Chapter 8

Author: Louis Grivetti

Title: From Bean to Beverage. Historical Chocolate Recipes.

The tree Theobroma cacao initially was domesticated in the western headwaters of the Amazon basin, perhaps 6,000 years ago. Native Peoples of western Amazonia, however, did not develop or produce chocolate and consumed only the sweet, viscous, pulp that surrounds the beans inside the cacao pod. It is widely agreed that chocolate, in the strict sense, first was produced by Central American peoples in the geographical region of Oaxaca and Chiapas “in southern Mexico, or in northern and eastern Guatemala and Belize. The contention is advanced here that given the bitterness of cacao beans, the origins of chocolate in the Americas initially was associated with healing and medicine. This essay presents recipes and ingredient lists for the preparation of chocolate beverages by four categories: 1) Pre-Columbian era, 2) Early New Spain, 3) 18th-19th century New Spain/Mexico and Europe, and 4) 18th century North America. Also included are examples of contemporary chocolate recipes from southern Mexico (state of Oaxaca) and from northern Guatemala collected by team members while conducting field work during 1998-2000. Recipes that survived the Pre-Columbian era are medicinal and used to treat stomach and intestinal complaints to cure infections, reduce fever, to prevent fainting, to reduce severe cough and fever, and to treat bloody dysentery. An early recipe from New Spain includes an account from 1524 where a chocolate beverage was described as the beans being ground, mixed with corn/maize and other seeds, and considered to be a healthful drink. Another report from 1556 describes how the cacao was frothed by pouring chocolate from one vessel to another, and with the claim that a cup of chocolate could sustain a consumer throughout the day without taking any other food, hence its use as a travel ration. By 1591 a range of ingredients were identified, among them anise, cinnamon, pepper, and sesame, along with local Aztec coloring agents, spices and flavoring agents, among them achiote, chilies, cilantro, gueyncaztle, mecasuchil, and tlixochil. Travel accounts and descriptions of the New World commonly included mention of cacao, chocolate, and its preparation. More than 50 ingredients to chocolate were identified in the manuscripts and reports examined. The earliest chocolate-related recipe from North America — how to make chocolate almonds — dates to 1700, and may be found in an anonymous Common Place book. By 1755 publications in North America offered recipes for Cocoa-nut tarts (distinct from and different from coconut-related recipes), and various chocolate puffs and chocolate meringues. Research on the topic of chocolate preparation and recipes requires that ingredients be differentiated into two categories: before and after 1519 and Spanish contact with the mainland of Central America. How Pre-Columbian chocolate tasted, however, remains a mystery.

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