on the  relative energy involved in farming versus processing and cooking?

 

 

]]> http://www.rachellaudan.com/2011/12/mens-labor-farming-vs-womens-labor-cooking-the-case-of-mexico.html/feed 9 Will there be a return to servants? http://www.rachellaudan.com/2011/10/will-there-be-a-return-to-servants.html http://www.rachellaudan.com/2011/10/will-there-be-a-return-to-servants.html#comments Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:20:11 +0000 Rachel Laudan http://www.rachellaudan.com/?p=3808 Megan McArdle at the Atlantic, following Arnold King, asks this.

Why hasn’t rising inequality resulted in in the much-predicted oligarchy?  Or to put it as he does: with so many unemployed, and income increasing faster among the affluent, why aren’t people hiring more servants?

 

Or to put it more personally, would you hire a servant?  Would you go out to work as a servant?

McArdle suggests that neither the rich nor the poor are enthusiastic about these options.

1. The cost is greater.  The poor are wealthier than they used to be. Hard as times may be, they don’t want to work for as little money (even inflation adjusted) as 100 years ago.  The rich don’t want to pay the higher prices. Plus taxes, regulation and liability make servants less appealing to the rich.

2.  The hassle is unappealing.  For the poor, they have more independence in regular service sector jobs.  For the rich (or middle class) servants have to be managed, including training.  And the rich value their privacy more, they don’t want servants in the house. And McArdle does not mention that it is socially taboo to have servants now in the United States.

As someone who feels that living in Mexico, as a rich gringa, I really should employ people, I would add that it’s not just a matter of managing. Servants are part of your life, other very real human beings. They have their own problems, usually much greater than yours. Taking these seriously (their child’s persistent eye infection, their jerk of a husband, the murder of their father) is something no one with any decency would avoid. Equally there’s no denying that it takes time and money.

3.  The alternatives are greater: cleaning services, take out, dry cleaners, and washing machines, for example.

I don’t think Americans will go back to working as or employing servants until things get a lot worse.  And that’s another reason to hope they don’t get worse. I would dearly love to live a servantless life.

Understanding food history, however, means you have to take the presence of servants into account.  This seems a good moment to repost a summing up of several of my posts about servants in the kitchen.

 

20224172

 

1. Lest We Forget: Servants in Culinary History

Why we tend to forget servants and who servants were

2 Mistress and Servant Go to Cooking Class

How the mistress learned to supervise the cook and how the cook learned to cook

3. Servants who Steal

What did and didn’t count as stealing, a response to readers’ questions

4. Servants: The Missing Link in Culinary Change

How an Indian servant learned to cook Indian food from a cookbook for British housewives

5. Servants and Ethnic Cuisines

The shadowy role of servants in “ethnic” cookbooks designed for an American market

6. Servants and Julia Child

The shadowy role of servants in Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

 

]]> http://www.rachellaudan.com/2011/10/will-there-be-a-return-to-servants.html/feed 5 Mexican ethnobotany blogs (in Spanish) http://www.rachellaudan.com/2011/10/mexican-ethnobotany-blogs-in-spanish.html http://www.rachellaudan.com/2011/10/mexican-ethnobotany-blogs-in-spanish.html#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:55:31 +0000 Rachel Laudan http://www.rachellaudan.com/?p=3756 I don´t usually link to blogs until they have a bit of a track record but these sister blogs on Mexican ethnobotany could be really interesting.  All come from Heike Vibrans who works at the main university for agriculture in Mexico.

Here’s one on Mexican (roughly) weeds, the volunteer plants that go along with cultivated plants. If you click through, you will find photos and plant identifications.  Since the little books that I counted on for identifying plants in England or the US don’t exist here, this is really helpful.

And here’s a more general one on food, ethnobotany, etc.  Interesting announcement of a conference on arthropods at the National University.  And more photos of Mexican markets.

