While at Central de Abastos last week, I spied squares of this jellied, lemon-yellow substance. “Acitrón,” a hand-painted sign read. They were 15 pesos each. (That’s little over $1.)
I remembered reading something about acitrón in the newspaper awhile back, but I couldn’t remember exactly what. So I bought some. Took it home, did a little googling, and found out that it’s crystallized biznaga cactus.
Not only that, but it’s semi-hard to find — the Mexican government declared the biznaga cactus in danger of extinction in 2003. Since then, according to El Universal, breadmakers all over Mexico have scrambled to find a substitute for acitrón in their Rosca de Reyes recipes, a traditional bread eaten during Three Kings Day. Most now use ate (pronounced AH-tay), another traditional type of jellied fruit.
I wasn’t up for making bread, or chiles en nogada, which is the other popular way to use acitrón. So a few days ago, I diced it and tossed it in a salad with toasted pecans. It had a mild, vegetal flavor I liked, despite being doused in sugar.
Apparently you can also eat it plain, as a dessert with your digestif. This woman chopped it up and stirred it into muffins, with figs and dried cranberries.
If you have any other acitrón suggestions, let me know. I’d love to hear them!
UPDATE: Check out the comments section for LaZorra’s very cool link to a photo of the weird-looking, roly-poly biznaga cactus.
Could you use it like you would raisins in something like a rice pilaf dish? Or a tagine-type stew?
Lesley, now you have me wondering if our roscas since 2005 were adorned with acitron or ate (they were delicious any way you slice it, lol).
As usual, a marvelous post with interesting and informative links.
Instead of the golden raisins in Cuban picadillo, you could perhaps sub acitron…
xo G.
Suzie: Love the rice pilaf idea. Maybe I could throw some nuts in there, too. Toasted almonds maybe. Or maybe… couscous! It’s kind of exotic here, so it’d be nice to fancify it with some endangered acitrón. That’d make a great light supper someday. Poss with some grilled fish.
Gemma: Yeah, picadillo is definitely a must-try. I’ve never had Cuban picadillo before, but you’ve piqued my interest with the golden raisins. I like the idea of doing a chiles-en-nogada kind of picadillo, with maybe six ingredients instead of 12. (Or however many there are.) We’ll see!
The idea of adding acitron to a pilaf or tagine sounds awesome! Lesley, my boyfriend and I are going to be staying in Condesa for almost a month, we arrive on Oct. 31 and stay through Nov. 20. I am looking for a cooking class or two but what I keep seeing are all inclusive deals with accommodations and side trips included. I just want a few day classes to attend–any suggestions? I’m super excited to have found your blog-thanks!
Lisa
Here’s a photo of a very large biznaga in the Jardin Etnobotanico de Oaxaca
http://www.elpais.com/yoperiodista/articulo/Periodista/Mexico/defensa_del_medio_ambiente_floral/rescate_de_plantas_en_peligro_de_extincion/Jardin_etnobotanico/planta/siglos/elpepuyop/20090526elpyop_1/Ies
You would very much enjoy this jardin and the tours – they are collecting native plants from all over Oaxaca in order to save them from extinction and to record their native and traditional uses.
These biznagas really are endangered, and need to be protected. The very big ones have a lot of flesh from which to make acitron – but these are very ancient and will all disappear if continued to be cut down – really something else should be used in cooking instead, as you pointed out in your excellent article.
Sorry – I would have posted one of my own photos of the same biznaga so that you could see how large it is in relation to a person — it is very high, taller than 7 feet and very large in circumference, a lot of people could surround it – but I don’t know how to post a photo to this little box. The biznaga plant’s nickname is “mother-in-law’s seat” because it has long, sharp spines, ha ha ha. Sometime you’ll go to Oaxaca and then be sure to see the Jardin Etnobotanico, you’ll enjoy seeing the native foods section of the Jardin for sure!
Wow! It’s so lumpy and weird-looking, for a cactus. (But interesting — I like strange-looking plants.) Thanks for posting that! I’ll add an update to the original post, so people will know to click on your photo.
hello Leslye
I loved your page and your work here just as I love acitrón…
Keep on the good work
I made vegetarian Chiles en Nogada, but did not have acitron… A friend just picked some up in Oaxaca for me… I sent him your article to help him know what to look for (Thank you for the info and help)… Looking forward to picking it up… I will have to move on to the other, non-endangered versions in the future.
http://sybilwisdom.blogspot.com/search/label/taste
Glad I could be of some help there. What did you fill the veggie chiles en nogada with? I’m curious.
Hello 🙂
I’m sorry to have taken so long to respond to you, but I only just saw your reply today.
I have gotten my acitron and have tasted it! I will attempt a Rosca de Reyes this January (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosca_de_reyes).
I used the soy chorizo from Trader Joe’s, so I probably could have left out some seasoning. (Check out my post on my blog: http://sybilwisdom.blogspot.com/search/label/taste *Scroll down to ‘Chiles en Nogada’)
Otherwise, I used the traditional fruits.
I am going to continue to explore and experiment with recipes.
Do you know where one can buy acitron in the Los Angeles area?
Thanx again for your help! 🙂