Serving couscous in Mexico in the 1800s
So how were the wheat couscous and the maize couscous (remember this is not sweet corn nor even cornmeal but essentially a crumbled tamal of maiz that has been treated with alkali and ground wet) described in at least one Mexican manuscript cookbook of the early nineteenth century served?
Here’s what the anonymous author says about the wheat couscous.
Grind sugar and cinnamon together, put layers of couscous, sugar and cinnamon, another layer and another dusted [with sugar and cinnamon?] that remains at the middle [of the pot] because it grows [rises] a lot; take the broth in which a hen and meat was cooked with lean ham, with fresh parsley, yerbabuena [mint] and cilantro; take the fat of this broth, moisten the alcuscuz repeated times as it becomes spongy, this you do putting the pot over another of boiling water, and when it is cooked and high [in the pot] add a fried lamb’s tail or a cooked bird, or hard boiled egg yolks cut up.
And about the maize couscous. I take it these are alternatives.
Put a pot with cinnamon and sugar between two fires [that is on the fire with embers on the lid] until it makes a crust; make it with milk like rice, also, or spread a pot with lard and all the spices and beef marrow, brown it, or cook with tomato and spices, like cooked rice with lots of saffron or how they would like it cooked.
These alternatives seem very traditional with the use of sugar and spices with meat. Typical of dozens of recipes in eighteenth century manuscript cookbooks from Mexico or New Spain as it was called. Interesting too the comparisons between the maize couscous and rice, either rice pudding, the rice with milk, or pilau-paella style rice with spices, saffron and tomatoes.
Comments welcome and encouraged.
That sounds intriguing and delicious. I love this step: “add a fried lamb’s tail or a cooked bird.” Trying to picture a fried lamb’s tail …
The Maize version reads like a variation on the Brazilian cuscuz, of which there are a number of types. They tend to be more of a cake then individual granules. I think this latter couscous is likely to come from West Africa rather then via Portugal and a Moorish tradition.
Was there a sizable West African population in New Spain, or much cross cultural influence with Brazil?
Not sure about that, Adam, because after steaming the cake is ground to reduce it to granules. Yes, the West African population was probably larger than the European. No, there were few, in any, contacts with Brazil.
The description of the maize couscous, doesn’t sound like the final product is served as seperate grains.
The reason why I ask about the West African population is that steaming grain (of many types) is a well established technique. If you look at the Portuguese colonies, those that have a tradition on making couscous (of one form or another) are those that have a strong West African connection. In other Portuguese colonies like Goa, while there is a strong Portuguese influence on the food, no couscous.
I think that there has been an assumption that in the former Portuguese colonies where couscous is made that this was introduced via the Portuguese and reflects a Moorish Iberian tradition. I don’t see any evidence for this and think that it is more likely that the Portuguese “cuscuz” was used to describe a bunch of vaguely familiar foods that they encountered within there colonies or trading areas. The French have done exactly this, where “couscous” is term applied to a whole range of food types in French speaking Africa. See “Couscous de Cameroun” v Fufu for instance.
In New Spain I wonder if there is any evidence of this source of transmission? The Wheat couscous looks very North African, but the Maize versions is very different. High/Middle end cookbook authors in 18/19th century Europe tended to take recipes from many possible sources, not just reflect local custom. The Wheat couscous could really come from many sources at this period, but I don’t think that this is the case with the Maize version. So the latter at least is much more likely to reflect a local tradition.
Who’s tradition though and what is the origin? A Mexican dish renamed as “alcuscus” by a cookbook author, West African or through some extreme of fate, Moorish Iberian couscous miraculously surviving in New Spain? I combination of these?
The Brazilian cuscuz I know as a Brazilian usually ends up as individual granules – that is the most popular style in the country. Other kinds of cuscuz exist, such as the cuscuz paulista, which is not exactly a kind of cuscuz, but a salty pudding, as I mentioned in the other blog entry, but most Brazilians identify cuscuz as the steamed cornmeal variety that ends up as granules (shaped as the steamer it is cooked in, but still with clearly visible grains).
As I also mentioned there, food historians in Brazil tend to identify the influence as a clear Iberian influence, coming to Brazil from the Maghreb, but clearly through Portugal. The same is true of the cuscuz and the xerém/xarém/canjiquinha, both names which seemed to have come to Brazil from southern Portugal.
Sorry about the long delay. By next week I hope to be back to replying to you interesting comments on couscous.
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