Recado Rojo (Achiote Paste)

History & Origin

Recado rojo - also called achiote paste or simply recado - is the soul of Yucatecan cuisine, the preparation that most distinguishes it from all other regional cuisines in Mexico. Without recado rojo there is no cochinita pibil, no pollo en relleno negro, no panuchos, no tikinxic, nor dozens of dishes that define the peninsular gastronomy. Achiote (Bixa orellana) is a plant native to tropical America that the Maya used before the arrival of the Spanish both as a food seasoning and for dyeing textiles and as a body pigment in rituals. The intense red colour of achiote - produced by the carotenoids bixin and norbixin - not only colours food: it imparts a mild, slightly earthy flavour with nutty notes that is unmistakeable in Yucatecan cuisine. The recado paste as we know it today is the product of the culinary mixing of the colonial period: the Maya contributed achiote, dried chilli and stone-grinding techniques; the Spanish contributed Old World spices - cumin, cloves, black pepper, Mediterranean oregano - and citrus marinating techniques. Bitter orange (Citrus aurantium), introduced by Franciscan missionaries in the 16th century, became the preferred acid for dissolving the recado and marinating meats, replacing the green tomato juice that the pre-Hispanic Maya may have used. In Mérida's markets, recado is still sold as a solid paste compressed into blocks or cylinders, made artisanally in stone mills. Commercial brands such as La Extra and La Anita have industrialised its production, but traditional Yucatecan cooks insist on grinding their own at home, arguing that freshly toasted spices ground on stone produce an incomparably superior flavour.