Also a list of organic markets in Mexico, a very useful resource (even though I think that pursuing organic as currently understood is a red herring).

Good luck with the blogs, Heike.

]]> http://www.rachellaudan.com/2011/10/mexican-ethnobotany-blogs-in-spanish.html/feed 1 How Mexicans are escaping rural poverty (and not going north) http://www.rachellaudan.com/2011/07/how-mexicans-are-escaping-rural-poverty-and-not-going-north.html http://www.rachellaudan.com/2011/07/how-mexicans-are-escaping-rural-poverty-and-not-going-north.html#comments Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:57:55 +0000 Rachel Laudan http://www.rachellaudan.com/?p=3558  

 

Mexican peasant walking to town with a donkeyload of firewood for sale

The New York Times a couple of days ago had a long and well researched article on the slowing of Mexican migration to the United States. Yeah.

Mexican is getting wealthier.  In fact Mexico is now 80% urban, something that has a lot to do with this.  Peasants eking out a living on the land are disappearing. Instead they are taking jobs in towns. Just this morning the newspaper Reforma reported that in the last eighteen months, Mazda, Volkswagen, Pirelli, and Proctor and Gamble are opening huge new plants in Guanajuato, the state in the center of the country where I used to live.

Many might think this sad.  But life as a peasant is not a bundle of fun.

So I thought it might be worth linking to earlier blog posts about Mexican peasants, maize, farming, and migration to the United States.

Why it’s not worthwhile for Mexican peasants to go north.

How Mexican peasants are escaping rural poverty.

Why Mexican peasants don’t want to grow maize.

Mexico’s maize production and importation (2008).

How Mexican peasants came to be growing maize in the twentieth century.

Of course, the great unknown in all this is how much drug money is contributing to prosperity.

]]> http://www.rachellaudan.com/2011/07/how-mexicans-are-escaping-rural-poverty-and-not-going-north.html/feed 4 The Spanish Origins of Bread for Day of the Dead? http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/11/bread-for-day-of-the-dead.html http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/11/bread-for-day-of-the-dead.html#comments Mon, 01 Nov 2010 06:43:20 +0000 Rachel Laudan http://www.rachellaudan.com/?p=2987

Few customs are now more ensconced in Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations than the pan de muerto, the traditional bread, rich in eggs and sugar, and decorated with bread bones, sold in  every bakery and supermarket (though this is my effort, tastes better with real butter and orange flower water and anise water, looks clunkier).

So it was fascinating to run across a fleeting reference in Claudio Lomnitz’s  invaluable Death and the Idea of Mexico (New York: Zone, 2005) to the origins of this bread. According to him (page 430), it appeared sometime between 1930 and 1960. At the time, it was widely criticized as the product of commercial interests, in particular the bakers, who in addition were Spanish and not Mexican. Ah ha, the commercialization of Day of the Dead by Basque bakers in wool vests and berets. I hope Robbie Weiss says something about this in his upcoming book on the history of baking in Mexico.

For next year I want to follow up this and some of the rest of the up and down, tangled history of Day of the Dead celebrations, which have changed even more than those of Halloween, nicely laid out here by  Samira Kawash and reported on Amanda Benson’s Food and Think, an aptly named and always intriguing blog under the auspices of the Smithsonian.

In the meantime, two photographs to illustrate the current stretch of Day of the Dead. The first is of an utterly elegant  and totally modern sugar skull (calavera)  given to us by a friend a couple of days ago and now adorning out dining room. It was made in Irapuato in the state of Guanajuato.

The second shows a cemetery in rural Guanajuato a a few days after the Day of the Dead, the people gone, the flowers fading.

