October 27, 2022 • 27 mins
Eva and Maite celebrate Halloween by talking about the evolution of Mexican candies. From ceremonial pre-Hispanic treats to Baroque confections developed in colonial convent kitchens, to modern spicy chamoys, these treats trace Mexico’s complex history. Plus, Maite visits a candy museum in Michoacán, Mexico and Art Historian, Dr. Elizabeth Morán, tells us about the ancient treat, Alegrías.
Maite’s Recipes:
Learn more about el Museo del Dulce (Candy Museum) in Michoacán, Mexico.
Check out Dr. Elizabeth Morán’s book: Sacred Consumption: Food and Ritual in Aztec Art and Culture
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
From my Lady ass Mexico's most ancient candy, to elegant,
sweet and creamy vice Regal flavors and the candy Cheetless
that burn your mouth. Let's talk about the evolution of
Mexican candy and Halloween. My name is Evil Longoria and
I am and welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast
(00:25):
that explores our past and present through food. On every episode,
we'll talk about the history of some of our favorite dishes, ingredients,
and beverages. So make yourself at home. Even wait, what
is vice regal confection? What is I've never heard that
word of my life. Regal Spanish? It is, okay, absolutely
(00:49):
meaning from Spain, not Spanish. Is in the language Spanish
is and from Spanish in Spain the colonized vocabulary. It
is the colonized vocabulary. So candies in Mexico start in
the colonial period, which is also referred to this vice
regal period. They didn't exist before that. Well, there were sweets, right,
there was honey, and there was you know, a God day, right.
(01:11):
But this whole idea of like a candy is something
that's very European, really like this, but but this concept
of making candies dates to the colonial period. Then it's
specifically can be attributed to nuns in convents. Right, So
we have all of these ingredients coming in um post conquest,
(01:34):
sugar being one of them. Sugar is a big episode.
We're going to talk about sugar in a in a
separate episode. That's the whole thing. That's the whole thing. Yeah,
let's talk about festive Halloween and then get into the serious,
you know, business of sugar. But sugar was coming into
the country, and also all sorts of nuts and dairy
and and fruits like tamarind and apricots and just lots
(01:56):
of different flavors. So really Mexican cuisine is invented in
colonial comments, but candy sweets can also be attributed to
nuns in colonial It's definitely colonization because candy in itself
was invented by the Egyptians, Egyptians, Arabs, and Chinese. They
were the first to mix nuts and honey. Yeah, I
(02:18):
didn't know about the Egyptians. Definitely, the Middle East. The
Egyptians were and the word candy derives from an Arabic
word condy meaning made of sugar que a and d
i condy. The Middle East, they were the masters of
candy making, candy making. And it's interesting because I've been
(02:38):
in the Middle East several times and it's like dates, like,
hand's not a lot. I don't see a lot of
candy over there, like Mexico. When you go to Mexico,
you can't walk on the street without saying the stand
of Mexican candies. Yeah, there are, They're everywhere. With this
whole concept of mixing sweet and savory and making fruit
the conserves and things that you know of dates and
(03:00):
arry and that was brought over. It's definitely a Middle
Eastern thing and all of the Islamic countries and then
the Moors from North Africa brought that concept over to Spain,
and then that came over to Mexico, right, So that's
when we start seeing in these colonial comments all of
these sort of nutty creamy like Marsa bands and all
(03:21):
sorts of different flavors that were right, sort of milk
based sweets with with nuts or candied fruit. And that's
definitely a Moorish influenced guys. And we're talking about talking
about chocolate as a candy. This is a little bit separate,
but like chocolate and the cocawbean was already in meso
(03:41):
America for a while. The milk wasn't integrated until the
Spaniards brought the cow, and so that milk, chocolate and
the sugar was added with the Spaniard with the colonization. Yeah,
even though chocolate was around, it wasn't the sweet. It
was bitter. So we're I mean more than talking about chocolate.
(04:03):
We're talking about these these these candies. You brought some today,
did you I grew up with this one? Different? Those
are much later. Yeah. Yeah, this is like where we
grew up. This is where we go. Did you grow
up with these candies? I feel like candy? You know
what I grew up with was that is what I'm
talking about. What is that? This is called This is
a milk candy and pecan roll. This is from Monterre.
(04:28):
So it's tamarndo with chili and sugar and salt. Yeah,
definitely salt. That's that. Those are modern candies. Those are
the candys that we grew up with. This like what
I have here, I had this little roll. It's a
milk candy with pecan. This is what I'm talking about.
This These these are the vice regal flavors. Where did
(04:49):
you get this? You know, I have all sorts of
weird stuff in my pantry. Is how long has this
been in your pantry? Not long? Not long at all,
because my mom, not not long. My mom was always
sending the stuff. She's always going to places and she's
sending of all sorts of so that probably has only
been in my pantry maybe a couple of weeks. Okay,
it's a promise. It says milk candy with pecan roll.
