How Is Mexican Salsa Made?
How Is Mexican Salsa Made? Most Mexican salsas were originally made using a traditional mortar and pestle. Today, modern food processors and blenders are usually used to chop and mix the ingredients for salsa, although some chefs still prefer to make salsa by hand-slicing the ingredients.
Salsa is the Spanish word for “sauce,” but it’s most often used to describe the dips typical of Mexican cuisine. The Spanish word itself probably derives from the Latin sal, which means “salt.”
Also known by names such as salsa picante (“hot” or “spicy sauce”) or pico de gallo (“rooster’s beak”), salsa can range in consistency from chunky to watery and in flavor from very mild to extremely hot.
Most salsas feature tomatoes as their primary ingredient, with a wide variety of other ingredients mixed in, including: onions, chiles, peppers, garlic, cilantro, and lime juice.
Salsa traces its roots back, not to the Spanish, but to the Aztecs of central Mexico during the 14th and 15th centuries. The Aztecs began to cultivate both chiles and tomatoes.
More than just a Mexican delicacy, salsa has become a popular condiment. In fact, salsa passed ketchup in sales in the United States in the early 1990s!