Caldillo De Betabel

This recipe comes from the 1830 handwritten cooking notebook of Concepción Gutierres y Franco, a woman recording her household's culinary knowledge in early 19th-century Mexico. The manuscript, titled 'Del Huso,' contains family recipes—and this beet soup reflects Spanish colonial influence fused with indigenous Mexican ingredients. Such notebooks were passed down among women and reveal a kitchenscape before the global unification of culinary techniques and precise measurements. In this era, beetroot recipes showcased new world agricultural variety, and chicken stock signaled a degree of household prosperity.

All the work would have been done by hand in a relatively simple domestic kitchen. Beetroots were washed in basins and cooked over an open fire or on a comal with clay or copper pots. Milling or grinding was accomplished with a stone metate or a large mortar and pestle (molcajete), especially for the spices and chiles. The mixture would be fried in a heavy pan, such as cast iron or clay cazuela, likely over wood or charcoal fire. Ladles made from gourds or wood and simple knives finished the preparation. Vinegar was often homemade from local fermentation.