[MUSIC PLAYING] Throughout the 14th
and 15th centuries, the area that is now Mexico was
home to a thriving civilization known as the Aztecs. Prior to being overthrown
by the Spanish crown through conquistador,
Hernan Cortez, in 1521, this complex
Mesoamerican culture developed a unique cuisine
that still remains popular. So today, we're going to take
a look at what Aztecs were eating before European contact. But before we get started, be
sure to subscribe to the Weird History channel and let us
know in the comments below what other Mesoamerican topics
you would like to hear about. OK, welcome to Aztec. Would you like to see a menu? If you like chocolate
you owe a big thank you to the Aztecs, who made several
significant contributions to its development. For the Aztecs, what they
referred to as xocoatl, was considered to be a food
of the gods, which to be fair, is what most people
still consider it today. Now just so we're clear,
xocoatl as the Aztecs do it, is very different from the
chocolate of modern times. For one thing, it wasn't sweet. It also wasn't formed into bars. In fact, it wasn't really
formed into anything. The Aztecs actually made a
drink out of the cacao seed rather than transforming
it into the solid treat it's used to make now. The effects of that drink were
detailed in the Florentine Codex, a 16th
century work written by Bernardino de Sahagun,
a Spanish monk living in Mesoamerica. According to him,
drinking too much cacao would make a person drunk,
dizzy, confused, sick, in his words, deranged. In other words, a
typical Friday night out. Yeah! While there has been
a lot of speculation on the topic over
the years, historians aren't exactly sure what exactly
made the drink intoxicating. What is known, however,
is that the cacao tree had religious significance
to the Aztecs, and the drink was used
in various rituals. [MUSIC PLAYING] The Aztec diet
incorporated many foods, but it revolved principally
around the consumption of maize, or what is
today known as corn. One well-known
example of how maize was incorporated
into the Aztec diet is in the now world
famous tortilla. The tortillas they made
back then whereas diverse in size, shape and
function as they are now. And everyone in the
Aztec empire, regardless of social class, consumed them. The flour used by
Aztecs to make tortillas came from corn that went
through a process called nixtamalization. The kernels were
boiled in water, and ashes from Juniper wood. They were then soaked overnight
until the hard outer part of each kernel had detached. The remaining corn was
then ground into flour. The Florentine Codex goes
in a fair amount of detail about the many tortilla options
available to food shoppers in Tenochtitlan. According to the
Codex, the food seller sells folded tortillas, thick
tortillas and coarse tortillas. He sells tortillas with
turkey eggs, tortillas made with honey, pressed
ones, [INAUDIBLE] shaped tortillas, plain tortillas,
assorted ones, braised ones, sweet tortillas, amaranth seed
tortillas, squash tortillas, green maize tortillas, brick
shaped tortillas, tuna cactus tortillas, broken crumbled
old tortillas, cold tortillas, toasted ones, dried tortillas,
and stinking tortillas. It's an appetizing
sounding menu, except for maybe the
stinking tortillas. Depends on what they stick of. Makes a difference. The amaranth plant possessed
religious significance for the Aztecs, and
its seeds and leaves were used in various
types of cuisine. Amaranth seeds could
be cooked, combined with sweeteners like
agave to make dough, or added to other dishes. For lords and upper
classes, it was cooked in tamallis, especially
around festival days. During these celebrations, it
was even possible for commoners to get their hands
on these specialties. The Florentine Codex actually
describes the preparation of some varieties, such as
tamallis made of maize flours with ground amaranth
seeds and cherries added. And tamallis stuffed
with amaranth greens. Is anyone else
getting the feeling that Bernardino Sahagun had
a hankering for Mexican food? Even in an empire where
food was plentiful, the wealthy still had
access to a little more than everyone else. The upper classes
in the Aztec empire enjoyed flavorful sauces,
stews and casseroles. The Florentine Codex describes
one particular casserole devoured by lords as
a kind of casserole of fowl made in their
fashion with red chili and with tomatoes and ground
squash seeds, a dish which is now called pepian. Also known as
"pepian," this dish is today a quintessential
Guatemalan stew. While it has evolved
through the centuries, the dish actually still carries
many of its original traits. In its modern form, it's
typically served with one meat. Although there are
also exist recipes for a full three-meat version. It always contains
vegetables and fruits, such as pear, squash, carrot,
potato and corn on the cob. And the conventional
wisdom is that it should be thick and rich with
a wealth of roasted spices blended together. Evidence shows
that avocado trees were cultivated in the
Americas as early as 750 BCE. And ahuaca-mulli
or avocado sauce, is essentially just a very
early version of guacamole. In fact, it was the Spanish
who turned the word ahuacatl into the word aguacate,
which eventually evolved into avocado. Meanwhile, the term ahuaca-mulli
was slowly transformed into the word guacamole. Anyway, the pre-Colombian
Aztecs would have eaten these mashed
avocados with tomatoes and some coriander leaves. The Spanish picked
