Mole

mole the most famous Mexican sauce, takes its name from molli, a Nahuatl word meaning mixture or concoction; and it is indeed a mixture of many ingredients. The constant factor among the numerous different versions is the starring role played by chilli peppers and the fact that the mixture is always cooked.

Mole poblano de guajolote (Poblano is a synonym of Ancho, a cultivar of chilli pepper, and refers to the valley of Pueblo, where these peppers were first cultivated, while guajalote is wild turkey) or Pavo in mole poblano (pavo is the Mexican-Spanish word for turkey) is a dish of some antiquity and has achieved some fame for the inclusion of bitter chocolate in the sauce, although the quantity is small and the effect not separably discernible. Some have thought that the dish was made, with chocolate already added, in pre-Columbian times, but the lack of evidence for pre-Columbian use of chocolate as an ingredient in any food dish tells against this conclusively; and indeed the attitude of the Aztecs to chocolate was such that they would have been no more likely to use it in cooking than Spaniards would have been to cook with communion wine. Quite apart from this particular question, it is doubtful whether mole poblano dates as far back as the 17th century, as has been generally believed (see Laudan and Pilcher, 1999). Its paradigmatic place in Mexican cookery is somewhat akin to that of roast beef in Britain. Its role in social intercourse and in giving status to certain meals is explored by Joy Adapon (2001).