The Most Important Mexican Spices

When people think of traditional Mexican food, they think of spice; hot peppers and cumin are usually the first flavors, which come to mind in connection with the cuisine of Mexico. Some of the spices which are now an important part of Mexican cooking are in fact relatively recent arrivals, having come to the new world with the Spanish conquistadores and other colonists. Others have been a part of Mexico’s culinary tradition for millennia, long before any Europeans set foot in the Americas.

Chilies are the Mexican spices with the longest history, having been used by the Aztecs for many centuries before the arrival of Europeans. Like tomatoes and potatoes, peppers are new world natives and remain one of the most important ingredients in Mexican recipes just as they always have been.

Jalapenos are the most familiar of these peppers to people in the US. They are commonly used in salsas and pickled for use as a condiment as well as diced for use fresh. The Serrano pepper, a smaller, slightly hotter pepper is also seen relatively often in the US. Many Mexican food recipe are nearly unthinkable without these fiery vegetables. Other peppers such as pasillas and anchos are commonly dried and then ground; others are smoked, such as chipotle peppers (which are actually smoked jalapenos).

Culantro, Mexican oregano and epazote are three common herbs used in Mexican cooking which are native to the Americas. Culantro is used widely in Central America and the Caribbean, but is largely unknown outside of the region. Like many other Mexican spices, it is easier to find in the US than it once was, but it has a flavor which is similar enough to cilantro that cilantro can safely be substituted if cilantro is unavailable.

Mexican oregano is another herb which is unrelated to its old world counterpart (it is actually related to lemon verbena, but has a flavor which is similar to oregano). Just as with culantro and cilantro, regular oregano may be substituted if Mexican oregano is unavailable.

An herb, which is often used in bean dishes, especially those that include black beans, epazote is an herb, which has a flavor, which is not quite like anything else (though it is often compared to tarragon). If you cannot find epazote, however, simply omit it – there is no real acceptable substitute for this Mexican herb. You may be able to find it in your local Mexican grocery however, either in the produce section when it is in season or dried along with other spices.

While we often think of cumin when we think of Mexican food, this spice is one, which came across the Atlantic with the conquistadors, being a common herb in Spanish cooking and other Mediterranean cuisines. However, cumin works so well with many of the ingredients native to the new world that this spice quickly became an integral part of many Mexican recipes.

You might say that Mexican food is among the world’s first fusion cuisines, with its blending of old world and new world flavors. Using ingredients from both Europe and the Americas, Mexican cooks created something unique, new and distinctively Mexican. It is a cuisine which has a flavor all its own and thanks in part to Mexican spices, it has become popular in nearly every part of the world.

Mexican food might conjure up images of hot crunchy tacos, richly flavorful enchiladas, crunchy nachos with melted cheese and jalapeo slices on top or even cleverly spiced Mexican casseroles. Traditional Mexican food is both healthy and easy to make, even for beginner cooks, so why not try out a Mexican dish?

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