Mexican Preserve
A country that conserves by sun, ash, and smoke. Nixtamalization carried from the Olmec since 1500 BCE, chiles smoking over wood for twenty hours to become chipotle, pulque drawn from agave in a Tlaxcala hacienda since pre-Columbian times, cochinita pibil buried in a Yucatecan pib at sunrise, escabeche brined for three days in a Puebla jar, tasajo salt-dried on a Sonoran rack, tepache fermented from pineapple peels in a Veracruz market — a despensa built on salt, ash, masa, and the slow cookery of mountain Mexico.