(05:12):
All right, what's what's in the center of it? Just
like hit that basically, m hmm. How is it? It's
like like a pecan pie or a pecan pie. It's
a pecan pie and a roll. We can't really taste
the insect. I just taste pecans. But it's bound together
(05:35):
by sugar for sure. For sure. But what does vice
regal mean? The viceroy is a representative of the king
of Spain. So when this is during the colon Pierce,
this is a vice regal period called vice regal confection. Yeah,
you can call the vice regal confections. And there was these,
you know, conserve these candies and they were making It's
(05:57):
so good, right, it's delicious. Every region, right, every convent
had a different specialty. And it's like the nuns from Pilao,
the nuns from Morelia or get it that they have
the different specialties. But they made custards and candied fruits
and you know sweet potato Masapan. Right, and then they
had these interesting names like suspiros then like nuns size
(06:21):
like lambs for these bishops tears. I remember these La
bishops bishop tears and they were these little you can
still buy them. There were these little sugar pellets that
you bite into them. I remember my mom bring the
back when we were kids. You bite into them and
it's like this this water like sort of popped out
and they tasted like anus. I don't I have a
(06:43):
love hate relationship with a niece. I love this one.
Where was the speed to a less spiritual eggs? Hallelujah's um.
So each convent had their their specialty. So this was
the kind of flavors that that were being made. And
they're different candy stores in Mexico that really keep these
flavors alive. And wherever they sell these cheese like candies,
(07:04):
you also see these other candies, the glorias and the gloria,
which is not what's the word for caramel. It's made
with goat's milk. Really, it's knew that, Yeah, it's I've
made it before. Oh my gosh. It's it's basically goat's
milk and sugar and you just cook it until it
(07:24):
because why is it brown? Because it's just it's a caramel.
Can't you just cook it and cook it and coot
it until it just becomes this? I love. What's the
thing with the two white wafers? Oh, those are the os.
It's the one that dissolves in your mouth like a
communion waver. It is a communion wafer. So definitely made
by the nuns. Definitely. I have a bunch of that.
(07:45):
You didn't think to be. I have a bunch of
the communion waivers in my pantry. What how do you
have communion waivers? You have communion waivers. That's like they're
locked up in the thing. And then then the altar thing.
I bought them at a candy store in Mexico. I
I just have that. Yeah, it's so weird. And sometimes
it's like, oh, like a little weight. I don't know it,
So I'm just weird. That is so funny. So it
(08:10):
has so so Mexican candy has a huge religious background. Huge.
Absolutely don't go anywhere when we come back. I visit
a candy museum in Meetuck in Mexico. That's after the break,
(08:35):
Welcome back to Hungry for History. I was recently in
Meetuck in Mexico, or I visited a candy museum, and
here's a taste of my experience witnessing the colonial candy
making process. I'm at the candy museum is making a
(08:59):
Quinn's paste and you can fear the quints and sugar
simmering and old copper pot and it smells amazing. MHD regarda.
H Okay, now I'm about to taste this incredible candy
(09:21):
at the embody Yo, which is a quint paste that
we just made in Its sweet and a little bit
sour and it's this beautiful creamy texture. I'm done right now,
so amazing mhm. I s oh, what is that one?
(09:49):
Did you eat? I had them? I had them, but
what is it? I didn't eat them? What's Yeah? So
that's super interesting. So all of these ingredients are coming
in right, the sugars coming in, and everything is being
sort of rude in these copper pots and the convents um.
But it's the Manilla Galians, right. These are these routes,
(10:09):
these ships that are coming from Manila in the Philippines,
which was also a Spanish colony, to tak in Mexico,
and they're coming back and forth for hundreds of years.
So they traveled between Manilla from fifteen sixty five to
eighteen fifteen, right, so for over three hundred years, these
ingredients were coming back and forth, and so Mexico was
(10:31):
linked to Asia, which was linked to Europe and basically global, global,
global trade. So this is when we start seeing ingredients
like apricots, and we start seeing tamarinds, and we start
seeing mango, and we start seeing you know, different culinary
traditions and different techniques. So the chammy. So just in
(10:54):
case people that are listening don't know what a chimp,
I don't even know what. I've seen it in like
ice cream, like mango and chamoy and I love it
and I get it, But what is joining it? Yeah,
that's a good question. It's basically it's red, it's sweet,
it's spicy, it's salty. It's made with dried plums or
(11:14):
apricots Tamaran. Sometimes it has mango, which is native to India,
mangoes native to India. Mangoes native to India. What, yeah,
mangoes India. Apricots are native to China. They've been cultivated
as earlier until my thousand BC. That marian though, is
from Africa. Oh my god. But the word that marian
comes from the Arabic tamar meaning date, and the Hindi
(11:36):
Hind meaning India, so it's name to Africa, but they've
been cultivated from India forever. Often the name literally means
Indian tree, even though it's name to Africa. So so
we have you know, apricots in China. There's this long
history of drying apricots and salting apricots, like the tamoi
rights in Japan as well. The it's sort of alted
(12:01):
plums or apricots and brine. So there's this tradition of
salting these fruits and then the madin though in India
and Thailand they have you know, like they make candies
with sugar but with the but this whole idea of
the like the chammy, like what is this sort of
cham because it's so popular. Different theories and It's hard
to pinpoint who when you know where, but it definitely
(12:23):
comes from this sort of you know, trade trade route,
and those trade routes existed even before the Manilla Galleons
with the Silk Road, like bringing these ingredients from China
to the Middle East and then further west, you know,
from China, you know, all the way west to Europe.
But some credit these Chinese snacks called lee king Mui
(12:46):
and I'm probably miss pronouncing this, so I'm sorry. But
also in the Philippines they made these pickled apricots called
chump boy. So so, but it's baby. That's where the
world comes maybe that's basically where the word comes from. Well,
it's become a symbol of Latin every If you are Mexican,
(13:07):
you know what chamoy is, and if you're from Texas,
you know what cham is. So you also like this
kind of candy. I grew up with that, but I
didn't eat it. We weren't allowed. I like the sugar thing.
