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A Morelos charcuterie board built on sun-cured Yecapixtla beef, chile-rubbed queso de cincho, sour crema de rancho, and longaniza off the comal. A Sunday spread from the foothills of the Popocatepetl.
This tabla comes from Morelos. From Yecapixtla specifically, a town of about forty thousand people on the eastern skirts of the Popocatepetl volcano, where the cecina has been cured the same way for more than a century. You will not find this dish in Oaxaca or Yucatan. You will find it on Sunday afternoons in Cuautla, in Tepoztlán, in the family kitchens of central Morelos where the carniceria delivers the sheets of cecina wrapped in butcher paper and the longaniza in a coil tied with twine.
The cecina is the heart of the tabla and it is non-negotiable. Wide sheets of beef, salted, hung in the dry mountain air until the moisture concentrates the flavor into something that is not jerky and not prosciutto but its own animal entirely. Twenty seconds per side on a hot comal and it is done. The queso de cincho is its partner, a pressed cow's-milk cheese named for the cincho, the palm belt that shapes it as it presses, dusted with ground guajillo on the rind. The longaniza brings vinegar and chile. The crema de rancho brings the cool sour weight that holds the whole board together. The nopales come from the same volcanic soil that feeds the cattle.
My mother did not make this tabla. She was from Jalisco and her tablas had carne en su jugo and birria, not cecina. I learned this one from a señora named Doña Rosario who runs a carniceria in the Yecapixtla market and who let me sit on a stool by her counter for three days while I asked questions about the cure. She told me the volcano matters. The wind matters. The pasture matters. The hand that salts the beef matters. Recetas probadas y garantizadas, but only if you take the sourcing as seriously as the cooking. Saber cocinar es saber vivir, and a tabla like this is how Morelos teaches the lesson.
Yecapixtla's cecina tradition traces to the late 19th century, when cattle ranching in the eastern Morelos lowlands and the cool, dry winds descending from the Popocatepetl created ideal conditions for salt-curing thin sheets of beef without refrigeration. The town was officially designated a Pueblo Mágico in 2011, in part on the strength of its cecina, and Morelos law now restricts the commercial use of the name 'cecina de Yecapixtla' to producers operating in the municipality. Queso de cincho, a pressed cow's-milk cheese named for the palm-frond cincho belt used to mold it during pressing, is a shared specialty of highland Guerrero and Morelos and has been produced by small ranchos in the region since the colonial period, when Spanish cheese-making methods met indigenous pastoral traditions on the volcanic slopes.
Quantity
1.5 pounds
thinly sliced salt-cured beef, the sheets large and translucent
Quantity
12 ounces
cut into 4-inch lengths
Quantity
10 ounces
sliced into 1/4-inch slabs
Quantity
2 tablespoons
for rubbing the cheese
Quantity
1 teaspoon
for rubbing the cheese
Quantity
4 medium
cleaned of spines
Quantity
2 tablespoons
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
Quantity
1 cup
Quantity
1 bunch
Quantity
2 small
sliced into thin half-moons
Quantity
1 bunch
sliced thin
Quantity
4
halved
Quantity
24
warmed on the comal at serving time
Quantity
1 pound
for the molcajete salsa
Quantity
3
for the molcajete salsa
Quantity
1
for the molcajete salsa
Quantity
1 small
quartered, for the molcajete salsa
Quantity
1 cup
drained
Quantity
1/2 cup
Quantity
1
sliced at the table
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| cecina de Yecapixtlathinly sliced salt-cured beef, the sheets large and translucent | 1.5 pounds |
| longaniza de Yecapixtlacut into 4-inch lengths | 12 ounces |
| queso de cinchosliced into 1/4-inch slabs | 10 ounces |
| ground chile guajillofor rubbing the cheese | 2 tablespoons |
| ground chile de arbolfor rubbing the cheese | 1 teaspoon |
| nopales (cactus paddles)cleaned of spines | 4 medium |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard) | 2 tablespoons |
| kosher salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| crema de rancho | 1 cup |
| fresh cilantro | 1 bunch |
| white onionssliced into thin half-moons | 2 small |
| radishessliced thin | 1 bunch |
| limeshalved | 4 |
| hand-pressed corn tortillaswarmed on the comal at serving time | 24 |
| ripe tomatoesfor the molcajete salsa | 1 pound |
| fresh chile serranofor the molcajete salsa | 3 |
| garlic clovefor the molcajete salsa | 1 |
| white onionquartered, for the molcajete salsa | 1 small |
| pitted green olives in brine (optional)drained | 1 cup |
| pickled jalapeños en escabeche with carrots (optional) | 1/2 cup |
| ripe avocado (optional)sliced at the table | 1 |
This is the part of the recipe that happens before you cook. The cecina has to come from Yecapixtla or from a Mexican carniceria that brings it in. The sheets should be wide, paper-thin, the color of dark amber where the salt has done its work, and they should smell clean, beefy, faintly tangy from the air-cure. If what you find is thick, wet, or smells funky, do not use it. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and Morelos is the only state that does cecina like this.
