Ate de Perón Moreliano

Michoacán, especially Morelia and the highland orchards around the old Valladolid road, is where this ate lives. Perón is not a supermarket apple pretending to be special. It is a small, firm, aromatic fruit from the cold country, between apple and pear in the way it eats, with enough pectin to become a proper paste when the cook has patience.

Ate moreliano belongs to the convent and dulcería tradition of Morelia, where fruit was not wasted because the season was generous for only a little while. The women who perfected this work knew the copper cazo, the wooden paddle, the slow reduction, the moment when pulp stops behaving like jam and starts becoming something you can slice. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo.

My mother kept ate in the pantry wrapped in paper, next to guava paste and cajeta. She was from Jalisco, but she respected Morelia for its sweets. Eat this with queso fresco or adobera, not alone like a piece of candy. The cheese pulls it back to the table. Cada estado, su propia cocina.