Pantry guide
Best Ancho for home cooking
What Ancho is for, which kitchens use it, and where to find a jar worth cooking with.
Why cooks start here
The wide, wrinkled dried chile that smells like raisins and chocolate: the body of many moles before the cacao goes in.
Toast lightly. Anchos burn and turn bitter if you show off. Soak, seed if you want less heat, and blend with broth. They thicken a sauce as much as they color it.
A good ancho smells like dried fig and cocoa. A stale one smells like cardboard. Buy them pliable, not brittle as glass.
Authentic Mexican Cuisine
Bring the full collection home—authentic recipes, cultural notes, and a beautiful book for your table or as a gift.
Related kitchens
The Mexican pantry, pots, and table
The spices, mixes, and hearths that belong to Mexican cooking — then the people around them, and the kitchens still joining the table.
Open the Mexican pantry Open Mexican cookware The Mexican table Host a Mexican night Join the community