Food will be cooked midwest mild, except for salsa rojo. Peppers/chilis are omitted from all main dishes with the exception of the turkey stew and a non-pepper alternative will be available.
Source inspiration is from the Florentine codex Digital Florentine Codex
For questions about the feast, please contact Fesst Steward: Baroness Mihri - cmelanson70@gmail.com
First course
Salad of nopales, jicama and tomato - , nopales, jicama, tomato, vinegar and salt. Tamales of beans, corn, Duck. - masa para tamales, vegetables stock, salt,; beans - black beans, vegetable stock, cumin, garlic; corn - sweet corn; duck - duck legs, stock, cumin, garlic, Salsa verde - tomatillos, chile poblano, cilantro, onion
Salsa rojo (picante!) - a variety of dried red chilis, tomato, and fresh red chilis.
Second course
Roast turkey or turkey stew - tomato, radish greens, cilantro, squash seeds, green poblano, onion
Tortillas - purchased from El Milagro
Guacamole - avocado, tomato, salt,
Roasted squash - squash, salt
Stewed beans - pinto beans, culanto, salt,
Third course
Fresh fruits - TBD but may include: mango, pineapple, guava, papaya, and other tropical fruit as available.
Amaranth and pumpkin and agave syrup candies - popped amaranth, roasted pumpkin seeds, agave syrup
Chocolate drink - cacao, water, honey, cinnamon
-
Drinks
Hibiscus drink sweetened with agave - hibiscus flowers, agave syrup
Chia drink sweetened with agave with Pineapple - chia, water, pineapple juice, agave syrup
Major allergens
Dairy - none
Gluten - none
Soy - none
Nuts - none
Onions - yes in turkey stew and salsa verde
Nightshades - tomatoes, tomatillos and chilis.
Chili/peppers - in salsas but only in turkey stew otherwise. We will be making additionally a chicken thigh non pepper stew
Vegetarian/vegan - easily accommodated. Everything BUT the duck tamales and turkey stew is vegan.
Digital Florentine Codex | Codex
1) The salad
Book 11, folio 125V - 126r
Eighth paragraph: On the varieties of prickly pears
There are some trees in this land that are called nohpalli, which means “prickly pear tree” or “tree that produces prickly pears.” This tree is massive. The trunk is composed of the leaves,
and the branches grow from the leaves themselves. The leaves are wide and thick. They have a lot of juice, and they are viscous. The leaves themselves have thorns. The fruit that grows on these trees is called “prickly pear.” They are good to eat. The fruit is valued, and the best of them are like camueso apples. They eat the leaves of this tree raw or cooked.
They call some of these trees coznochnohpalli, because the prickly pears that grow on them are yellow inside.
Other trees of this kind are called tlatocnochnohpalli. The prickly pears that grow on them
Book 11 folio 128 r
There are other roots that are eaten raw, and they call them jícama. They are white and sweet, and they completely quench one’s thirst.
Book 10 49r
The tomato seller sells large tomatoes, small tomatoes, leaf tomatoes, thin tomatoes, sweet tomatoes, large serpent tomatoes, nipple shaped tomatoes, serpent tomatoes. ALso he sells coyote tomatoes, sand tomatoes, those which are yellow, very yellow, quite yellow, red, very red, ruddy, quite ruddy, bright red, reddish, rosy dawn colored.
2) Tamales book 10 folio 50r
The woman1 whose trade is to make tortillas or who buys them wholesale in order to sell them usually sells every kind of tortillas and tamales, whether they are made with fish, frogs, or other things. Some of these tamales are cooked underground, while others are cooked in pots. All of them taste very good after being thoroughly cooked, for they are very pleasing to the palate or the appetite because, in addition to what has been mentioned, they are also filled with ground chile, tomatoes, gourd seeds, and salt, which enhance the flavor when they are thoroughly ground and mixed together. She also sells tamales made with properly washed and cooked maize, as well as long, thin tamales, red ones, and those that are filled with cooked ground beans or have the whole beans wrapped in the dough or rolled in breadcrumbs and salted. And [she sells] long, wide tamales; ones that are round, long, and pointy; very white tamales made with cooked maize that has been thoroughly washed; tamales that are painted white and red; and those that are filled with eggs. She also sells tamales made with small, tender corncobs; tamales made with the kernels of green corncobs; tamales made with the chaff; and ones that are mixed with ground summer squash.1
3) Stew
Book 8 folio - 23V
Aiztac tlaxcalli etica tlaoyoh, which means “very white tortilla with flour of uncooked beans inside.” The lords would also eat many types of stews.1 Some of them are called totolin patzcalmolloh, which means “chicken stew prepared in their own style with red
chilli, tomatoes, and ground squash seeds,” which today is called pipiana. They would eat another type of stew called chiltecpiyoh totolin, which means “chicken stew made with very hot chilli called chiltecpin.” They would eat another type of stew called chilcozyoh totolin, which means “chicken stew made with yellow chilli.” They would eat many other types of stews and roasted poultry, which are explained in the [parallel Nahuatl] text.
They would also eat many types of vegetable stews. One type of these [stews] is called chilcoztlatonilli, which means “vegetable stew made with yellow chilli.” Another type of chilmolli is called chiltecpinmolli, which means “mole made with chiltecpin and tomatoes.” Another type of chilmolli is called chilcuzmolli xitomayo, which means “molli made with yellow chilli and tomatoes,” et cetera.
