Recado negro
Also known as chilmole, recado de chilmole, black recado, black Yucatecan paste
Paste
Quick answer
The black seasoning paste of the Yucatán, made from dried chillies burned until charred black and ground with charred garlic, black pepper, allspice, cloves, cumin and oregano. It colours and flavours relleno negro and is one of the most unusual chilli preparations anywhere: the chillies are deliberately burned.
In essentially every version: Charred dried Yucatecan chilli, Charred garlic, Black pepper, Allspice, Cloves, Cumin, Mexican oregano.
2 distinct versions are set out below. None of them is presented as the correct one, because there isn’t one.
What goes into it
What essentially every version is made from, with what each ingredient is there to do.
| Ingredient | Role | How essential |
|---|---|---|
| Chile seco yucatecoBurned — traditionally set alight — until black, then soaked. The char is the colour and much of the flavour; the heat drops as the chillies burn. | colour | defining |
| Garlic | savoury depth | defining |
| Black pepper (whole) | heat | defining |
| Allspice (whole) | primary aromatic | defining |
| Cloves (whole) | supporting aromatic | usual |
| Cumin (whole) | supporting aromatic | usual |
| Mexican oregano | supporting aromatic | usual |
| Annatto | colour | optional |
| MaizeSome cooks add charred tortillas to deepen the black and thicken the paste. | bulking | optional |
Moderate. Charred chilli, charred garlic, pepper and allspice are constant; cloves, cumin and oregano are usual; achiote and burned tortilla appear in some versions. Market blocks are denser and saltier than home-made paste, and some commercial pastes darken with charred tortilla more than with chilli.
The versions
Each attributed to whoever describes it. The sources say what goes in and how it is made and give no amounts, so none are shown.
Market block
Typical commercialYucatecan market recado · no amounts given · medium confidence
A dense black block of charred chilli and spices, bought in the market and dissolved in bitter orange juice or water before use.
Made with: Charred dried Yucatecan chilli, Charred garlic, Black pepper, Allspice, Burned tortilla. The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
Home-made recado negro
Household traditionYucatecan household practice · no amounts given · medium confidence
Chillies burned outdoors, soaked, and ground with charred garlic and toasted whole spices into a softer paste, made in quantity for a relleno negro.
Made with: Charred dried Yucatecan chilli, Charred garlic, Black pepper, Allspice, Cloves, Cumin, Mexican oregano. The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
Using it
Dissolved in bitter orange juice or water and cooked slowly with turkey or pork, where it turns the whole dish black. It is used in quantity, not as a pinch.
Bitter-smoky and deeply savoury, like charred wood and burnt sugar, with allspice and clove warmth and black pepper bite. The bitterness is intended and is balanced in the dish by bitter orange, meat fat and long cooking.
Mild to moderate. Burning chars away much of the chillies’ heat along with their flesh.
- Relleno negro (turkey in black sauce)
- Chilmole with pork or turkey
- Black-stuffed eggs in the relleno
Scaling: Scale by the chillies. The char level decides the bitterness, and a larger batch burned less evenly will taste different even at the same ratio.
What to use it on
Turkey
ClassicRelleno negro — turkey cooked in the black recado with a stuffing of spiced pork and egg — is the dish recado negro exists for in the Yucatán.
How: Relleno negro
Storage
Good for: not established
Wrapped and kept cool; in the fridge once opened.
Faded aroma is a quality matter; mould is a safety one.
Allergens and safety
Not among the substances that must be declared as allergens under EU Regulation 1169/2011 Annex II or under the United States major food allergen rules. That is a statement about labelling law and not about whether allergy occurs: allergic reactions to spices are documented in the clinical literature and are simply not a labelling category. Where a ground spice presents an allergen risk it is usually through adulteration or shared processing equipment rather than through the plant itself.
Culture and origin
The Yucatán peninsula of Mexico. Recado negro is the paste; chilmole is the black stew made with it, and relleno negro — turkey stuffed and cooked in that black sauce — is its best-known dish. Like achiote paste it is one of the recados sold in blocks in Yucatecan markets and also made at home.
Yaxché, Valladolid, Yucatán
Among the Maya of Yaxché, Valladolid, Yucatán, Mexico.
A cook of this Maya community makes the paste for relleno negro herself. In her recipe half a kilogram of the dried red chilli she calls chak iik is burned, then soaked for eight days with ground allspice and salt, the water changed every day until it runs white, which she says is to take away the taste of smoke. Only then is it ground to a paste and fried in lard with achiote, epazote and tomato.
One cook’s recipe. Its list of ingredients also has garlic, oregano, cinnamon, cloves and cumin.
Also documented among the Maya: Achiote paste, Recado blanco.
A spice seller in Mérida
Mérida, Mexico.
An ethnographic account of a family spice stall in the Santiago market of Mérida records how its owner makes the paste. He buys a small, red, costly dried chilli the account calls chile país, insisting only that it be thoroughly dry. It is burned without its seeds, after being doused in drinking alcohol, in metal drums in the open air, well away from houses and only when the weather allows, because the smell carries to the nearest village; each drum lasts two or three months. The chilli is burned without being reduced to ash, then ground with cumin, cloves, oregano, black pepper, allspice, garlic, salt and cinnamon, which the account calls the common denominator of the black and the red recado. The author supposes that he does not bulk the paste with burnt tortilla, which she says would go against his principles. Both pastes are diluted in sour orange juice or vinegar when they are used.
One maker’s practice as told to the author, who was not allowed to watch the burning. He gives no proportions.
Also documented in Mérida: Achiote paste.
The Yucatán
The Yucatán, Mexico.
One of the colour-named recados that structure Yucatecan cooking, alongside the red achiote recado. Relleno negro is a festive dish, and burning the chillies for it — outdoors, because of the smoke — is part of the preparation.