Bean Atole

This is a cross-referenced entry: it assumes you have the masa-dough atole base and the chocolate version in front of you, and it changes only the flavoring. As written it also calls for saltpeter in the bean pot, and that is the reason the recipe should be left on the page rather than taken to the stove.

• The saltpeter is the problemPotassium nitrate is a curing chemical, not a cooking ingredient, and the recipe gives no quantity, no ratio to the beans and no indication of how much of the cooking liquid carries into the finished drink. Nitrate and nitrite intake is dose-dependent and the margin in a home kitchen is not something that can be guessed at; there is no way to read this instruction as a measured amount.
• Why it appears at allAlkaline salts such as nitre, or tequesquite, a natural mineral salt, were used in some kitchens to soften bean skins and shorten the boil. Which salt an older text intends is not always clear. That ambiguity is another reason not to follow the line literally.
• If you want the drinkUse a current recipe for atole de frijol. Do not attempt to scale or substitute your way through the instruction above.
• What atole isA drinkable gruel thickened with nixtamalized corn masa, served hot and usually only lightly sweetened. It sits closer to a thin porridge than to a beverage, and it thickens further as it cools.