My friends always make fun of me because I put
chili on everything, sweet mungo sandilla, all my fruit. I
(13:30):
have to put chiliain bain, which we have I do.
Mexicans love pain that gives pleasure, Like kid kids, I
grew up with this, these candies and I'm like I'm
dying and it's like I want you want more and more.
I don't know, but it's it's one of those things.
It's definitely not a vice regal laver, but you have
(13:51):
these different ingredients, you're just combining it with the chili.
It's what people love. Yeah. You know what I'm amazed
about is the Japanese influence in Mexican cuisine. Those peanuts,
they're like super Mexican. Japanese puts the Japanese Japanese peanuts. Yeah,
they're covered with mochi and the label is sort of
(14:12):
this fode Japanese. Yes. So there was this this Japanese
immigrant who moved to Mexico in nineteen fifty. His name
was Schiavae and he was the first person to introduce
soy products into the Mexican market. He had a company
called Yeah, and he also started producing these umeboshi snacks
(14:33):
that would basically Chile and you know, he was Japanese.
So he was making these zuos sort of drying them.
It was basically you know, Chile with apricots, and sometimes
he would use mango and salt and sugar, and he
created this and he called it Chili and it became
a hit with kids, with Chileans, with everybody. Yeah, who
(14:54):
is everybody? Now? I feel like, like I said, Mexican
candy is not for Halloween like American candy. It's for Halloween.
There's American there's a lot of candy that I only
eat on Halloween and I don't eat the rest of
the year. The Mexican candies year round. But did you
eat Mexican candy and Halloween? Were you like, it's not
(15:17):
really special. I eat this all the time. Yeah, yeah,
that's a good question. I didn't really think of that.
We didn't really We weren't allowed to trick or treat.
You weren't allowed to trick or treat? Wow? Why? Because
of my parents were paranoid that we were going to
get poisoned razor blades and the apples. Yeah, Halloween celebrated
around the world. I don't think they celebrated that much
(15:37):
in Mexico. It's celebrated somewhat. It's not like trick or treat,
but it's get almost Halloween, and and they have both
these types of the chile candies and glorias and just
different candies. But it's definitely celebrated. It is. It's being
celebrated around basically the pagan New Year's holiday of the Samhim,
(16:02):
celebrated by the ancient Irish Celtic tribes. In the tenth century,
All Soul's Day was a day to celebrate, which was
on November three. Was at it was like it's this
day has changed, but it was like All Hollow's Eve,
which was a Catholic celebration that was moved to November one, Yeah,
(16:25):
in the eighth century. So they're like, we're just moving
this hall. We're just moving it. Yeah, where Christmas is
going to be in July Exactly. It's all arbitrary, you
know what. We don't like this, but it kind of
looks like this, so let's put these dates together. Okay,
So that's what happened. That's what happened exactly. Then, Um
the nineteenth century was the Irish immigrants that brought this
(16:45):
festival to the United States or the America's to the
United States, and that was oct and they would give
Soul cakes through these little cakes, these like flat they're
almost like cookies. Okay, these like little cakes. Yeah, to say,
you're giving me this cake, and by receiving this cake,
(17:06):
I will pray for your people. Okay, So when did
um candy become a part of these Catholic celebrations. Well,
people would make these cakes, right, and then during the
Second World War there were these sugar rations, so it
was just it was difficult for people to make these
(17:28):
cakes to give out. And then at a certain point
it became about a holiday with kids, so they decided
to start this whole thing with dressing up and having
contest and trigger treating. And then it became commercial like
companies like Hershey's and Brocks and all of these companies
started making candies and it was like the candy corns,
(17:49):
the candy corns, the corndy corn States to the eighties.
They've been around for a while and that was first
graded by George Renninger and American and he just did
these small sugar pillets and that kind of morphed into
that candy corn. Yeah. Yeah, they basically morphed into that.
And they were only popular because they were fall colors. Yeah,
(18:10):
they look like corn and they look at fall colors.
And now we have so many different things. But then
it's like, oh wow, this is such a novelty, and
they became really popular, but then they became overshadowed with
tutsi rolls and all of these other things. No, it
became overshadowed with like the the Snickers, the commercialization that
Hershey's in, Bronx and Nestlee capitalized. It's like the engagement
(18:33):
rings exactly, there's something happening here, let's make money on it, exactly.
And then the homeowners found it so much easier to
just buy candy than make stuff at home. Yeah. Yeah,
and then the individually wrapped thing, when did that come
into play? That's also that's Bronx and Hershey and all
of those. So it was a nineteen fifties, so it's
(18:53):
really new. Remember when you could go to a candy
store and scoop up a bag of bombas are a
bag of this or that, and the individually wrap thing. Yeah,
I remember individually wrapped candies like going. I remember that
in Laredo there was this place called Mr. Candy and
we used to go and buy candies for Halloween because
(19:16):
my brothers and I weren't allowed to go trick or treating,
but we would sit outside and give away candy. So
I remember going to Mr. Candy and buying like the
sweet Tarts and you know titsy Rolls and Snickers, all
of those little bite sized pieces and giving them away.
