Piedrazos Oaxaqueños
(pee-eh-drah-sos wah-hah-ken-yos)
Antojitos & The Masa Life: Street Food at Home
If you linger outside a primary school or an ice cream shop in Oaxaca City around three o'clock, you'll inevitably spot people clutching little plastic bags filled with a dark, brothy liquid, stabbing at the contents with wooden sticks. This is the piedrazo—literally, a 'blow from a stone'—born from a culture's stubborn refusal to waste a single crumb of day-old bread. Leftover rolls are baked until they reach the density of actual rocks, then drowned in a wildly complex, fermented pineapple vinegar loaded with pickled vegetables and string cheese. Since you probably don't have thirty days to wild-ferment fruit scraps on a weeknight, this recipe uses a rapid thermal infusion of apple cider vinegar, piloncillo, and pineapple to cheat the deep, funky tang of the motherland in twenty minutes flat. It is aggressively acidic, deeply savory, and exactly what it tastes like in the plaza.
Before you start
Preheat the oven to 200°F.
Bake the bread cubes for two to three hours until completely dehydrated.
To make authentic piedrazos, your bread must be completely devoid of moisture, or it will turn to mush in the vinegar. Spread the bread cubes on a baking sheet and bake until they are rock-hard all the way through and sound like actual stones rattling against the pan. Let them cool completely and store in an airtight container.
Ingredients
- crusty bread4 cup
- unfiltered apple cider vinegar1 1/2 cup
- water1 1/2 cup
- fresh pineapple1 cup
- piloncillo or dark brown sugar3 tbsp
- garlic3 med clove
- dried chipotle or morita chili1 large
- Mexican bay leaves2 med
- dried Mexican oregano1 tsp
- dried thyme1/2 tsp
- kosher salt1 1/2 tsp
- waxy potatoes1 cup
- carrot1 large
- red onion1/2 med
- Oaxacan quesillo or low-moisture mozzarella1 cup
- sal de chile or chili powder1 tbsp
- vinegar-based Mexican hot sauce1 tbsp
Method
- 01
Build the faux-fermented broth by bringing the vinegar, water, pineapple, and aromatics to a boil.
In a medium saucepan or Dutch oven, combine the apple cider vinegar, water, pineapple chunks and rinds, piloncillo, garlic, dried chili, bay leaves, oregano, thyme, and salt. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil over medium-high heat.
- 02
Lower the heat to a gentle simmer and quick-pickle the potatoes.
Once the broth is boiling, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, toss in the cubed potatoes, and let them cook for about 8 minutes.
- 03
Add the sliced carrots and red onion to the simmering broth.
Simmer for another 5 minutes, or until the potatoes are just tender when pierced with a fork. The high acidity of the vinegar strengthens the cell walls of the potatoes, ensuring they absorb flavor without turning to mush.
- 04
Remove the saucepan from the heat and strain out the spent aromatics.
Using tongs, pluck out and discard the pineapple rinds, garlic cloves, bay leaves, and the dried chili.
- 05
Drown the fossilized bread in the hot vinegar broth.
Place a handful of the rock-hard bread cubes into deep serving bowls or sturdy plastic baggies. Ladle the hot vinegar broth and pickled vegetables generously over the bread.
- 06
Wait a few minutes for the bread to soften, then garnish heavily and serve.
Do not eat it immediately; wait 3 to 5 minutes so the exterior of the bread softens into a savory sponge while the center retains a tiny bit of crunchy resistance. Shower the top with stringy quesillo, a heavy pinch of sal de chile, and several dashes of hot sauce before digging in with a spoon or a wooden stick.
Notes
Boiling the vinegar rapidly mimics natural fermentation.
Simmering the apple cider vinegar with the fresh fruit and unrefined sugar rapidly replicates the esterification and flavor development that usually takes thirty days of natural wild yeast fermentation in Oaxaca.
From Cook Oaxacan in America.