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6/25/2025, 12:50:43 AM
>To think of mole as a sauce fails to capture its spirit and range. Mole is about the detailed layering of flavors; each ingredient is usually prepared or cooked separately, and then blended into a thick, complex substance that is simmered into harmony. Although it is often paired with meats and rice, mole is never the side dish: It is the centerpiece of the table.
>Mole is so deeply rooted in the Mexican consciousness that most children there grow up hearing the origin story of the country’s fabled mole poblano, which dates to late 17th century Puebla. It involves a nun named Sor Andrea de la Asunción of the Convent of Santa Rosa who, while cooking a meal in honor of a visiting archbishop, blended old and new world ingredients, stumbling onto a recipe of dried chiles, seeds, nuts and chocolate that is traditionally served over guajolote (turkey) or chicken. Some versions of the story tell of a “divine wind” that miraculously drops all the ingredients into one pot. (Today, many historians interpret the story as a colonialist myth that romanticized the encounter between indigenous and European cultures and bolstered Mexican nationalist identity.)
>There are countless mole varieties found throughout Mexico, including distinctive regional varieties like mole poblano and the inky mole de huitlacoche from Tlaxcala. The heart and soul of the country’s mole culture, though, is in Oaxaca, nicknamed the land of seven moles.
>Mole is so deeply rooted in the Mexican consciousness that most children there grow up hearing the origin story of the country’s fabled mole poblano, which dates to late 17th century Puebla. It involves a nun named Sor Andrea de la Asunción of the Convent of Santa Rosa who, while cooking a meal in honor of a visiting archbishop, blended old and new world ingredients, stumbling onto a recipe of dried chiles, seeds, nuts and chocolate that is traditionally served over guajolote (turkey) or chicken. Some versions of the story tell of a “divine wind” that miraculously drops all the ingredients into one pot. (Today, many historians interpret the story as a colonialist myth that romanticized the encounter between indigenous and European cultures and bolstered Mexican nationalist identity.)
>There are countless mole varieties found throughout Mexico, including distinctive regional varieties like mole poblano and the inky mole de huitlacoche from Tlaxcala. The heart and soul of the country’s mole culture, though, is in Oaxaca, nicknamed the land of seven moles.
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