]]> http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/11/bread-for-day-of-the-dead.html/feed 10 Couscous. Can’t-Miss Festival and Origins of Mexican Couscous http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/09/couscous-cant-miss-festival-and-origins-of-mexican-couscous.html http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/09/couscous-cant-miss-festival-and-origins-of-mexican-couscous.html#comments Sat, 18 Sep 2010 00:44:22 +0000 Rachel Laudan http://www.rachellaudan.com/?p=2955 I’m green with envy.  I would give anything to be in Los Angeles on the 16th and 17th October, for the  couscous festival, run by Susan Ji-Young Park, a frequent commentator on this blog, and her husband Farid Zadi.  Here’s what Farid has to say about the genesis of the festival.

My parents immigrated to France (from Algeria) in the 1960s with little more than the clothes on their backs. Now I’m in Los Angeles about to open my own culinary school in a $3 million dollar kitchen. I learned how to steam couscous from my mom. She’s illiterate. Now I’m organizing a festival in honor of a food she made almost everyday.

Now if that doesn’t sound intriguing, how about this?    You’ll find Paula Wolfert, with her wonderful gift for translating Mediterranean dishes for American use, who writes so eloquently about the cooking of the Mediterranean, Faye Levy, among her many accomplishments a go to person for Jewish cooking in the Mediterranean, Clifford Wright whose Mediterranean Feast effortlessly moves between history and recipes, and Charles Perry, famous as much for for experimenting with medieval Islamic fermented bread condiments and other risky forays into forgotten foods, as for his impeccable scholarship on the cuisines of medieval Islam.  All in all, my favorite combination of terrific tastes and nerdy expertise.

Since I can’t be there, here’s a long distance contribution to the festivities.  Some time ago I gave a ca 1815 Mexican recipe for wheat couscous and a slightly tricky-looking recipe for maize couscous that tried to duplicate the texture.

Ta ta.  I recently discovered the origin of the first recipe.  Well now I know where that first recipe came from.  So simple I should have checked immediately.  It’s the the great Spanish cookbook of the 17th and 18th century, Motiño’s Arte de Cocina, Pasteleria, Vizcocheria, y Conserveria, widely used by criollos (Mexican-born Spaniards) in New Spain.  My reprint of the 1763 edition (it was originally published in 1623) has a longer recipe “Como se hace el alcuzcuz” (how to make couscous) and also “Como se guise el alcuzcuz.” (How to prepare the couscous).  Compare the wording and its clear that whoever it was in San Luis Potosi who wrote out the long recipe, this is where it originally came from.

If the Spanish stamped out heretic couscous, how come that detailed recipes were still published in mid-eighteenth century Barcelona and shortened and transcribed and adapted in early nineteenth-century Mexico?  Just around Independence.

]]> http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/09/couscous-cant-miss-festival-and-origins-of-mexican-couscous.html/feed 4 Diploma in Mexican Tourism, Including Gastronomy http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/09/diploma-in-mexican-tourism-including-gastronomy.html http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/09/diploma-in-mexican-tourism-including-gastronomy.html#comments Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:52:46 +0000 Rachel Laudan http://www.rachellaudan.com/?p=2949 Since there were lots of people interested in this, I’ve posted it here.  It’s more general than gastronomy which is a good thing as I don’t think it’s possible to do gastronomy without some understanding of the general culture.

__________________

First, the informational meeting.

La UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO, la COORDINACIÓN DE HUMANIDADES, el INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES ANTROPOLÓGICAS y la CASA DE LAS HUMANIDADES los invitan al Diplomado en Formación de Expositores y Guías del Patrimonio Mexicano.

El día martes 5 de octubre de 2010 a las 16:30 horas se llevará a cabo una reunión informativa al respecto, acompañada de la conferencia Patrimonio alimentario de México a cargo de José Iturriaga de la Fuente.

(Note, José Iturriaga is author of many, many books, including La Cultura del Antojito (that is, tacos, tamales, tortas) and was the moving force behind the wonderful series of books, La Colección Cocina Indígena y Popular, published by Conaculta, now up to its 56th volume).

ENTRADA LIBRE

Casa de las Humanidades
Presidente Carranza #162
(casi esquina con Tres Cruces)
Coyoacán
55 54 84 62
55 54 85 13

_________________

Second, the program.

