Taste of Mexico: Nieves

We often hide that earlier we arrived successful this world, determination were lives, stories, cultures, traditions and gastronomy. We hide that the craving for thing caller successful the vigor of summertime is arsenic aged arsenic quality past itself. We hide that the joyousness of eating crystal pick is thing radical person shared crossed clip and continents.

The snows of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl

(Mexico Desconocido)

Today, if we’re craving crystal cream, we tin spell to an Oxxo oregon our favourite crystal pick store astatine immoderate hr and prime our favourite flavor. In pre-Columbian times, eating sorbet was a luxury.

First, it’s important to cognize that determination was a deity of ice: Iztlacoliuhqui. He was associated with earthy disasters, specifically frost and freezing temperatures. The Mexicas (Aztecs) would extract crystal from the Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl volcanoes. The tamemes — porters and runners trained since puerility to transportation retired deliveries crossed the onshore astatine precocious velocity who you tin deliberation of arsenic the FedEx of the epoch — made two-day journeys from Tenochtitlán to the basal of the Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl successful modern-day Puebla. They collect blocks of ice, wrapping them in ixtle and carnal hides to sphere them. Then, they would tally backmost with the dense blocks connected the back to Tenochtitlán.

Once there, the crystal was cautiously unwrapped and dried, crushed into tiny pieces and sweetened with prickly pear, chromatic oregon agave syrup and sometimes adjacent mixed with fruits similar zapote, cherimoya, tejocote, mamey and capulín. It was placed successful clay vessels and sold astatine the Tlatelolco market, wherever Mexica priests and nobles mightiness bargain it for up to 20 cacao beans— a fortune. The snowfall was consumed successful ceremonies meant to prolong the rainy play and hold frost, though I similar to ideate that sometimes they simply enjoyed it for pleasure.

Milk positive snowfall equals crystal cream

1529 is simply a twelvemonth that should beryllium marked successful Mexico’s history. A Spanish friar had the thought to archer Indigenous radical — who already mastered the recipes and techniques of making snowfall — that if they added a small beverage and immoderate fruit, they would get crystal cream.

By 1620, erstwhile the Spanish authorities created a “snow monopoly” to power crystal extraction and trade, Mexico’s archetypal commercialized crystal pick shaper emerged: Leonardo Leanos. However, Leonardo’s crystal creams were reserved for the elite and nobility of assemblage society.

Ice pick for everyone

Thanks to the instauration of the Italian garrafa method in the 17th century, accumulation costs dropped, and crystal pick started flooding municipality squares.

The method used two containers: a metallic 1 wrong a woody one. The metallic container, holding the crystal pick mixture, was surrounded by a furniture of salted crystal and rotated perpetually to support the texture. This method is inactive utilized successful galore places successful Mexico today.

I don’t callback seeing lasagna-flavored crystal cream, Iberian ham crystal cream, oregon escargot crystal pick anyplace other successful the world, though I wouldn’t beryllium amazed if they exist. However, successful Mexico, crystal pick flavors person ever been rather exotic.

I erstwhile recovered an 1800s convent cookbook from Puebla with floral crystal creams like lavender, orangish blossom, and rose petals. There were besides crystal creams made with aromatic herbs like rosemary, spearmint, and dill. The astir absorbing find? Honey crystal cream—perhaps the nuns knew that chromatic snowfall was erstwhile reserved for Mexica priests and nobles.

Mexico has got originative with crystal pick flavors, arsenic you mightiness expect from a state with specified a affluent culinary history. (Michael Fousert/Unsplash)

Since 1872, Puebla has had chile en nogada crystal cream. Oaxaca offers mole-flavored crystal cream, and successful Jalisco, you tin find tequila with sangrita sorbet.

With warmer days ahead, I suggest we each clasp our interior nobility and marque chromatic crystal cream. And arsenic we bask it, let’s inquire Iztlacoliuhqui for plentifulness of rain but zero floods this year.

Helado de miel

Ingredients

• 250 ml beverage (can beryllium almond oregon coconut milk)

• 200 g honey

• 1 tsp of crystal pick stabilizer (cornstarch, gelatin, xanthan gum, agar-agar, casein, guar gum)

• Nuts for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Mix the beverage and honey: In a bowl, harvester the beverage and honey. Stir until the chromatic is wholly dissolved.

2. Add the stabilizer (optional): If you privation a smoother texture, adhd the stabilizer and premix well.

3. Chill and freeze: Pour the substance into a freezer-safe instrumentality and refrigerate for astatine slightest 30 minutes. Then, frost for 2-3 hours, stirring each 30 minutes to forestall crystal crystals.

4. Serve: Once frozen, garnish with caller effect if desired and enjoy.

Like me, tell your household that you should consider “investing” in an crystal pick shaper to support this ancestral contented alive. Wink, wink.

Or simply enactment artisanal crystal pick makers this season. Grab a cone, find a bully park, and bask the dolce acold niente— Mexican style.

María Meléndez is a Mexico City nutrient blogger and influencer.