[LOCUTOR]

Track ten, unit five, an apple a day keeps the doctor away

[HOMEM]

[…] The Aztec diet incorporated many foods, but it revolved principally around the consumption of maize, or what is today known as corn. One well-known example of how maize was incorporated into the Aztec diet is in the, now world famous, tortilla. The tortillas they made back then were as diverse in size, shape and function as they are now. And everyone in the Aztec empire, regardless of social class, consumed them. The flour used by Aztecs to make tortillas came from corn that went through a process called nixtamalization. The kernels were boiled in water and ashes from Juniper wood. They were then soaked overnight until the hard outer part of each kernel had detached. The remaining corn was then ground into flour. The Florentine Codex goes in a fair amount of detail about the many tortilla options available to food shoppers in Tenochtitlan. According to the Codex, the food seller sells folded tortillas, thick tortillas and coarse tortillas. He sells tortillas with turkey eggs, tortillas made with honey, pressed ones, love shape tortillas, plain tortillas, assorted ones, braised ones, sweet tortillas, amaranth seed tortillas, squash tortillas, green maize tortillas, brick shape tortillas, tuna cactus tortillas, broken crumbled old tortillas, cold tortillas, toasted ones, dried tortillas, and stinking tortillas. It's an appetizing sounding menu, except for maybe the stinking tortillas, depends on what they stink of, makes a difference […]