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO

COORDINACIÓN DE HUMANIDADES

INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES ANTROPOLÓGICAS

CASA DE LAS HUMANIDADES

DIPLOMADO EN FORMACIÓN DE EXPOSITORES Y GUÍAS DEL PATRIMONIO MEXICANO

Coordinador: Dr. Luis Alberto Vargas Guadarrama

(Note, Dr Vargas is an anthropologist specializing in food, medicine and nutrition, author among many other publications of Janet Long-Solís y Luis Alberto Vargas: Food culture in México, Serie Food culture around the World, Westport Connecticut y Londres, Greenwood Press, 2005. ISBN 0 313 32431 X)

Horario: martes, de 16:30 a 20:30 horas

Fecha: del 26 de octubre de 2010 al 12 de diciembre de 2011

Duración: 202 horas (53 sesiones)

Horario: martes, de 16:30 a 20:30 horas

Fecha: del 26 de octubre de 2010 al 12 de diciembre de 2011

Duración: 202 horas (53 sesiones)

Sede:

Casa de las Humanidades

Av. Presidente Carranza 162 (casi esquina con Tres Cruces)

Coyoacán. México D. F. CP 04000

www.cashum.unam.mx difhum@servidor.unam.mx

55 54 85 13/ 55 54 55 79/ 56 59 04 24/ 56 58 11 21/ 56 58 09 50 ext. 115/ 110/ 102/ 106

Impartido por destacados especialistas en las diferentes materias que se abordarán

Dirigido a los profesionales de diferentes áreas interesados en conocer y difundir la vasta riqueza natural, cultural y humana de México. Al finalizar el diplomado los participantes serán capaces de crear, planear y desarrollar recorridos turísticos apegados a la antropología, historia, arte, gastronomía y recursos naturales.

Programa curricular: Administración de Recorridos, Introducción a la Industria del Turismo, Historia de México, Historia del Arte, Identidad Nacional, Patrimonio Turístico de México, Métodos de Investigación, Presupuestos, Mercadotecnia, Comunicación y Primeros Auxilios.

Adicionalmente el Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas ofrecerá recorridos dentro y fuera de la Ciudad, con un costo adicional.

El Diplomado Formación de Expositores y Guías del Patrimonio Mexicano hace partícipes a sus alumnos de la vasta riqueza natural, humana y cultural de nuestro país. Mediante la experiencia profesional que le compartirán distinguidos conocedores del tema, el alumno contará con bibliografía científica actualizada; asistirá a conferencias y clases donde podrá actuar con los especialistas que generan y comunican conocimientos dentro y fuera de la UNAM.

Al final del diplomado, el alumno se encontrará capacitado para crear discursos adecuados, que en lugar de la repetición de datos publicados o transmitidos de boca en boca, lleven a sus receptores información selectiva y sustentada acerca del patrimonio cultural del país.

Además, con las herramientas administrativas y operativas que se pondrán a su alcance, los alumnos que finalicen el diplomado estarán habilitados para lograr un autoempleo sustentable que contribuirá para mejorar su calidad de vida personal y la de la comunidad.

Cuota de recuperación del diplomado (en 10 pagos):

$12,000 estudiantes de la UNAM

$14,000  profesores de la UNAM

$17,000  estudiantes y profesores de otras instituciones

$24,000 público general

Informes e inscripciones:

Casa de las Humanidades

Av. Presidente Carranza 162 (casi esquina con Tres Cruces)

Coyoacán. México D. F. CP 04000

www.cashum.unam.mx difhum@servidor.unam.mx

55 54 85 13/ 55 54 55 79/ 56 59 04 24/ 56 58 11 21/ 56 58 09 50 ext. 115/ 110/ 102/ 106

PROGRAMA

Martes 26 de octubre, 9, 16 y 23 de noviembre de 2010

I.          Administración de recorridos y visitas guiadas

16 hrs.

