Tepache Norteño

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •3-liter unglazed clay olla, or a large glass jar as a substitute
• •Clean cotton cloth or cheesecloth and kitchen string for the cover
• •Wooden spoon for stirring (never metal)
• •Fine-mesh strainer and a second piece of cheesecloth for straining
• •Heavy glass tumblers (vaso jarocho) for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Pick the right pineapple

   The pineapple has to be ripe. Not green, not pale, not the underweight kind they ship north of the border in winter. You want fragrant at the base, golden under the rind, heavy in the hand. Tepache is a rind fermentation. The yeast lives on the skin. A green pineapple has nothing to give you. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.

   Never wash the pineapple with soap. A quick scrub with cold water and a clean brush is enough. Soap kills the wild yeasts and your tepache will not ferment.
2. 2

   Cut the pineapple

   Slice off the crown and the base. Stand the pineapple up and cut down the sides, removing the rind in long strips. Reserve every piece of rind. Cube the yellow flesh and save about half of it for the olla. Eat the rest, or save it for an agua fresca. The rind and the flesh together make a tepache with body. Rind alone makes a thinner drink. Both ways are correct. The norteña version leans on more flesh because the heat of the region calls for a sweeter, fuller jarra.

3. 3

   Dissolve the piloncillo

   Chop the piloncillo cones with a heavy knife or grate them on the coarse side of a box grater. Place the piloncillo in a small saucepan with one cup of the filtered water. Warm over medium-low heat, stirring, until the piloncillo dissolves completely. About 5 to 7 minutes. Do not boil. Boiling caramelizes the sugar and dulls the molasses notes that make piloncillo what it is.

   Do not substitute white sugar. Piloncillo carries the smoky, earthy molasses that defines tepache. Dark brown sugar is a compromise. White sugar is a different drink.
4. 4

   Build the olla

   Place the pineapple rinds and reserved flesh in a clean 3-liter clay olla or a large glass jar. Add the cinnamon sticks, cloves, and crushed allspice. Pour in the dissolved piloncillo syrup. Top with the remaining filtered water, leaving about two inches of headroom for the ferment to breathe. Stir once with a wooden spoon. No metal in the olla. Metal reacts with the acids and the wild yeasts do not like it. Asi se hace y punto.

5. 5

   Cover and ferment

   Cover the olla with a clean cotton cloth or a piece of cheesecloth, and tie it with kitchen string. The ferment needs air to breathe and protection from flies. Set it on the counter, out of direct sun, in a warm corner of the kitchen. Sonoran summers ferment tepache in two days. A cool kitchen in winter can take four. Three days is the norteña standard. Taste it on day two and again on day three.

   You will see bubbles on the surface within 24 hours. That is the wild yeast waking up. A white foam on top is normal. A fuzzy gray or green mold is not. If you see mold, the ferment is finished and you start again with a clean olla.
6. 6

   Taste and judge the day

   Tepache is ready when it tastes like a sweet pineapple cider with a faint funk and a tickle of carbonation. Sweet but tangy. Not sour. Not alcoholic. If you let it go a day too long, you have vinagre de piña, which is a fine ingredient but not the drink you are making. In summer, check at 48 hours. In winter, give it the full 72. Trust your tongue, not the clock.

7. 7

   Strain and chill

   Strain the tepache through a fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth into a clean glass pitcher. Press lightly on the solids to release the last of the liquid. Discard the rinds and spices. Refrigerate the tepache for at least four hours. It needs to be served cold. Warm tepache is a confused drink.

8. 8

   Serve the norteña way

   Pour over ice into heavy glass tumblers, the kind that live behind the bar at any norteño cantina. In Sonora and Sinaloa, half the glass is tepache and the other half is cold Tecate or Pacifico. They call this a tepache cervecero and it is the working drink of the desert summer. For a Sonoran touch, rim the glass with salt mixed with crushed chiltepín. Serve it the moment it is poured. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •Buy the ripest pineapple you can find. Not the one that looks pretty on the produce display. Smell the base. If it does not smell like pineapple through the rind, it is not ripe enough. A bad pineapple makes a flat tepache and there is no recovering from it.
• •The clay olla matters. Not for snobbery, for chemistry. Unglazed clay breathes, which is what the ferment wants. A glass jar works as a compromise. Plastic is a last resort and the flavor will be flatter. Never use metal.
• •If your kitchen runs cold, drape a clean kitchen towel around the olla to insulate it. The ferment slows below 22 degrees Celsius and stops below 18. In a Sonoran summer it can be ready in 36 hours. In a cool kitchen in February it can take four full days.
• •Once strained, tepache keeps in the refrigerator for about a week, but the carbonation builds and the flavor turns sharper each day. After a week it crosses into vinagre de piña. That vinegar is useful for dressing a fruit salad or for cooking, so do not throw it out.

Advance Preparation

• •The active ferment takes 2 to 4 days depending on kitchen temperature. Plan accordingly. Tepache is not a same-day drink.
• •Once strained and refrigerated, tepache is best within five days. Past a week, it turns sharply acidic and becomes vinagre de piña, which is its own useful thing but no longer a refresher.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 260g)