Ingredients · Spice
Ancho Chile
Capsicum annuum · Solanaceae (nightshade family)
What it’s like, and how to use it
How to use it
Toast the whole pods briefly, soak in hot water twenty minutes, then blend into a paste — this is worth the trouble and the powder is not the same. In mole, adobo, enchilada sauce, chili and a pork rub. Its sweetness balances the heat of hotter chiles, so it is a base rather than a seasoning.
With food
Pork and beef. Chocolate. Tomato and tomatillo. Raisin and prune. Almond and sesame. Corn tortillas. Cinnamon. Coffee.
With spices
Guajillo and pasilla — the classic mole trio. Cumin and oregano. Cinnamon, clove and anise, in mole. Sesame. Cocoa.
With tea
Not a tea ingredient.
Its story
Where it comes from
Capsicum annuum was most likely domesticated in central-east Mexico, where preceramic chile remains from the Tehuacán Valley in Puebla date to roughly 9000–7000 BP. Our lot names no origin.
What happened
Ancho is a mole chile, and mole's story runs two ways at once. The legend puts it in a Puebla convent: nuns told of a great visitor, short of everything, who prayed and then ground what they had — chiles, spices, day-old bread, nuts, a little chocolate — into a dark sauce. The history is older and Indigenous: the Nahua already made mōlli, "sauce, something ground", and Sahagún recorded Indigenous mollis for fish, game and vegetables; chocolate was a later addition, since the Mexica kept it for drinking. Modern mole mixes ingredients from four continents on that Indigenous base, which makes it a dish about conquest as much as about cooking. In Mexico, to say you are going to a mole means you are going to a wedding.
On the shelf with it
Sold on its own, and in these blends.
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Ancho Chili Powder
Regular price From $7.99 CADRegular price -
Sold outMexican Mole Blend
Regular price From $10.99 CADRegular price
