Mexican cuisine consists of the cooking cuisines and traditions of the modern country of Mexico. Its earliest roots lie in Mesoamerican cuisine. Its ingredients and methods begin with the first agricultural communities such as the Olmec and Maya who domesticated maize, created the standard process of nixtamalization, and established their foodways. Successive waves of other Mesoamerican groups brought with them their cooking methods. These included: the Teotihuacanos, Toltec, Huastec, Zapotec, Mixtec, Otomi, Purépecha, Totonac, Mazatec, Mazahua, and Nahua. With the Mexica formation of the multi-ethnic Triple Alliance, culinary foodways became infused.
Mole sauce, which has dozens of varieties across the Republic, is seen as a symbol of Mexicanidad and is considered Mexico's national dish.
Still-life with Fruit, Scorpion and Frog (1874) by Hermenegildo Bustos.
Still-life, oil on canvas painting by José Agustín Arrieta (Mexican), c. 1870, San Diego Museum of Art
Ancient mesoamerican engraving of maize, National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico.
Nixtamalization is a process for the preparation of maize, or other grain, in which the grain is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater, washed, and then hulled. The term can also refer to the removal via an alkali process of the pericarp from other grains such as sorghum.
An 1836 lithograph of tortilla production in rural Mexico
Bowl of hominy (nixtamalized corn kernels)
Dry maize, boiled in lime (right) and untreated (left). In this case, typical of El Salvador, a pound of maize (454 g) is boiled with a tablespoon of lime (15 mL) for 15 minutes, left to stand for a few hours, and washed with fresh water. The hulls are removed, and the kernels ground into masa. Exact methods vary by use and region.