Spice
Achiote
Also called annatto, achiote paste
Hard red seeds of the achiote tree, used whole, ground, or pounded into a paste with garlic, spices and sour orange. They dye food a deep orange more reliably than they heat it.
Origin
Mesoamerica and the Amazon, where the seeds were food, dye and body paint. Yucatecan recados and Caribbean marinades still start here.
Flavour
Earthy, slightly peppery and a little floral if you use too much. Heat is modest.
How it is made
Seeds are dried, then steeped in fat for colour or ground with garlic, cumin, oregano, pepper and bitter orange into a brick of paste. Commercial recado rojo is that paste.
How to use it
For al pastor or cochinita pibil, blend the paste with citrus and oil until it coats meat in an even rust-red film. Bloom ground seeds or paste in warm fat before adding liquid, so the dye spreads instead of sitting in specks. A pale stand-in is sweet paprika plus a dash of vinegar, but it will not taste of the forest floor. Do not treat achiote as chilli heat — you will overshoot the colour long before anyone sweats.
Storage
Whole seeds keep in a dark pantry jar. Paste belongs in the fridge after opening; freeze leftover cubes.
Recipes using it
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