We would dress up and we would give candy. Yeah,
when I was young, Um, we would go to the
(19:38):
rich neighborhood because they would give you full candy bars. Oh,
like a proper Snickers. We would drive all the way
to Drive Ocean Drive and they would give out the
big candy bars. And I was like, Yeah, that's where
we need to go. Ye when we come back. My
(20:02):
friend Dr Elizabeth Moran, professor of Art history at William
and Mary, shares her thoughts on the ancient candy allegas
(20:24):
Welcome Back and pre Hispanic Mexico, amaranth was a sacred
grain associated with immortality and festivals to honor the gods.
Toasted amaranth grain was mixed with maize, honey, and sometimes
blood and shaped into idols before being paraded through the streets,
sacrificed into pieces, and distributed among the crowd to be eaten.
(20:48):
The conquistadors regarded this practice as a blasphemous parody of
the Christian communion and outlawed its cultivation. Today, these honeyed
sweets called swally and now while are known as alas,
the Spanish word for happiness. Here's my friend, Dr Elizabeth Moran,
Professor of Art history at William and mary An, author
(21:09):
of Sacred Consumption, Food and Ritual and Aztec art and culture.
She will share insights on this revered Mexican candy with
indigenous roots. My name is Elizabeth Moran. I am an
art historian and I focus on sixteenth century painted manuscripts
and food rituals. Alegria is a sweet. It's amaranth mixed
(21:39):
with either sugar or honey. Amaranth itself is a little sweet,
but if you put honey or they probably used something
from them gay plant, it would have been really yummy
and really tasteful. It's actually much much older than even
the Aztecs. We know that indigenous people were using amaranth
(22:00):
in many different ways. Everybody always thinks about human sacrifices,
but in fact what most people did in Mesoamerica was
auto sacrifice offering of blood. But the aspects also offered
a lot of foods, not just as an offering, but
actually making objects, sculptural works, out of food, and one
(22:22):
of those foods was amaranth. And so it appears in
really significant agricultural festivals associated with Chico miko Ato, which
is one of the Aztec Manze deities. Um. It appears
also with u Bochli, who is specifically an Aztec deity.
(22:43):
He's their patron god and the god related to war,
but also the sun, and it appears also with an
old fire god called Shot. It has mythological significance. So,
for example, the Aztecs, a lot of their origin accounts
talk about them bringing in certain foods, and there's four
(23:05):
what they call first foods. Of course one is maze,
but the other one is amaranth, and that is significant.
So what that tells us is that the Aztecs obviously
weren't the ones that originated these rituals, that these rituals
predated the Aztecs. If you look at sixteenth century manuscripts,
(23:27):
both pictorial and kind of more ethno historical, you realize
that they are using amaranth for all kinds of things.
So it's an everyday food. They use it to make dothella's,
to make the malays, but it's also an elite food.
So we know that the Aztec Elite, a particular type
(23:49):
of the Malay made or prepared with amaranth a certain way. Ironically,
the Spanish Friars tried to ban it in the sixteenth century,
but obviously didn't work out. The Fryars were very good
at recording everything, and so they they really understood that
it was one of those foods that held special importance
(24:12):
to them, and so they knew that it was associated
with very sacred ideas and they didn't want those to
kind of continue. It's really interesting because there are other
things that they could have focused on, but there must
have been something really special about amarynth to get them
so motivated to try and ban it, and the fact
(24:33):
that it didn't work out is also significant. Well, I
have to say that when I started my work, this
was part of my dissertation, and then I was fortunate
enough to publish it. It was not a subject to
an art historian. And I think part of that is
because people don't take food as a serious thing, but
(24:55):
it is. And part of it is because food is
so pleasure r ble, but we forget that food is
part of not just our day today existence, but it
relates to our spirit It relates to our mind, it
relates to our identity. It is something that is just
beyond pleasure. It's really significant. What is this? Because might
(25:22):
they brought this candy that looks like Quena? Yeah, it's
a cousin of Keena, isn't it? Bess are related? They must?
It's an alleged idea? What's an allege idea? Is one
of my favorite candies And this little thing, what's the
Basically it's amaranth grains, which are if you could imagine
(25:45):
you describe this as like yeah, like like teeny teeny
teeny tiny popcorn, but it's amaranth. But this candy has
this This is a pre colonial can do they do?
They do this one? Like um like bars flat, like yeah,
there was something that went with that stuff and it
was fantastic. You hear, Yeah, maybe that's what you get
(26:05):
around or flat. Sometimes it has pumpkin seeds and get
it with different things. It's amazing when you buy the
amoranth grains, they're these little brown dots and you put
them on a dry pan and they pop like popcorn.
It's like the cutest thing ever. There's like the miniature popcorn.
So that's why you're saying that popcorn, you put them
(26:27):
in a pan. You put them in a pan, they pop,
and then you put them with honey and you make them.
But they have Aztec roots and they used to during
different festivals. So they would basically take this, add honey,
add blood, and then mold it into the an image
of you know, a god and then they would worship it,
break it and eat it. Um. So this was considered blasphemous,
(26:51):
you know, post conquest. They saw this and what is this?
This is blasphemous, and amaranth was was banned. They tried
to story. It's not common to me, like, I don't
see it a lot, but now it's considered sort of
a healthy It's called lad yes because when the little
grains or pop, they seem like they look like they're dancing.