Martes 26 de octubre:

Recorridos multitudinarios

16:30 a 18:30  Jorge Legorreta

Viajes de un día

18:30 a 20:30 Alberto Peralta de Legorreta

Martes 9 de noviembre:

Viajes de varios días

16:30 a 18:30  Édgar Anaya

Recorridos para grupos pequeños

18:30 a 20:30 Ángeles González Gamio

Martes 16 y 23 de noviembre:

Administración de Recorridos

16:30-20:30 Ixchel Cordero Chavarría

Sábado 27 y martes 30 de noviembre de 2010

II.          Introducción a la industria del turismo

Sábado 10:00 a 13:00 Sergio Rodríguez

Martes 14:30 a 20:30

8 hrs.

Martes 7 y 14 de diciembre de 2010

III.          Métodos de investigación

16:30 a 20:30 Roberto Martínez

8 hrs.

Martes 11 de enero de 2011

Conferencia 17:00 a 19:00 Turismo, patrimonio, valores y responsabilidad social ante nosotros y nuestra herencia, por Luis Alberto Vargas

2 hrs.

Martes 18 y 25 de enero, 1 y 8 de febrero de 2011

IV.          Historia de México I

16 hrs.

18 de enero México prehispánico (mundo nahua)

16:30-20:30 Federico Navarrete

25 de enero. México prehispánico (mundo maya).

16:30-20:30 Carmen Valverde

1 de febrero. Virreinato I

16:30-20:30 José Rubén Romero

8 de febrero. Virreinato II.

16:30-20:30 Felipe Castro

Martes 15 de febrero de 2011

Conferencia

17:00 a 19:00 Eduardo Matos Moctezuma

2 hrs.

Martes 22 de febrero, 1, 8, 15 de marzo de 2011

V.          Historia del arte I

16 hrs.

Martes 22 de febrero. México prehispánico (mundo nahua)

16:30-20:30 María Teresa Uriarte

Martes 1 de marzo. México prehispánico (mundo maya)

16:30-20:30 Érik Velasquez

Martes 8 de marzo. Virreinato (Arquitectura)

16:30-20:30 Alejandra González Leyva

Martes 15 de marzo de 2011. Virreinato (pintura)

16:30-20:30 Abraham Villavicencio

Martes 22, 29 de marzo, 5, 12 de abril de 2011.

VI.          Identidad Nacional16:30-20:30 Sol Rubín de la Borbolla

16 hrs.

Martes 26 de abril, 3, 17, 24 de mayo de 2011

VII.          Presupuestos

16:30-20:30 Héctor Chávez

16 hrs.

Martes 31 de mayo, 7 de junio de 2011

VIII.          Primeros auxilios

16:30-20:30 Felipe Hernández

8 hrs.

Martes 14, 21 de junio de 2011

IX.          Mercadotecnia

16:30-20:30 José Carlos Gutiérrez

8 hrs.

Martes 28 de junio, 26 de julio, 2, 9 de agosto

X.          Comunicación. Presentaciones efectivas

16:30-20:30 Evelyn Arroyo

8 hrs.

Martes 16, 23, 30 de agosto, 6 de septiembre de 2011

XI.          Identidad Nacional II16:30-20:30 Sol Rubín de la Borbolla

16 hrs.

Martes 13 de septiembre de 2011

Conferencia

17:00 a 19:00 Gisela von Wobeser

2 hrs.

Martes 20, 27 de septiembre, 4, 11 de octubre de 2011

XII.          Historia de México II

16 hrs.

20 de septiembre de 2011. Siglo XIX

16:30-20:30 Erika Pani

27 de septiembre de 2011. Porfiriato

16:30-20:30 Elisa Speckman

4 de octubre de 2011. Primera mitad del siglo XX

16:30-20:30 Álvaro Matute

11 de octubre de 2011. Segunda mitad del siglo XX

16:30-20:30 Por confirmar

Martes 18 y 25 de octubre, 8,15 de noviembre de 2011

XIII.          Historia del Arte II

16 hrs.

