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Alcoholic drinks from Mexico

Quebranta huesos (Mexico)

An alcoholic Mexican drink listed by the FAO as maize juice fermented with toasted maize and the fruits of the pirú (Peruvian pepper tree, Schinus molle). No recipe, timings or study of it have been found, so only its ingredients are known.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Quebranta huesos itself. Its own sources do not record how it is made, so the steps and scenes below are those of Tesgüino (Rarámuri maize beer), the closest documented alcoholic drinks ferment, shown as a guide to the method, not as a record of Quebranta huesos.

Short entryAlcoholic drinks

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo recipe with amounts has been found; the FAO table lists the ingredients only.
Maize juice[fao138]
Toasted maize[fao138]
Pirú fruits (Schinus molle)[fao138]

Total time across the steps of Tesgüino (Rarámuri maize beer): 7.3 days – 8.5 days

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a grain

What changes: Dry maize kernels soak up water

Step 1 of 7 · steps of Tesgüino (Rarámuri maize beer)
Soak the kernels
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Soaked for several days, then drained. Output: swollen kernels.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

An alcoholic Mexican drink listed by the FAO as maize juice fermented with toasted maize and the fruits of the pirú (Peruvian pepper tree, Schinus molle). No recipe, timings or study of it have been found, so only its ingredients are known.

What makes this one different

The only drink in the FAO's Latin American table that adds pirú berries to maize. Most of the other maize drinks there start from germinated maize or maize dough, not maize juice.

Related ferments

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Listed in the FAO's 1999 review of fermented cereals, adapted from Wacher-Rodarte (1995). A history of colonial drinks describes ostole made from the juice of green maize stalks, pirú fruit and toasted ground maize, the same three ingredients, but does not use the name quebranta huesos.

  1. [fao138] Lorence-Quiñones A., Wacher-Rodarte C., Quintero-Ramírez R., Cereal fermentations in Latin American countries, ch. 4 Table 1 (adapted from Wacher-Rodarte 1995), in Haard N.F. et al. 1999, Fermented cereals: a global perspective, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 138gov
  2. [alberro] Alberro S., Bebidas alcohólicas y sociedad colonial en México - un intento de interpretación, Revista Mexicana de Sociología (UNAM)paper