(27:13):
I love this story. It's all about this story for me,
all about the story. Thanks everyone for listening. We hope
you enjoyed the history of Mexican candy. Happy Halloween. Hungry
for History is an unbelievable entertainment production in partnership with
I Hearts Michael podcast Network. For more of your favorite shows,
(27:35):
visit the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever
you get your podcasts
From my Lady ass Mexico's most ancient candy, to elegant,
sweet and creamy vice Regal flavors and the candy Cheetless
that burn your mouth. Let's talk about the evolution of
Mexican candy and Halloween. My name is Evil Longoria and
I am and welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast
(00:25):
that explores our past and present through food. On every episode,
we'll talk about the history of some of our favorite dishes, ingredients,
and beverages. So make yourself at home. Even wait, what
is vice regal confection? What is I've never heard that
word of my life. Regal Spanish? It is, okay, absolutely
(00:49):
meaning from Spain, not Spanish. Is in the language Spanish
is and from Spanish in Spain the colonized vocabulary. It
is the colonized vocabulary. So candies in Mexico start in
the colonial period, which is also referred to this vice
regal period. They didn't exist before that. Well, there were sweets, right,
there was honey, and there was you know, a God day, right.
(01:11):
But this whole idea of like a candy is something
that's very European, really like this, but but this concept
of making candies dates to the colonial period. Then it's
specifically can be attributed to nuns in convents. Right, So
we have all of these ingredients coming in um post conquest,
(01:34):
sugar being one of them. Sugar is a big episode.
We're going to talk about sugar in a in a
separate episode. That's the whole thing. That's the whole thing. Yeah,
let's talk about festive Halloween and then get into the serious,
you know, business of sugar. But sugar was coming into
the country, and also all sorts of nuts and dairy
and and fruits like tamarind and apricots and just lots
(01:56):
of different flavors. So really Mexican cuisine is invented in
colonial comments, but candy sweets can also be attributed to
nuns in colonial It's definitely colonization because candy in itself
was invented by the Egyptians, Egyptians, Arabs, and Chinese. They
were the first to mix nuts and honey. Yeah, I
(02:18):
didn't know about the Egyptians. Definitely, the Middle East. The
Egyptians were and the word candy derives from an Arabic
word condy meaning made of sugar que a and d
i condy. The Middle East, they were the masters of
candy making, candy making. And it's interesting because I've been
(02:38):
in the Middle East several times and it's like dates, like,
hand's not a lot. I don't see a lot of
candy over there, like Mexico. When you go to Mexico,
you can't walk on the street without saying the stand
of Mexican candies. Yeah, there are, They're everywhere. With this
whole concept of mixing sweet and savory and making fruit
the conserves and things that you know of dates and
(03:00):
arry and that was brought over. It's definitely a Middle
Eastern thing and all of the Islamic countries and then
the Moors from North Africa brought that concept over to Spain,
and then that came over to Mexico, right, So that's
when we start seeing in these colonial comments all of
these sort of nutty creamy like Marsa bands and all
(03:21):
sorts of different flavors that were right, sort of milk
based sweets with with nuts or candied fruit. And that's
definitely a Moorish influenced guys. And we're talking about talking
about chocolate as a candy. This is a little bit separate,
but like chocolate and the cocawbean was already in meso
(03:41):
America for a while. The milk wasn't integrated until the
Spaniards brought the cow, and so that milk, chocolate and
the sugar was added with the Spaniard with the colonization. Yeah,
even though chocolate was around, it wasn't the sweet. It
was bitter. So we're I mean more than talking about chocolate.
(04:03):
We're talking about these these these candies. You brought some today,
did you I grew up with this one? Different? Those
are much later. Yeah. Yeah, this is like where we
grew up. This is where we go. Did you grow
up with these candies? I feel like candy? You know
what I grew up with was that is what I'm
talking about. What is that? This is called This is
a milk candy and pecan roll. This is from Monterre.
(04:28):
So it's tamarndo with chili and sugar and salt. Yeah,
definitely salt. That's that. Those are modern candies. Those are
the candys that we grew up with. This like what
I have here, I had this little roll. It's a
milk candy with pecan. This is what I'm talking about.
This These these are the vice regal flavors. Where did
(04:49):
you get this? You know, I have all sorts of
weird stuff in my pantry. Is how long has this
been in your pantry? Not long? Not long at all,
because my mom, not not long. My mom was always
sending the stuff. She's always going to places and she's
sending of all sorts of so that probably has only
been in my pantry maybe a couple of weeks. Okay,
it's a promise. It says milk candy with pecan roll.
(05:12):
All right, what's what's in the center of it? Just
like hit that basically, m hmm. How is it? It's
like like a pecan pie or a pecan pie. It's
a pecan pie and a roll. We can't really taste
the insect. I just taste pecans. But it's bound together
(05:35):
by sugar for sure. For sure. But what does vice
regal mean? The viceroy is a representative of the king
of Spain. So when this is during the colon Pierce,
this is a vice regal period called vice regal confection. Yeah,
you can call the vice regal confections. And there was these,
you know, conserve these candies and they were making It's
(05:57):
so good, right, it's delicious. Every region, right, every convent
had a different specialty. And it's like the nuns from Pilao,
the nuns from Morelia or get it that they have
the different specialties. But they made custards and candied fruits
and you know sweet potato Masapan. Right, and then they
had these interesting names like suspiros then like nuns size
(06:21):
like lambs for these bishops tears. I remember these La
bishops bishop tears and they were these little you can
still buy them. There were these little sugar pellets that
you bite into them. I remember my mom bring the
back when we were kids. You bite into them and
it's like this this water like sort of popped out
and they tasted like anus. I don't I have a
(06:43):
love hate relationship with a niece. I love this one.