Martes 18 de octubre de 2011. Siglo XIX

16:30-20:30 Angélica Velázquez

Martes 25 de octubre de 2011. Porfiriato

16:30-20:30 Hugo Arciniega

Martes 8 de noviembre de 2011. Primera mitad del siglo XX

16:30-20:30 Olga Sáenz

Martes 15 de noviembre de 2011. Segunda mitad del siglo XX.

16:30-20:30 Ileana Diéguez

Martes 22, 29 de noviembre, 5, 12 de diciembre de 2011

XIV.          Patrimonio turístico de México (Santuarios, deportes, turismo rural, ecoturismo, campismo, rutas).

16:30-20:30 Ponentes por confirmar

16 hrs.

Requisitos de ingreso:

Tener estudios de licenciatura o equivalente, entrevistarse con el coordinador del diplomado, presentar una solicitud escrita y un Curriculum Vitae. Es necesario hacer una cita con la Mtra. Mariana G. Pichardini al correo electrónico pichardi@servidor.unam.mx o al teléfono 56 58 29 49, 56 58 11 21 ext. 102, 110 y 106 y 044 55 91 94 93 76.

Para obtener el diploma se requiere:

Cumplir con el 80% de las asistencias.

Elaborar un ensayo de dos cuartillas o lo que corresponda para acreditar cada materia.

El examen final consistirá en diseñar y llevar a cabo la presentación de un recorrido, en un trabajo de equipo.

]]> http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/09/diploma-in-mexican-tourism-including-gastronomy.html/feed 0 The Mexican Potato Mystery http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/09/the-mexican-potato-mystery.html http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/09/the-mexican-potato-mystery.html#comments Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:06:49 +0000 Rachel Laudan http://www.rachellaudan.com/?p=2939 Thanks Julie, Kay, Steve, Kathleen, Sharon and Rachel.  I am not alone, it’s clear.

1.  Agree with Julie. McCain to the rescue for French fries.

2. Agree with Kay and Sharon.  The tiny potatoes are usually good.  The finishing with Mexican seasonings I think for most of us comes from Diana Kennedy, at least it does for me.  Problem is that unless you have the patience of Job they are no good for mashed, baked, pommes ana, pancakes, etc etc.

3.  Agree with Kathleen that the good ones make nice potato salad and OK pancakes.

4.  And Sharon’s right, I shouldn’t even be contemplating baking this kind of potato.  If you get a good one, though, they are OK as stuffed baked potatoes.

Sounds like – at least in part – the type of potato. A mealy potato – think a Russet Burbank – will (should!) bake well, and emerge dry and fluffy. A waxy potato – the Red Bliss being a classic of the type – will bake or boil ok, but wit…h more than a little handling or stirring will become gummy. It has to do with the structure of the starch in the different types of potato (similar thing is true with rice types).

5. Sharon again, confirming my suspicions about storage.

The other problem is storage: cold storage converts the longer chain starches to sugars, so the resulting cooked potato has a gummy texture and a sweetish (at least to me) flavor. You can leave them in a dry, darkish, well-ventilated room temperature area for a few days and then have a go. If cold storage is the problem, this should rectify it: the sugars will revert back to their starchier relatives. Plants in the Solanaceae family are also very sensitive to an array of mosaic and other viruses which can also cause development – and consequent texture and flavor – problems.

Problem is, even though I keep my potatoes in a covered basket (Oaxacan, so pretty, such lucky potatoes) in the pantry, they don’t seem to revert.

6. Agree with Kathleen and Sharon that it may be a soil or climate problem.

7. I remain puzzled about the economics of this.  Consumer power is not great in Mexico so the potatoes aren’t returned (can you even imagine trying that?) But you would think at least the big buyers or the big producers would give some thought to the problem.  But then again, the stores are filled at the moment with inedible, mushy California peaches, so perhaps not, at least not as long as there are suckers like me who will try and try again.

