RE: [CH] El Yucateco Achiote Annatto
T. Matthew Evans (matt.evans@ce.gatech.edu)
Thu, 28 Feb 2002 15:03:27 -0500
By the way, one of the major uses for achiote on the Yucatan peninsula is
thus: mix achiote paste with sour orange juice and salt the rub it all over
meat or fish. Wrap your meat/fish in banana leaves and bury in hot coals.
Once cooked through, the meat is eaten on warm corn tortillas with Xnipec
(an ancient Mayan word meaning "hot as a dog's nose", this salsa is
sometimes as simple as habaneros, red onions, and sour orange juice). Black
beans are the traditional accompaniment.
Matt
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
T. Matthew Evans
Graduate Research Assistant
Geosystems Group, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
URL: www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte964w
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Alex Silbajoris wrote:
> It is called Achiote Annatto all purpose seasoning for grilled and roasted
> meat. The rest of the information is in Spanish and English, in nearly
> unreadable tiny type. Ingredients are annatto seed, water, salt, spices,
> garlic, ascorbic acid and sodium benzoate. NO CONTIENE COLORANTE
> ARTIFICIAL.
>
> The flavor is intensely rich, reminding me of a good cocktail sauce but
> without horseradish. I haven't tasted annatto seed before, so I can't
> compare it to this. But that must be the 'mystery flavor' dominating this
> sauce. There is some heat, too, but apparently not enough chiles to merit
a
> separate entry other than 'spices' in the ingredient list.
Achiote (Spanish for the seed of the annatto tree) is generally used
more for its coloring properties than flavor. The flavor is subtle
and hard to describe...definetly no heat or pungent spiciness, IMHO.
I find it hard to think of the subtle flavor of achiote as being
something that could be considered dominant. It is ground into
a paste in the Yucatan for use as a base for seasoning meat and fish,
which is probably pretty close to what you bought. I guess it might
impart a dominant flavor...just not what I would think of as spicy.
Rich
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