Where was the speed to a less spiritual eggs? Hallelujah's um.
So each convent had their their specialty. So this was
the kind of flavors that that were being made. And
they're different candy stores in Mexico that really keep these
flavors alive. And wherever they sell these cheese like candies,
(07:04):
you also see these other candies, the glorias and the gloria,
which is not what's the word for caramel. It's made
with goat's milk. Really, it's knew that, Yeah, it's I've
made it before. Oh my gosh. It's it's basically goat's
milk and sugar and you just cook it until it
(07:24):
because why is it brown? Because it's just it's a caramel.
Can't you just cook it and cook it and coot
it until it just becomes this? I love. What's the
thing with the two white wafers? Oh, those are the os.
It's the one that dissolves in your mouth like a
communion waver. It is a communion wafer. So definitely made
by the nuns. Definitely. I have a bunch of that.
(07:45):
You didn't think to be. I have a bunch of
the communion waivers in my pantry. What how do you
have communion waivers? You have communion waivers. That's like they're
locked up in the thing. And then then the altar thing.
I bought them at a candy store in Mexico. I
I just have that. Yeah, it's so weird. And sometimes
it's like, oh, like a little weight. I don't know it,
So I'm just weird. That is so funny. So it
(08:10):
has so so Mexican candy has a huge religious background. Huge.
Absolutely don't go anywhere when we come back. I visit
a candy museum in Meetuck in Mexico. That's after the break,
(08:35):
Welcome back to Hungry for History. I was recently in
Meetuck in Mexico, or I visited a candy museum, and
here's a taste of my experience witnessing the colonial candy
making process. I'm at the candy museum is making a
(08:59):
Quinn's paste and you can fear the quints and sugar
simmering and old copper pot and it smells amazing. MHD regarda.
H Okay, now I'm about to taste this incredible candy
(09:21):
at the embody Yo, which is a quint paste that
we just made in Its sweet and a little bit
sour and it's this beautiful creamy texture. I'm done right now,
so amazing mhm. I s oh, what is that one?
(09:49):
Did you eat? I had them? I had them, but
what is it? I didn't eat them? What's Yeah? So
that's super interesting. So all of these ingredients are coming
in right, the sugars coming in, and everything is being
sort of rude in these copper pots and the convents um.
But it's the Manilla Galians, right. These are these routes,
(10:09):
these ships that are coming from Manila in the Philippines,
which was also a Spanish colony, to tak in Mexico,
and they're coming back and forth for hundreds of years.
So they traveled between Manilla from fifteen sixty five to
eighteen fifteen, right, so for over three hundred years, these
ingredients were coming back and forth, and so Mexico was
(10:31):
linked to Asia, which was linked to Europe and basically global, global,
global trade. So this is when we start seeing ingredients
like apricots, and we start seeing tamarinds, and we start
seeing mango, and we start seeing you know, different culinary
traditions and different techniques. So the chammy. So just in
(10:54):
case people that are listening don't know what a chimp,
I don't even know what. I've seen it in like
ice cream, like mango and chamoy and I love it
and I get it, But what is joining it? Yeah,
that's a good question. It's basically it's red, it's sweet,
it's spicy, it's salty. It's made with dried plums or
(11:14):
apricots Tamaran. Sometimes it has mango, which is native to India,
mangoes native to India. Mangoes native to India. What, yeah,
mangoes India. Apricots are native to China. They've been cultivated
as earlier until my thousand BC. That marian though, is
from Africa. Oh my god. But the word that marian
comes from the Arabic tamar meaning date, and the Hindi
(11:36):
Hind meaning India, so it's name to Africa, but they've
been cultivated from India forever. Often the name literally means
Indian tree, even though it's name to Africa. So so
we have you know, apricots in China. There's this long
history of drying apricots and salting apricots, like the tamoi
rights in Japan as well. The it's sort of alted
(12:01):
plums or apricots and brine. So there's this tradition of
salting these fruits and then the madin though in India
and Thailand they have you know, like they make candies
with sugar but with the but this whole idea of
the like the chammy, like what is this sort of
cham because it's so popular. Different theories and It's hard
to pinpoint who when you know where, but it definitely
(12:23):
comes from this sort of you know, trade trade route,
and those trade routes existed even before the Manilla Galleons
with the Silk Road, like bringing these ingredients from China
to the Middle East and then further west, you know,
from China, you know, all the way west to Europe.
But some credit these Chinese snacks called lee king Mui
(12:46):
and I'm probably miss pronouncing this, so I'm sorry. But
also in the Philippines they made these pickled apricots called
chump boy. So so, but it's baby. That's where the
world comes maybe that's basically where the word comes from. Well,
it's become a symbol of Latin every If you are Mexican,
(13:07):
you know what chamoy is, and if you're from Texas,
you know what cham is. So you also like this
kind of candy. I grew up with that, but I
didn't eat it. We weren't allowed. I like the sugar thing.
My friends always make fun of me because I put
chili on everything, sweet mungo sandilla, all my fruit. I
(13:30):
have to put chiliain bain, which we have I do.