Hold each nopal flat against a cutting board and shave off the spines and eyes with a small sharp knife. Trim the thick base. Score the paddle in a few places with the tip of the knife so it cooks evenly. Rub each one with a little salt and a thin film of lard. The lard is not optional. Without it the nopal sticks to the comal and goes leathery.
Roast the tomatoes, serranos, garlic, and quartered onion on a dry comal over medium-high heat. Turn them as they blister. The tomatoes take the longest, about 8 minutes, until the skins char in patches and the flesh collapses. Garlic comes off first, in about 3 minutes. Peel the garlic. Pound everything together in a molcajete with a pinch of salt. Leave it chunky. A blender salsa is not a molcajete salsa. They taste different and you will know.
Queso de cincho is a pressed cow's-milk cheese from the highlands of Guerrero and Morelos, named for the cincho, the palm-frond belt that shapes the wheel as it presses. The traditional version arrives already rubbed with chile on the rind. If yours is plain, lay the slabs on a board and dust both sides with the ground guajillo and a whisper of chile de arbol. Press the chile into the surface with the back of a spoon. The cheese is firm, salty, and dry. The chile rub is what makes it sing on a tabla.
Heat a cast iron comal or a heavy skillet over medium. Lay the longaniza lengths flat. Cook 4 to 5 minutes per side until the casing is bronzed and the fat starts to pool. Yecapixtla longaniza is brighter and more acidic than chorizo, dressed with vinegar and chile guajillo rather than the deeper paprika notes of chorizo from Toluca. Do not pierce the casing. The juice should stay inside until someone bites it.
Push the longaniza to the cooler edge of the comal and lay the nopales flat on the hot side. Cook 4 minutes per side. They will go from bright green to olive, and the cut surfaces will char in spots. Listen for the squeak to quiet down. That is the slick juice cooking off. Slide them onto a board, slice into ribbons, and salt them while they are still warm.
Real Yecapixtla cecina cooks in seconds. Lay one sheet at a time on the hot comal. Twenty seconds per side. The edges will curl and darken. Pull it off the moment it tightens. Stack the sheets on a warm plate as you work. Overcook cecina and you have shoe leather. Undercook it and you miss the smoky edge that makes it worth the trip to the mercado. Así se hace y punto.
Lay everything out on a rough wooden board big enough to be generous. The cecina in loose folded sheets on one side. The longaniza in cut lengths next to it. The chile-rubbed queso de cincho fanned in slabs. The nopal ribbons in a small pile. The crema de rancho in a clay cazuelita with a wooden spoon. The molcajete salsa stays in the molcajete. Tuck the olives and the jalapeños en escabeche into small bowls. Pile the radishes, the sliced onion, the cilantro, and the lime halves around the edges. Bring the warm tortillas in a basket lined with a woven servilleta. The table eats together. No individual plates. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo, but a tabla is the work made into a feast.
1 serving (about 600g)
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