]]> http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/09/the-mexican-potato-mystery.html/feed 5 Mexican Potatoes. Why Are They So Lousy? http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/09/mexican-potatoes-why-are-they-so-lousy.html http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/09/mexican-potatoes-why-are-they-so-lousy.html#comments Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:57:51 +0000 Rachel Laudan http://www.rachellaudan.com/?p=2932

Frustration, frustration, frustration is my experience with Mexican potatoes.  Too bad in a country where you can usually count on excellent fruits and vegetables.

OK, I know that potatoes don’t have a long history in Mexico, becoming important only as a result of the Rockefeller program in the 1950s.  OK, I know that Mexican potatoes are white potatoes and thus I can’t expect them to bake well.

But why, oh why, do Mexican potatoes go just as gummy (chicloso) if you boil them or fry them?  I suspect it’s because they have been stored at too high or too low a temperature.

Some are OK.  You can often, but not always detect the decent potatoes because their skin feels silky whereas the bad ones, often not always, tend to feel rough.  As soon as you start peeling the difference is obvious.  The knife does not slide easily through the bad potatoes, the cut surface is slightly rough and slightly watery, sometimes there is brown mottling, and when you sniff it has a strong distinctive smell instead of the light, clean smell of the good ones.  If you cook them, they end up transparent yellowish or black, quite inedible.

And no, this is neither gringa taste nor gringa pickiness.  One friend complained that it didn’t matter whether you bought Mexican potatoes from a tianguis, a supermarket, or a permanent market.  Always the same.  Another said she had given up buying potatoes because throwing half away made it really expensive.  It was the same in Guanajuato as it is in Mexico City. I don’t remember this problem when we came to Mexico over a decade ago.  What has gone wrong?

Any potato experts out there?

]]> http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/09/mexican-potatoes-why-are-they-so-lousy.html/feed 13 It’s a . . ? It’s a Brown Tomato http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/05/its-a.html http://www.rachellaudan.com/2010/05/its-a.html#comments Tue, 18 May 2010 22:32:06 +0000 Rachel Laudan http://www.rachellaudan.com/?p=2482

It’s a brown tomato.  It came in a plastic box with half a dozen confreres at my local Wal-Mart in Mexico City.  Inside it’s still brownish.  Tastes fine.  Disconcerting, a bit.  It was new to me.

But here’s the back story on the demand for these tomatoes from the Wall Street Journal. (Thanks to Sonia Banuelos on FB for the link).

And what’s it doing in Mexico City?  Well on the plastic box, where it’s described as the kumato, the “simply unique BROWN tomato” we learn that its a product of Mexico, thanks to Sunset Produce, Kingsville, Ontario.

Go to their website and you see mini kumatos on the front page.  And you learn that this four-generation family business has 1400 acres of vegetables (many organic) under glass.  Do you know how much that is?  It’s about 2.3 miles by one mile, perhaps more.

Not all in one place, of course.  Besides Canada, they are in the US, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatamala, Nicaragua, and Panama, and, of course, Mexico.  And in Mexico their distribution center is in Irapuato, in my former home state, Guanajuato.  Big, big farming there. Big foreign investment.

A story in the Mexican newspaper Reforma on Thursday 13th May reports that Mexico is now the world leader in the export of fruits and vegetables (I need to check this).  But it is top in top in avocado, second in papaya, lime, chile, and peppers, third in mangoes, oranges and guavas, fourth in grapefruit and asparagus.  Fruit production has risen 17% in the last ten years, vegetables nearly 10%.

Mexican consumption has declined slightly from 180 kilos a year to 176 kilos.

So that’s the story of the brown tomato.  Want heirloom tomatoes.  Someone will provide them for you.

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