Mexicans love pain that gives pleasure, Like kid kids, I
grew up with this, these candies and I'm like I'm
dying and it's like I want you want more and more.
I don't know, but it's it's one of those things.
It's definitely not a vice regal laver, but you have
(13:51):
these different ingredients, you're just combining it with the chili.
It's what people love. Yeah. You know what I'm amazed
about is the Japanese influence in Mexican cuisine. Those peanuts,
they're like super Mexican. Japanese puts the Japanese Japanese peanuts. Yeah,
they're covered with mochi and the label is sort of
(14:12):
this fode Japanese. Yes. So there was this this Japanese
immigrant who moved to Mexico in nineteen fifty. His name
was Schiavae and he was the first person to introduce
soy products into the Mexican market. He had a company
called Yeah, and he also started producing these umeboshi snacks
(14:33):
that would basically Chile and you know, he was Japanese.
So he was making these zuos sort of drying them.
It was basically you know, Chile with apricots, and sometimes
he would use mango and salt and sugar, and he
created this and he called it Chili and it became
a hit with kids, with Chileans, with everybody. Yeah, who
(14:54):
is everybody? Now? I feel like, like I said, Mexican
candy is not for Halloween like American candy. It's for Halloween.
There's American there's a lot of candy that I only
eat on Halloween and I don't eat the rest of
the year. The Mexican candies year round. But did you
eat Mexican candy and Halloween? Were you like, it's not
(15:17):
really special. I eat this all the time. Yeah, yeah,
that's a good question. I didn't really think of that.
We didn't really We weren't allowed to trick or treat.
You weren't allowed to trick or treat? Wow? Why? Because
of my parents were paranoid that we were going to
get poisoned razor blades and the apples. Yeah, Halloween celebrated
around the world. I don't think they celebrated that much
(15:37):
in Mexico. It's celebrated somewhat. It's not like trick or treat,
but it's get almost Halloween, and and they have both
these types of the chile candies and glorias and just
different candies. But it's definitely celebrated. It is. It's being
celebrated around basically the pagan New Year's holiday of the Samhim,
(16:02):
celebrated by the ancient Irish Celtic tribes. In the tenth century,
All Soul's Day was a day to celebrate, which was
on November three. Was at it was like it's this
day has changed, but it was like All Hollow's Eve,
which was a Catholic celebration that was moved to November one, Yeah,
(16:25):
in the eighth century. So they're like, we're just moving
this hall. We're just moving it. Yeah, where Christmas is
going to be in July Exactly. It's all arbitrary, you
know what. We don't like this, but it kind of
looks like this, so let's put these dates together. Okay,
So that's what happened. That's what happened exactly. Then, Um
the nineteenth century was the Irish immigrants that brought this
(16:45):
festival to the United States or the America's to the
United States, and that was oct and they would give
Soul cakes through these little cakes, these like flat they're
almost like cookies. Okay, these like little cakes. Yeah, to say,
you're giving me this cake, and by receiving this cake,
(17:06):
I will pray for your people. Okay, So when did
um candy become a part of these Catholic celebrations. Well,
people would make these cakes, right, and then during the
Second World War there were these sugar rations, so it
was just it was difficult for people to make these
(17:28):
cakes to give out. And then at a certain point
it became about a holiday with kids, so they decided
to start this whole thing with dressing up and having
contest and trigger treating. And then it became commercial like
companies like Hershey's and Brocks and all of these companies
started making candies and it was like the candy corns,
(17:49):
the candy corns, the corndy corn States to the eighties.
They've been around for a while and that was first
graded by George Renninger and American and he just did
these small sugar pillets and that kind of morphed into
that candy corn. Yeah. Yeah, they basically morphed into that.
And they were only popular because they were fall colors. Yeah,
(18:10):
they look like corn and they look at fall colors.
And now we have so many different things. But then
it's like, oh wow, this is such a novelty, and
they became really popular, but then they became overshadowed with
tutsi rolls and all of these other things. No, it
became overshadowed with like the the Snickers, the commercialization that
Hershey's in, Bronx and Nestlee capitalized. It's like the engagement
(18:33):
rings exactly, there's something happening here, let's make money on it, exactly.
And then the homeowners found it so much easier to
just buy candy than make stuff at home. Yeah. Yeah,
and then the individually wrapped thing, when did that come
into play? That's also that's Bronx and Hershey and all
of those. So it was a nineteen fifties, so it's
(18:53):
really new. Remember when you could go to a candy
store and scoop up a bag of bombas are a
bag of this or that, and the individually wrap thing. Yeah,
I remember individually wrapped candies like going. I remember that
in Laredo there was this place called Mr. Candy and
we used to go and buy candies for Halloween because
(19:16):
my brothers and I weren't allowed to go trick or treating,
but we would sit outside and give away candy. So
I remember going to Mr. Candy and buying like the
sweet Tarts and you know titsy Rolls and Snickers, all
of those little bite sized pieces and giving them away.
We would dress up and we would give candy. Yeah,
when I was young, Um, we would go to the
(19:38):
rich neighborhood because they would give you full candy bars. Oh,
like a proper Snickers. We would drive all the way
to Drive Ocean Drive and they would give out the
big candy bars. And I was like, Yeah, that's where
we need to go. Ye when we come back. My
(20:02):
friend Dr Elizabeth Moran, professor of Art history at William
and Mary, shares her thoughts on the ancient candy allegas
(20:24):
Welcome Back and pre Hispanic Mexico, amaranth was a sacred
grain associated with immortality and festivals to honor the gods.
