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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 13 



Sometimes cracklings are added to the boiling 

 beans, together with goosefoot, cilantro extranjero 

 (Eryngium, No. 276), cebollina, and green, wild 

 chili. This plate is known as mantikastapu, ap- 

 parently the Totonac term for bean (stapu), 

 prefixed by the Spanish (m-anteca) for lard. 



The green pea is little eaten. Young peas are 

 boiled in the pod, then shelled and served as a vege- 

 table. Dry peas are boiled and ground on the 

 metate. When the paste cools, a dab is combined 

 with maize dough to form a thick, round cake 

 (gordita), which is cooked on the baking plate. 

 The top of the hot cake is broken with a spoon and 

 a sauce of fried onion, tomato, and wild chili is 

 poured over it. If it so happens that cheese is 

 available, it is sprinkled on the top. Sometimes 

 small cakes are made by combining maize dough 

 with green peas and flakes of dry fish. 



Fowl. — The usual techniques for killing fowl 

 have been described previously (pp. 91-92). A 

 turkey is plucked immediately, but a chicken is 

 doused first in hot water, so that the feathers may 

 be removed more easily. The plucked bird — tur- 

 key or chicken — is singed in a rapid blaze made 

 with paper or corn husks ; then, as a bleach, it is 

 rubbed thoroughly with maize dough and rinsed 

 in clear water. Some prefer to wash the bird with 

 soap and water. 



Different housewives have different ways of 

 cleaning and sectioning fowl. In any case, all 

 remove the viscera and the oil deposit at the tail. 

 These are discarded, "but it is not good that the 

 dogs drag them about." They are collected and 

 burned, or they are taken to the forest and placed 

 high in a tree. 



As a preliminary to further preparation, fowl 

 often is braised on the coals or is "smoked." In 

 the latter case, the meat is impaled on sticks which 

 are stuck in the earth or mud surface of the 

 hearth, close to the kitchen fire. Thus treated, 

 meat will last 3 or 4 days ; otherwise, it may become 

 infested with maggots. If stew is to be made, the 

 bird is smoked, even though it is to be eaten at 

 once. However, if taniales, soup, or mole are to be 

 prepared without delay, smoking is unnecessary. 

 Following the searing or smoking, the carcass is 

 cut in smaller sections; when the dish is to be 

 served to field workers, "the pieces are very small." 



In addition to tamales, there are three principal 

 ways of serving fowl — in soup, in stew, or in mole 



sauce. Strangely enough, these three dishes seem 

 not to have Totonac names. Huutape (stew) 

 sounds Totonac to us, but informants consider it a 

 Spanish term. 



Soup (caldo, literally, broth) generally is made 

 of chicken; "turkey does not have a good flavor 

 in soup." The sectioned bird is boiled in water to 

 which a bit of salt has been added. When it is 

 cooked, onion, garlic, and wild tomato are fried 

 and added to the liquid, along with a spray of mint 

 (hierbabuena) and coriander. Some add cumin 

 seed, but not all care for the flavor. If the chicken 

 is tough and "does not want to cook," a few grains 

 of nixtamal (maize steeped with lime, but not yet 

 ground) are tossed into the boiling brew. 



Stew (huatape) is similar, but maize dough 

 diluted with water is added as thickening, being 

 stirred so that it will not form balls in the boiling 

 broth. Some add a spray of mint (hierbabuena) 

 and either tomato, or ground, dry, wild chili, to 

 give color. Others boil the meat with salt and 

 add chili and a leaf of pimienta (No. 30). 



For mole, the fowl is sectioned and boiled, and 

 the sauce prepared as follows : 



Chile de color (purchased in Papantla; not grown 

 locally) is toasted on the baking plate. The seeds are 

 removed, fried in lard, and ground. The chili is placed 

 in water to soften, then is ground. 



Dried, cultivated chili (chilpoctli) is boiled and the 

 veins removed ; it is rinsed three times in water, then is 

 ground, later to be fried in lard. 



Meanwhile, stick cinnamon, cloves, and peppercorns (all 

 purchased in Papantla) are ground, sometimes together 

 with a cake of chocolate. A ripe plantain (plAtano de 

 Castilla) and white bread (usually bought in Papantla) 

 are sliced and fried. 



The chile chilpoctli next is fried, and to it are added the 

 ground ingredients, including the flesh and seed of the 

 other chili. If chocolate has not been crushed with the 

 dry spices, a cake is broken in small pieces, which are dis- 

 solved in a bit of hot broth, and the liquid added to the 

 main mixture. The result is mole sauce. 



Some of the broth is removed from the vessel in which 

 the fowl is boiling and the sauce added to it. If the re- 

 sulting liquid is too thin, it is allowed to simmer until it 

 thickens. 



A number of wild birds are eaten — the pheasant, 

 dove, quail, and several others, including a small 

 parrot (perico) (No. 27, table 21, Appendix D). 

 One family has in its kitchen three cages of wild 

 doves which are being kept for the table. Al- 

 though the birds are sufficiently tame to run about 