Nahatul text Market food: white tortillas with a flour of uncooked beans, turkey with a sauce of small chilis, tomatoes and ground squash seeds, turkey with red chilis; turkey with green chillis; venison sprinkled with seeds; hare with sauce; rabbit with sauce, meat stewed with maize, red chili, tomatoes and ground squash seeds; birds with toasted maize,; small birds; dried duck; duck stewed in a pot; the atzitzicuilotl bird stewed in a pot; roast of meat; fried meat in a sauce of red chili, tomatoes and ground squash seeds; pottage of yellow chili; grey fish with red chili, tomatoes and ground squash seeds; frog with green chili tomatoes and ground squash seeds; frog with green chili, tomatoes and ground squash seeds; frog with green chili; newet with yellow chili, tadpoles with small chilis; small fish with small chilis; winged ants with savory herbs; locusts with chia, maguey grubs with
4) Salsas
Salsa and guacamole Book 10 folio 51v
He sells foods, sauces, hot sauces; fried food, olla cooked food, juices, sauces of juices, shredded food with chili, with gourd seeds, with tomatoes, with smoked chili, with hot chilis with yellow chilis with mild red chilis, with an early variety of chili, with green chilis, with large tomatoes. He sells roasted meat, barbecued meat, barbecue sauce, chili sauce, mild red chili sauce, yellow chili sauce, hot chili sauce, sauce of an early variety of chili, sauce of smoked chilis, heated sauces, bean sauce, toasted beans, cooked beans, mushroom sauce, sauce of small gourdes, sauce of large tomatoes, sauce of ordinary tomatoes, sauce of various kinds of sorrel, avocado sauce - hot, very hot, glistening-hot, extremely glistening hot, most hot, salted, very salty, extremely salty, very salt, bitter with salt, very bitter with salt, most bitter with salt.
5) Fruit
Book 8 folio 24v/r
The lords also used to eat many types of fruit. One of them is called tlatlauhqui tezontzapotl, which means “tzapotes that are red on the inside and brownish and rough on the outside.” Another type of fruit is called mazaxocotl chichiltic, which is a type of plum, and they are red. Coztic mazaxocotl is another type of plum, and they are yellow. Tlaztalehualtic mazaxocotl is another type of plum, and they are red or orange. They
also used to eat many types of tzapotes. One of them is called eheyotzapotl, which means “ash-colored tzapote” or “sugar-apple fruit with some seeds inside that are like black beans”; and it is very delicious. Another is called xicotzapotl, which means “small tzapotes or parvetanos.”2 Another fruit is called atztzapotl, a type of fruit that is yellow outside and like the yolk of boiled eggs inside. Another fruit is called cuauhcamohtli; they are some tree roots. Camohtli is a type of root called batatas. Ahuacatl1 is a type of fruit. Nochtli is a type of fruit called “prickly pears.” Many other fruits are not mentioned here.2
They also used to eat some seeds that they considered as fruit. One is called xilotl, which means “tender corncobs”; these are edible [when] cooked. Another is called elotl, which are also corncobs that have already ripened, [eaten when] tender and cooked. Exotl means “beans cooked inside their pods.” They would also eat certain types of tamales called miyahuatamal, made with the tufts of the maize plant and mixed with some amaranth seeds and ground plum pits. They would eat some types of tortillas that are made with tender maize cobs, called elotlaxcalli or xantlaxcalli. Another type of tortilla made with the little baby maize cobs is known as xilotlaxcalli. They would eat another type of tamale made with amaranth, which are called huauhquiltamalli, et cetera.
6) Cacao
book 8 25 r
And after they finished eating, many types of cacao would promptly be brought out, which were made very delicately, such as the following: xoxouhqui cacahuacintli, “cacao made with tender cacao cob,” which is very delicious to drink; cuauhneucyoh cacahuatl, “cacao made with bee honey”; xochyoh cacahuatl, “cacao made with hueyinacaztli”; xoxouhqui tlilxochyoh, “cacao made with tender tlilxochitl”; chichiltic cacahuatl, “cacao made red”; huitztecolcacahuatl, “cacao made vermilion-red”; xochipalcacahuatl, “cacao made orange”; tliltic cacahuatl, “cacao made black”; iztac cacahuatl, “cacao made white.” And they would serve it in some jícaras that they used for drinking [cacao], which are of many types. One of these is called tecontlahcuilolli, “jícara painted with various designs,” and its lid, called atzaccayotl, is very beautiful, as well as its turtle spoon, used to stir the cacao; other types of jícaras are called ayotectli tlacuilolli, “black jícara painted black,” along with its circular base made of tiger skin or deerskin, used as a rest or seat for this gourd, called ayahualli, ocelohuatl, or cuetlaxayahualli.
7) hibiscus
Folio11 189v
There are some flowers that also belong to the forests, and they are called teonacaztli, which means “divine or precious ears.” And this is because they are very fragrant, beautiful, and useful, for they are an aromatic spice that is commonly used in [preparing a] drink with cacao.
8) amaranth seed dough
Book 2 folio 73v
And they laid out an offering for him; that which they offered was amaranth seed dough. First they roasted the seeds, they broke them up on an earthen griddle. Then they ground them up, then they moistened them with water. Some they moistened with honey.