Toasted amaranth grain was mixed with maize, honey, and sometimes
blood and shaped into idols before being paraded through the streets,
sacrificed into pieces, and distributed among the crowd to be eaten.
(20:48):
The conquistadors regarded this practice as a blasphemous parody of
the Christian communion and outlawed its cultivation. Today, these honeyed
sweets called swally and now while are known as alas,
the Spanish word for happiness. Here's my friend, Dr Elizabeth Moran,
Professor of Art history at William and mary An, author
(21:09):
of Sacred Consumption, Food and Ritual and Aztec art and culture.
She will share insights on this revered Mexican candy with
indigenous roots. My name is Elizabeth Moran. I am an
art historian and I focus on sixteenth century painted manuscripts
and food rituals. Alegria is a sweet. It's amaranth mixed
(21:39):
with either sugar or honey. Amaranth itself is a little sweet,
but if you put honey or they probably used something
from them gay plant, it would have been really yummy
and really tasteful. It's actually much much older than even
the Aztecs. We know that indigenous people were using amaranth
(22:00):
in many different ways. Everybody always thinks about human sacrifices,
but in fact what most people did in Mesoamerica was
auto sacrifice offering of blood. But the aspects also offered
a lot of foods, not just as an offering, but
actually making objects, sculptural works, out of food, and one
(22:22):
of those foods was amaranth. And so it appears in
really significant agricultural festivals associated with Chico miko Ato, which
is one of the Aztec Manze deities. Um. It appears
also with u Bochli, who is specifically an Aztec deity.
(22:43):
He's their patron god and the god related to war,
but also the sun, and it appears also with an
old fire god called Shot. It has mythological significance. So,
for example, the Aztecs, a lot of their origin accounts
talk about them bringing in certain foods, and there's four
(23:05):
what they call first foods. Of course one is maze,
but the other one is amaranth, and that is significant.
So what that tells us is that the Aztecs obviously
weren't the ones that originated these rituals, that these rituals
predated the Aztecs. If you look at sixteenth century manuscripts,
(23:27):
both pictorial and kind of more ethno historical, you realize
that they are using amaranth for all kinds of things.
So it's an everyday food. They use it to make dothella's,
to make the malays, but it's also an elite food.
So we know that the Aztec Elite, a particular type
(23:49):
of the Malay made or prepared with amaranth a certain way. Ironically,
the Spanish Friars tried to ban it in the sixteenth century,
but obviously didn't work out. The Fryars were very good
at recording everything, and so they they really understood that
it was one of those foods that held special importance
(24:12):
to them, and so they knew that it was associated
with very sacred ideas and they didn't want those to
kind of continue. It's really interesting because there are other
things that they could have focused on, but there must
have been something really special about amarynth to get them
so motivated to try and ban it, and the fact
(24:33):
that it didn't work out is also significant. Well, I
have to say that when I started my work, this
was part of my dissertation, and then I was fortunate
enough to publish it. It was not a subject to
an art historian. And I think part of that is
because people don't take food as a serious thing, but
(24:55):
it is. And part of it is because food is
so pleasure r ble, but we forget that food is
part of not just our day today existence, but it
relates to our spirit It relates to our mind, it
relates to our identity. It is something that is just
beyond pleasure. It's really significant. What is this? Because might
(25:22):
they brought this candy that looks like Quena? Yeah, it's
a cousin of Keena, isn't it? Bess are related? They must?
It's an alleged idea? What's an allege idea? Is one
of my favorite candies And this little thing, what's the
Basically it's amaranth grains, which are if you could imagine
(25:45):
you describe this as like yeah, like like teeny teeny
teeny tiny popcorn, but it's amaranth. But this candy has
this This is a pre colonial can do they do?
They do this one? Like um like bars flat, like yeah,
there was something that went with that stuff and it
was fantastic. You hear, Yeah, maybe that's what you get
(26:05):
around or flat. Sometimes it has pumpkin seeds and get
it with different things. It's amazing when you buy the
amoranth grains, they're these little brown dots and you put
them on a dry pan and they pop like popcorn.
It's like the cutest thing ever. There's like the miniature popcorn.
So that's why you're saying that popcorn, you put them
(26:27):
in a pan. You put them in a pan, they pop,
and then you put them with honey and you make them.
But they have Aztec roots and they used to during
different festivals. So they would basically take this, add honey,
add blood, and then mold it into the an image
of you know, a god and then they would worship it,
break it and eat it. Um. So this was considered blasphemous,
(26:51):
you know, post conquest. They saw this and what is this?
This is blasphemous, and amaranth was was banned. They tried
to story. It's not common to me, like, I don't
see it a lot, but now it's considered sort of
a healthy It's called lad yes because when the little
grains or pop, they seem like they look like they're dancing.
(27:13):
I love this story. It's all about this story for me,
all about the story. Thanks everyone for listening. We hope
you enjoyed the history of Mexican candy. Happy Halloween. Hungry
for History is an unbelievable entertainment production in partnership with
I Hearts Michael podcast Network. For more of your favorite shows,
(27:35):
visit the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever
you get your podcasts
Hosts And Creators
MAITE GOMEZ-REJÓN
Eva Longoria
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