[Mesoamerican food and processing techniques]

Before the arrival of the Spaniards, Mesoamerican inhabitants had a varied diet based on the trilogy maize-beans-chili. Fishing and hunting associated with cultivating plants and breeding animals constituted the means of obtaining food, of which maize was the most basic. Mesoamerican people knew and practiced several methods, techniques, tools and instruments to store, prepare, cook and preserve their food, and most of them are still in use today.