Thanksgiving and family tradition - pasteles! The original social media.

Thanksgiving Ethnography

    As the holiday comes around, there is the opportunity to catch up with the meal itself.  That is, if there is not a football game going on, or everyone is so busy eating that they aren't even speaking.  What can a family do to put the remote down and actually communicate?  I had the opportunity last year to participate in a Puerto Rican tradition that brought everyone together.  The dish is called pasteles, and my wife and new Puerto Rican family gave me an opportunity to participate in this holiday tradition.  The recipe was based on the recipe of the matriarch of the family.
    The creation of pasteles is a very time consuming process.  Last year was the first year the family put the power of food processing to a very arduous, but rewarding task of food preparation for one of the most enjoyable dishes I have had.  The following is an account of the process of making pasteles, and how this process, through monotonous work, allowed us all to enjoy each other's company and actually be interactive as a family, compared with competing with the TV.   I'm rather excited because our extended Colorado family will attempt this for Christmas 2011.
    The Sunday before Thanksgiving we all agreed to meet and make pasteles.  My wife's sisters already set up a table to prepare the food.  Everyone was involved, children and adults.   Here are the steps and ingredients we used to prepare the food.  
   

• Plantains
• Yucca
• Olives
• Pork on the bone prepared, immersed in a pot of water, achiote oil, sofrito, and various cooking spices (see photograph A).
• Potatoes
• Sofrito – one large green pepper, one large red pepper, one large spanish onion, 16-18 cloves of garlic, one bunch of cilantro, 7-10 ajices dulces (sweet peppers), four leaves culantro (or more cilantro), 3-4 cubanelle peppers.  All contents are chopped and then put in a food processor.

Step One  
The meat must be prepared the night before.  You get pork roast on the bone, cut up the meat and place in a pot of water flavored with sofrito and cooking spices.  Let it sit overnight, and the day you are going to make pasteles, boil it over 2 hours.


Photograph A:  Roast pork put in a stew of various spices including sofrito.  Photograph by Erik Fausak 2008

Photograph B:  Sofrito, a traditional cooking supplement for Puerto Rican cooking.  Photograph by Erik Fausak 2008
















Step Two
Sort all the raw food on a table.  Start peeling the Yucca and Plantain skins.  This is probably the most time consuming aspect that requires a large workforce.   Photographs B-D show the process.



Photograph C:  Food preparation table.  Photograph by Remy Saillant 2008








Picture D:  peeling potatoes, plantains, and yucca.  Photograph by Remy Saillant 2008.



Photograph E:  Plantains are quartered and place in a bowl after being peeled.  Photograph by Remy Saillant.









Step Three  

Once a large amount of food is peeled, a group will start shredding, or using a food processor to mix the peeled portions of the vegetables.  At this point, people are still peeling while others are grating/processing the vegetables.  See photographs F – G.




Photograph F:  Shredding of yucca.  Photograph by Remy Saillant 2008.

Photograph G:  Peeled food is processed on the left, while peeling continues on the right.  Photograph by Remy Saillant 2008.






Step Four  
Start mixing the shredded/processed vegetables in a very large bowl.  See photograph H.


Photograph I: Mixing peeled and shredded vegetables. Photo by Remy Saillant 2008.






Step Five
The final preparation of Pasteles involves laying down wax paper, then banana leaf (cut to size).  We proceeded to place oil from the boiling pot of meat on the banana leaf, then spread the dough (masa), and adding a small amount of meat in the middle.   We then fold in thirds, first from the bottom, then slightly shorter from the top, and then fold the ends so they tuck into each other.  After this, we tie two pasteles together with boil-friendly string.  See photographs I – N.



Photograph I:  Spreading the Masa (or dough from processing all the vegetables) on the wax paper sheet.   We first placed water and oil from the pot of meat (see Photograph A) before spreading the Masa.  Photograph by Remy Saillant.







Photogaph J:  After adding the masa and meat, we start folding the paper.  We forgot to put banana leaf, you can line the paper on the inside with banana leaf.   Photograph by Remy Saillant 2008.






Photograph K:  Fold the paper in thirds and then tuck the ends into each other.  Photograph by Remy Saillant 2008.






Photograph L:  How a single pastele should look after it is folded.  Photograph by Remy Saillant 2008.










Photograph M:  The banana leaf comes in long segments that are cut and put on the wax paper before applying the broth from the meat, masa, and meat.  Photograph by Erik Fausak.







Photograph N:  The final product of two pasteles wrapped together. Photograph by Remy Saillant 2008.

Conclusion

    At the heart of any ethnographic account is the identification of a problem and how a culture addresses this problem.  While making pasteles is a traditional recipe, it appears a modern fix for lack of time spent together on holidays.  This is a very labor intensive project that requires a group and is timed with the holidays because that is when family is traditionally together.  This communal project is what enhances familial bonds and, unlike television, allows a higher level of interaction.  A Malaysian friend of mine mourned the end of marriage traditions in Malaysia, where the community worked together to produce food for weddings.  Unfortunately, this tradition has been replaced in Malaysia by catered events.  
    The importance of making pasteles is not just the creation of food for a holiday, but retention of cultural identity for this Puerto Rican family.  It is an important tradition that has been passed on from my wife's mother, and will continue to be passed down to our children.   Ritual and language are important facets of cultural retention that this family will strive to keep through the generations.