Tepache Oaxaqueño de Piña

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Clean 3-liter glass jar or barro vidriado olla from Oaxaca
• •Clean cotton cloth and kitchen twine for covering the jar
• •Wooden spoon
• •Fine-mesh sieve and cheesecloth for straining

Instructions

1. 1

   Scrub the pineapple

   The fermentation lives on the skin. Wild yeasts cling to the rind, and that is what turns sweet water into tepache. Scrub the pineapple under cold running water with a clean brush. Do not use soap and do not peel it. If the skin is waxed or sprayed, that is the wrong pineapple. Buy one from a market vendor who sells fruit by the pile, not by the carton.

   A pineapple that smells like pineapple at the base, sweet, perfumed, almost honeyed, is a pineapple that will ferment. One that smells like nothing will give you nothing.
2. 2

   Cut the pineapple

   Slice the crown off and discard. Cut the pineapple lengthwise into quarters. Cut away the sweet yellow flesh and save it for breakfast or for an agua fresca. The tepache is made from the rind and the core. Chop the rinds and core into rough pieces, two or three inches across. Skin and core. That is the recipe. The flesh is a bonus.

3. 3

   Build the vessel

   Put the pineapple rinds and core into a clean 3-liter glass jar or a clay olla if you have one. Add the chopped piloncillo, the canela, the cloves, and the allspice. Pour in the room-temperature water. Cold water slows the yeast. Hot water kills it. Room temperature is what the yeast wants. Stir with a wooden spoon until the piloncillo starts to dissolve.

   If you can find a barro vidriado olla from Oaxaca, use it. The clay holds temperature steady and the inside of the jar develops a memory for the next batch. A glass jar works. A metal pot does not. Acid plus metal is bitter tepache.
4. 4

   Cover and wait

   Cover the mouth of the jar with a clean cotton cloth and tie it down with kitchen twine. Air must move in and out. A sealed lid traps gas and your jar will explode or your tepache will turn to vinegar. Set the jar in a warm corner of the kitchen, away from direct sun, between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Leave it alone for 24 hours.

5. 5

   Check at 24 hours

   After a day, you will see white foam on the surface and you will smell something sweet, fruity, slightly funky, like pineapple turning into something more interesting than pineapple. That is fermentation. Stir gently with a wooden spoon. Taste a spoonful with a clean spoon. It should be sweet, fizzy on the tongue, with a faint warmth at the back. If it is still flat and only sweet, give it another day. Cada cocina, su propio tiempo.

   If you see a fuzzy mold, green, black, or pink, throw it out and start over. White foam is yeast. Colored fuzz is contamination. Trust your nose. Tepache should smell like fruit and beer. It should never smell like a basement.
6. 6

   Ferment a second day

   Re-cover and let it sit another 12 to 24 hours. The Oaxacan window is 36 to 48 hours total in a warm kitchen. Less time gives you a sweet, barely-fizzy agua. More time gives you something sharper, drier, almost like a pineapple cider with a low alcohol bite, around 1 to 2 percent. Past 72 hours, the yeast has eaten most of the sugar and the tepache turns to vinegar. That vinegar is also useful, but it is no longer tepache.

7. 7

   Strain and bottle

   When the tepache tastes the way you want it, strain it through a fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth into a clean pitcher or bottles. Press lightly on the rinds to get the last of the liquid. Discard the spent rinds and spices. Refrigerate immediately. Cold stops the fermentation in its tracks. The tepache is ready to drink and will keep for about a week, getting drier and sharper as the days pass.

8. 8

   Serve over ice

   Pour over a tall glass of ice. Squeeze a wedge of lime in. If you grew up with it, rim the glass with chile piquín and a little salt. In the puestos of the Mercado Benito Juárez in Oaxaca, they serve it in a hand-thrown clay jarrito, no straw, with a slice of fresh pineapple on the rim. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •The pineapple has to be ripe and unwaxed. The yeast is on the skin. A waxed pineapple from a supermarket has been sterilized and your tepache will not start. Buy from a market vendor or a fruit stand. If you can smell the pineapple from across the room, you have the right one.
• •Piloncillo is not brown sugar. It is unrefined cane sugar pressed into cones, and it carries a smoky molasses depth that white sugar and brown sugar cannot replicate. La Costeña and Goya both sell it. If you cannot find it, dark muscovado is the closest compromise, but it is a compromise.
• •Heat is what controls fermentation speed. A Oaxacan kitchen in summer ferments tepache in 36 hours. A cold apartment in winter will need 60 hours or a warm corner near the stove. Taste at 24 hours and decide from there. Recipes that give you exact times for ferments are lying. Your kitchen sets the clock.

Advance Preparation

• •Tepache is by definition a make-ahead drink. The two-day ferment is the recipe.
• •Once strained and refrigerated, tepache keeps for about a week. It will continue to ferment slowly in the cold, growing drier and sharper. Drink it within seven days for the brightest flavor.
• •Past a week, the tepache turns into pineapple vinegar. Save it. It is excellent in salsas, on cucumber, or splashed into a pot of beans.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 250g)