Tabasco Pejelagarto Stock (Caldo Base de Pejelagarto)

Tabasco, the Grijalva and Usumacinta lowlands, is where this broth belongs. Pejelagarto is not a decorative fish from a restaurant menu. It is a river animal, alligator gar, pulled from the waters that have fed Chontal kitchens for generations. You char the bones because the river has depth, and the broth should, too.

This is a base stock, caldo base, not a finished soup. In Villahermosa markets and in Chontal homes, it becomes the liquid behind chirmoles, empanada fillings, green sauces, and broths with momo, also called hoja santa in Tabasco and Chiapas. The chile is amashito, tiny and green, bright in the mouth. It is not piquin. Say that correctly before you cook.

I learned this kind of broth from women who cleaned the fish with a bowl at their feet and a clay pot waiting on the stove. They did not waste the head, the spine, the fins, or the roasted skin. That is household economy, not romance. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo.

There is no acceptable substitute for pejelagarto here. If you cannot get it, make another stock. Do not pretend snapper bones are the same thing. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and Tabasco's river kitchen has its own authority.