Nejo tamales: the ash tamales of Guerrero

What is it?

Nejo tamales are one of the oldest and most unique tamales in the Mexican repertoire. They belong to the Costa Grande and Tierra Caliente of Guerrero, where they are made from maize masa nixtamalised using wood ash (instead of quicklime), giving them a greyish colour and a unique flavour. The word nejo comes from the Nahuatl nextli, meaning ash. They are usually prepared without filling, only with masa enriched with lard, salt and sometimes whole beans incorporated into the mixture. They are wrapped in maize husk and steamed for several hours. They are served like bread or tortilla, accompanying ranch-style stews such as green mole, red mole, chile costeño salsa or soupy beans.

Origin and history

Nejo tamales are a direct pre-Hispanic heritage: nixtamalising with ash is a very ancient variant that still survives in rural areas of Guerrero and Oaxaca, although most of Mexico now uses industrial quicklime. El Cuexcomate and Quadratín Guerrero document that the name nejo derives from the Nahuatl nextli (ash), just like nopal, which was originally called nexli in some regions. The technique of cooking maize with oak or mesquite ash was used by the Nahua, Mixtec and Tlapanec peoples of the Costa Grande and Sierra Madre del Sur of Guerrero. Nejo tamales were considered a ceremonial and agricultural-festival food. Today they are prepared especially in municipalities such as Petatlán, San Jerónimo, Tecpan and Atoyac. The Guerrero popular cook has been key in preserving the recipe through state festivals and gastronomic exhibitions that vindicate living indigenous cuisine.

Characteristic ingredients

The masa for nejo tamales is made by cooking white maize with clean wood ash (instead of lime) for several hours until the husk comes off. That nixtamalisation with ash, a thousand-year-old technique, gives the masa a greyish colour and a slightly alkaline, smoky flavour. It is ground in a metate or mill, mixed with well-whisked lard, salt and, optionally, whole cooked pinto beans which remain embedded as little lumps. There is no filling: the nejo tamale is masa alone, equivalent to a maize bread. It is wrapped in hydrated dried maize husks and steamed for 1 to 2 hours in a large steamer with salted water. The result is a dense, slightly fluffy tamale, light grey in colour with dark specks of bean, and a deep flavour of maize burnt in ash with a very distinctive earthy finish. It is completely vegan and highly nutritious.

Cultural significance

Nejo tamales are one of the living testimonies of pre-Hispanic Mexican cooking and represent a nixtamalisation technique that has almost been lost in other regions. In Guerrero, especially in the Costa Grande and Tierra Caliente, they are prepared at patron-saint feasts, at Nahua and Tlapanec indigenous weddings, on the Day of the Dead and at agricultural celebrations of the maize harvest. Quadratín Guerrero documents how in Petatlán and nearby municipalities traditional cooks still light fires with oak wood to produce the necessary ash. El Cuexcomate highlights their anthropological value: they are a window onto Mexican cooking before the industrial introduction of quicklime. They form part of the Mexican intangible heritage recognised by UNESCO in 2010 and are on the radar of contemporary cooks such as Enrique Olvera and Margarita Carrillo, who have included them on haute-cuisine menus to honour rural Mexican cooking.

Frequently asked questions

What does the word nejo mean?

Nejo comes from the Nahuatl nextli, meaning ash. It refers to the method of nixtamalising maize using wood ash (oak or mesquite) instead of quicklime. That process, predating the industrial introduction of lime, gives the masa a greyish colour and a characteristic alkaline, slightly smoky flavour. The same root is found in words such as nextamalli (maize cooked in ash, the origin of nixtamal).

Where do nejo tamales originate?

They originate from Guerrero, especially from the Costa Grande (Petatlán, Tecpan, Atoyac, San Jerónimo) and Tierra Caliente. They are also prepared in Nahua, Mixtec-Tlapanec and Nahuat indigenous areas of the state. Some similar variants exist in parts of Oaxaca and Michoacán, but the nejo tamale as such is a Guerrero identity marker. They are direct heirs of pre-Hispanic Nahua and Tlapanec cooking.

What do nejo tamales taste like?

They taste of toasted maize with an alkaline, slightly smoky and earthy background, very different from any other tamale. The ash brings a mineral hint similar to that of comal tortillas with ash. The texture is dense but soft, almost like rustic maize bread, with whole pinto bean nuggets if the recipe includes them. They are neither spicy nor sweet: they are neutral and lend themselves to accompanying salsas and spicy stews.

How are nejo tamales served?

They are served hot like bread or tortilla, accompanying Guerrero ranch-style stews: green chicken mole, red pork mole, soupy beans with chile costeño, chilatequile or rancho chicken broth. They are spread with molcajete-pounded chile costeño salsa and eaten by hand. At breakfast they are accompanied by café de olla. They are not served on their own like other tamales: they always go with a stew, as if they were its tortilla.