The paw toast are one of those delicacies lunch boxes of yesteryear in Mexico City: fresh, served with cream, cheese, lettuce, avocado and spicy sauce, one of those appetizers that must be eaten quickly before the weight breaks the toast and ends up as a disaster on the plate. It is a close relative of pork rinds prepared with leather.
Its texture is viscous but tasty, gelatinous. Curiously, in Jalisco there are toast of little leathers that are accompanied with lettuce and sweet sauce, but how similar are these two preparations?
What is the leg made of?
While the cueritos are pork, the leg is beef. Both are made in pickle, “a marinade that is used to marinate various foods in order to preserve them for a long time,” says the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mexican Gastronomy.
It consists of vinegar, water, spices and the food in question. It has been documented that this type of preparation was perfected in Spain, then it arrived in Mexico during the Conquest period.
The prepared durito cueritos are made with the pigskin (the same that gives shape to the crunchy chicharrón that they sell in butcher shops), it is cooked and marinated in vinegar with herbs and is sold by the kilo or in bags.
Meanwhile, the leg is beefalso has a similar cooking in plenty of vinegar, salt, oregano, they are pitted and chopped.
According to Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mexican Gastronomyin Mexico the beef, pork, venison and chicken feet.
Said specialized source adds that beef leg toasts They are one of the most typical of CDMX and there are many variants: sometimes they only have lettuce or cabbage and crumbled cheese; other times they add refried beans, avocado, radishes, onion and pickled jalapeño peppers.
Likewise, there are those who make similar toasts, but with pickled pork feetboneless or without bone, to suck the bones.
Who invented the tostadas de pata?
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, since the prehispanic era is aware of toastswhen the tortillas were left on the fire until they were stiff and crunchyto later eat them with beans and chili.
With the Arrival of the SpaniardsSeveral of its current ingredients also made port in the current Mexican territory: paw, cream and cheeseIn addition, he began to prepare with the fried tortillabecause they introduced this type of cooking.
At least since the 19th century there are already records of the preparation of beef legs, in the New Mexican cook, in the form of a dictionary (1858) mentions a recipe for ‘fashionable jellied ox’where the legs of the beef were used.
There are businesses with a long tradition in this dish, in Mexico City, for example, Tostadas la Chaparrita in the Coyoacán Market, which has been selling since 1956.
