Table Of ContentCopyright © 2000 by Diana Kennedy
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the
Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.clarksonpotter.com
Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Clarkson
Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of
Random House, Inc., New York, in 2000.
CLARKSON POTTER is a trademark and POTTER with colophon is a registered
trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kennedy, Diana.
The essential cuisines of Mexico / by Diana Kennedy.—1st ed.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Cookery, Mexican. I. Title.
TX716.M4 K473 2000
641.5972—dc21
ISBN: 978-0-307-58772-5
eBook ISBN: 978-0-55341911-5
DESIGN BY JANE TREUHAFT
v3.1
TO MY BELOVED PAUL,
who was my reason for being in
Mexico in the first place
TO MY MOTHER,
who just expected me to cook everything she did
TO ELIZABETH DAVID,
who inspired me to write about what I was cooking
AND TO CRAIG CLAIBORNE, who launched me and so many others
In humble dishes,
the Most Holy Mary served
to her beloved son and husband
well-seasoned food.
En pobres trastos, servía
A su Hijo y Esposo amados,
Manjares bien sazonados
La Purísima María.
—WORDS WRITTEN BY THE CURATE ON THE WALL INSIDE AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COUNTRY CHURCH IN
GUANAJUATO
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
FOREWORD BY CRAIG CLAIBORNE
PREFACE
APPETIZERS
MASA FANTASIES
TORTILLAS AND TORTILLA DISHES
TAMALES
SOUPS
SOUP STEWS
BEANS, RICE, AND PASTA
EGG DISHES
LIGHT MEALS
SALADS
VEGETABLES
SAUCES AND RELISHES
MEATS
PORK
BEEF
ASSORTED MEATS
POULTRY
SEAFOOD
SWEET YEAST BREADS
DESSERTS AND COOKIES
DRINKS
GENERAL INFORMATION
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My sincere thanks to my editor at Clarkson Potter, Roy
Finamore, who recognized the value of putting my first three books together in one volume. He has
been a joy to work with. And for Lauren Shakely, who supported him so enthusiastically.
My deep appreciation and thanks to Frances McCullough, my editor and friend of now thirty
years, who has guided me through the labyrinth of publishing, calmed my idiosyncrasies (or tried
to), and given shape to my manuscripts.
It is impossible to thank adequately all those who have contributed one way or another to my
traveling and writing life in Mexico for so many years. I have tried to attribute wherever possible the
names of the persons who gave me each recipe and would like them to know how much pleasure
their recipes have given to so many people all over the world.
Copyediting is always an unenviable task, but I would like to thank Carole Berglie for her
painstaking and sympathetic approach to this hefty manuscript, and designer Jane Treuhaft for
fitting it admirably into these pages.
And to Marike Janzen, who patiently and carefully typed the final manuscript.
INTRODUCTI N
It would by no means be an exaggeration to say that this book—a
compilation of my first three books, The Cuisines of Mexico, The Tortilla Book, and Mexican Regional Cooking—
came about because of a chance meeting in 1957. After spending three years in Canada, I was
traveling home to England via the Caribbean, and I met my future husband, Paul Kennedy, a foreign
correspondent for the New York Times, during one of the many revolutions in Haiti. We fell in love and
a few months later I found myself disembarking from a Dutch freighter in the port of Veracruz,
Mexico. And so a new life and adventure began.
My first vivid impressions of Mexico City, engraved forever in my memory, were of wide, tree-
lined avenues, brilliant blue skies, and magnificent snow-capped volcanoes that seemed to be
standing guard over the lakes and city beyond. The streets were calm and orderly, especially during
the hours of the afternoon siesta, but the neighborhood marketplaces dotted throughout the city
were a hive of activity, full of exotic chiles, herbs, and fruits of vibrant colors and aromas. I was
instantly captivated. I began exploring, talking about food to anyone who would answer my endless
questions, and, of course, cooking and trying all those strange, exciting new tastes and textures.
A few years later Craig Claiborne, then Food Editor of the New York Times, and his colleague Pierre
Franey came to Mexico to research an article about restaurants there. Over drinks I offered to give
Craig a Mexican cookbook. “No,” he said, “I’ll wait until the day you write one.” That came
somewhat as a jolt—enough to leave a subconscious, nagging idea.
Several years later, after Paul’s untimely death from cancer, it was Craig again who jolted me into
giving my first classes in Mexican cooking in my New York apartment. It was the beginning of a
golden era of learning about different cuisines, with their exotic ingredients, and how to prepare
them. For that we were, and still are, indebted to Craig, for bringing a new sophistication to food
journalism, and to the infectious enthusiasm of Julia Child, convincing us on television that every
housewife could produce, without tears, a wonderful French meal.
Craig announced the impending classes in the Times. I was inundated with inquiries and soon had
the six stools in my small Upper West Side kitchen occupied for a series of four classes.
One of those callers was to become my editor, Frances McCullough. Although at the time she was
the poetry editor at Harper & Row, Fran was also an expatriate Californian desperate for some good
Mexican food; she wanted to know if I would write a Mexican cookbook for Harper.
I was very nervous. I warned Fran that I couldn’t write. She persisted, so I sent in some drafts—
later she told me she privately agreed about the writing but wisely didn’t tell me at the time. I went
off to Mexico again for my usual research trip, came back, read what I had written, tore it up, and
started again. I had a call from Fran at midnight. She had just finished reading the new material and
couldn’t wait to talk to me. “What happened over the summer—you’ve taught yourself how to