up this recipe, brought it back to Europe,
and added a few twists of their own,
which is how we get the modern version of the dish. That being said, it's still
not that different from what the Aztecs enjoyed. One historian even
nostalgically suggested that when wrapped in a
freshly made maize tortilla or even enjoyed on
a tortilla chip, ahuaca-mulli might
ever so distantly evoke the taste of Tenochtitlan. The land around Tenochtitlan
was swampy and muddy. And the Aztecs took full
agricultural advantage of the situation. They constructed
artificial farming islands called chinampas, made
by building up mud from the bottoms of
lakes and swamps. Canals were then put in
place around these chinampas to make them accessible, and to
keep water flowing around them. But the Aztecs also used
the surrounding lakes to add to their
living food sources. They feasted on frogs,
water bugs and lakes shrimp. But they also didn't
hesitate to munch on eggs and larvae from both
bugs and amphibians. In fact, one of their
delicacies was the axolotl, a larval salamander. According to the
Florentine Codex, these lake-dwelling
creatures could be prepared in a variety of ways. Frog tamallis, frog
with grains of maize, axolotl with grains of
maize, axolotl tamallis, tadpoles with grains of maize,
and that's just to name a few. It was actually the
pre-Aztec peoples who lived in the area that
is now Mexico between 800 BCE and 200 BCE that were the
first to domesticate turkeys. These early adopters would
eat the birds' meat and eggs for protein, and even
use their feathers for decorative purposes. Their Mesoamerican descendants
continue the tradition. And the turkeys that
we still eat today owe their existence
directly to those practices. These domesticated
turkeys were sources of food alongside
their wild brethren, which tended to be smaller
and considerably less meaty. Some of these alternate
meats the Aztecs also fed on came from deer, peccary,
rabbits, jack rabbits, mice, armadillos, snakes, gophers,
opossums, and iguanas. These animals, once captured,
were fattened up in captivity until they were eaten. Tecuitlatl, which
means stone dung in the Aztec language, Nahuatl,
is a little more appetizing than its name might imply. It's actually an edible
algae or seaweed, which the Aztecs would
collect with tools, like nets and spades. Once gathered, it would
be dried in the sun. After it was dry,
the Tecuitlatls would be formed into cakes,
dried again, and then used to make tortillas. According to Diaz del Castillo,
one of the first Spaniards to visit Tenochtitlan, there
were fishmongers and others who sold little loaves,
which they made out of a sort of slime,
which they gathered from the great lake, which they
thicken and they make loaves of it, which tastes like cheese. A later writer also
compared their flavor to cheese, except they
found it less pleasing, and with a certain taste of mud. Known as the corn mushroom,
corn smut or Mexican truffles, Huitlachoche is a corn
fungus, which today, is seen as a gourmet food. In Nahuatl, the
word, Huitlachoche translates to
sleeping excrescence. This is because
the fungus affects the growth of corn
kernels, in essence, causing them to fall asleep. This sounds like a bad thing,
but the Aztecs ultimately saw the effect as a
blessing in disguise. Because they still
got sustenance out of the fungus that was
ruining their beloved maize. That's a half glass full
way of looking at fungus. When it comes to preparing
Huitlachoche in the kitchen, many authorities agree
that the young white fungus tastes good raw, while the aged
black fungus is better cooked. Like many of the peoples,
the Aztecs like to drink. In fact, for this ancient
Mesoamerican culture, drinking was a lot more
than just recreational. It was ceremonial
and ritualistic. Octli, also known as pulque,
was a fermented drink derived from the sweet
sap of the agave plant. The Aztecs referred to
this plant as maguey, and it's affiliated with a
pulque goddess, Mayahuel. The drink was consumed
for various rituals, often from intricate vessels. It would be consumed by
priests and sacrificial victims before ceremonies, and
was used by the nobility to celebrate victories. The Aztecs also had various
rules and guidelines in place for its consumption
and creation. For example, when it came
to the commoners, only the elderly and pregnant
women were allowed to partake. And for those who
brewed the drink, they would have to
abstain from sex, as intercourse was believed
to ruin the process. However, despite its
obvious cultural importance to the Aztecs, the
drink is actually believed to predate
their culture. Aztec society was
extremely stratified, and while the upper tiers and
royalty enjoyed rich and meaty foods, the lowest
ranks were forced to adhere to mostly
vegetarian diets. One example of this
is pinoli, which is the Nahuatl word for cornmeal. Pinoli was something
of a testament to the itinerant nature of life
for poor or contracted Aztecs. This simple meal of ground
and toasted maize kept well, and travelers or warriors
could carry it for access to a quick and filling dish. While lacking in
flavor, pinoli could be mixed with water and other
ingredients, such as cacao, to make it more enjoyable. These sorts of instant meals,
referred to as [INAUDIBLE],, were popular among the
lower class Aztecs. Think of them as the ancient
Mesoamerican equivalent of TV dinners. So what do you think? Which of these Aztec food sounds
the most delicious to you? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
