Enchilada

An enchilada consists of a corn tortilla dipped in a chili sauce to soften it. Originally they were served folded over without fillings. Later they were rolled around a filling such as cheese, chicken, or meat. Tortillas and chilies were staples of Mexico’s indigenous peoples, dating to pre-Columbian times, and the Mayan dish papadzules (“food of the nobles”) could be considered a proto-enchilada. Tortillas were spread with two sauces: one made from squash seeds and pungent epazote tea, and the other made with whole habaneros simmered in tomato puree. Lacking cheese (which came to the New World with the Spanish conquest), cooks filled them with hard-boiled bird eggs. The first Mexican cookbook, published in 1831, included recipes for enchiladas. Mexicans brought their foodways north as they settled what would become the southwestern United States. But the first known Mexican American enchilada recipe was published not in the Southwest. It was discovered in the Centennial Buckeye Cook Book assembled by the women of the First Congregational Church in Marysville, Ohio (1876). The recipe was contributed by Anson Safford, the territorial governor of Arizona, who wrote, “Any one who has ever been in a Spanish speaking country will recognize this as one of the national dishes, much as the pumpkin pie is a New England specialty.”