[Aztlan] colander-type ceramic vessels

[Sharon Peters]

     I come at this list as a researcher/culinary instructor specializing in
traditional kitchens, especially those of Mexico and Mesoamerica.
     That said, my reaction to the ceramic vessel with perforations on the
bottom, as opposed to the sides as the ceramic censers have, is that it is
for draining, most especially and likely draining nixtamalized corn from the
its alkali-laced processing bath.
     I am more familiar with such vessels, known as pichanchas, on the
Mexica/Aztec/Nahuatl side of the cultural line.  They resemble round
"Kool-Aid" type pitchers, with a handle, but without the lip, and the
spherical body is perforated all over, sometimes in a bit of a pattern, to
allow the 'nextli', or alkaline water drip out, prior to multiple washings
of the corn in fresh water to remove the 'pellejo'', or pellicle.  The
vessel is utilized a second time to drain the corn just up from its fresh
water bath, so it is only moist, and not dripping, when deposited onto the
metate for grinding into masa.
     While I cannot definitively state that the subject object is a corn
strainer, it does fit within a culinary use logic.  I fear that, at times,
the grandeur of the temples, the history and the occasional
bordering-on-egomaniacal-puffery of the stelae tend to overshadow the
considerably less grand, dully mundane, and totally unsexy items of everyday
life of  the majority.  And even the Lords had to eat - and did, apparently,
if the flood of chocolate and surfeit of tamales on the various pots and
murals indicate.  And no less a Mayanist than Michael Coe has spoken often
and long on his thoughts that the cylinder pots were vessels for chocolate
... and had his talk fall on deaf or uninterested ears .... until the Rio
Azul stirrup jug came along, and several labs and Hershey's confirmed
chemically what Coe had known all along.
     Please, don't forget the kitchens ...

Regards,

Sharon Peters
Sin Fronteras