a tall perennial plant, of which there are many species in the genus Agave, almost all originating in Mexico or nearby regions. Some, notably A. americana and A. deserti, yield food. They are often called maguey.
Four major parts of the agave are edible: the flowers, the leaves, the stalks or basal rosettes, and the sap.
Each agave plant will produce several pounds of edible flowers during the summer. The starch in the buds is converted into sugar, and the sweet nectar exudes from the flowers.
Agave leaves are best in winter and spring when the plants are rich in sap. (They often have on them larvae of the agave skipper butterfly, Megathymus stephousi; these were roasted on the leaves by the Indians and then picked off and eaten as a delicacy.)
The stalks, which are ready during the summer, before the blossom, weigh several pounds each. Roasted, they are sweet and taste like molasses.
When mature (six to eight years old) the agave provides a fourth food, its sap, which may be tapped at the rate of half a gallon a week for two months or more. In its fresh state this is transparent with a greenish tinge, sweet but with a bitter taste; it makes a pleasant refreshing drink, called agua miel (honey water), or can be boiled down to make a syrup or sugar. However, fermentation sets in quickly; within a few hours, if left to itself, the sugar of the sap will be converted into carbonic acid and alcohol, and on the way to becoming vinegar or the alcoholic drink pulque.
Agave is and was cultivated extensively in the highlands of Mexico, especially as the source of pulque. There is, in effect, a whole cuisine in this region based on these plants.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
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Coe, Sophie (1985), ‘Aztec Cuisine, Part II’, PPC 20.
