Pan de muerto

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Pan de Muerto

Alternative names	Bread of the dead
Type	Sweet bread
Place of origin	Mexico
Cookbook: Pan de Muerto   Media: Pan de Muerto

A basket of pan de muerto

Pan de muerto (Spanish for '"bread of the dead"'), is a type of pan dulce traditionally baked in Mexico and the Mexican diaspora during the weeks leading up to the Día de los Muertos, which is celebrated from November 1st to November 2nd.^[1]

Description[]

It is a sweetened soft bread shaped like a bun, often decorated with bone-shaped phalange pieces.^[2][3] Some traditions state that the rounded or domed top of the bread represents a grave.^[3] Bread of the dead usually has skulls or crossbones added in extra dough.^[4] The bones represent the deceased one (difuntos or difuntas), or perhaps bones coming out of a grave, there is normally a baked tear drop on the bread to represent goddess Chīmalmā's tears for the living.^[3] The bones are often represented in a circle to portray the circle of life. The bread is topped with sugar, sometimes white and sometimes dyed pink.^[5] This bread can be found in Mexican grocery stores in the U.S.

The classic recipe for pan de muerto is a simple sweet bread recipe, often with the addition of anise seeds, and other times flavored with orange flower water or orange zest.^[5] The bread often contains some fat, such as butter. Its texture has been described as similar to that of challah, brioche, or falling between a concha and a hamburger bun.^[6][5][7][3]

Other variations are made depending on the region or the baker. The one baking the bread will usually wear decorated wristbands, a tradition which was originally practiced to protect from burns on the stove or oven.

Pan de muerto is eaten on Día de Muertos, at the gravesite or alternatively, at a domestic altar called an ofrenda.^[8] In some regions, it is eaten for months before the official celebration of Dia de Muertos. As part of the celebration, loved ones eat pan de muerto as well as the relative's favorite foods, but not those that have been placed on the ofrenda. It is believed the spirits do not eat, but absorb its essence, along with water at their ofrenda, after their long journey back to Earth.^[5]

History[]

Early history[]

Pan de muerto seems to have pre-Colombian origins in indigenous practices and Mesoamerican religion; some followers baked bread as an offering to commemorate the deceased.^[9] Other scholars tie it to seasonal changes, or the growing cycle of maize (corn), in which offerings to the dead encouraged a good harvest.^[5] Some scholars describe the tradition as an outgrowth of human sacrifices in which a heart was placed in amaranth, leading to the development of a heart-shaped amaranth-based baked good.^[10] An amaranth baked good was linked to this type of commemoration in the writings of Bernardino de Sahagún.^[11] It serves as an example of syncretic practices between indigenous and Christian traditions.^[12]

As a specific soft, sweetened, yeast bread, it has been linked historically to Mallorcan ensaïmada.^[13]

20th and 21st centuries[]

Until the 1970s and 1980s in the United States, pan de muerto was not common in celebrations of what was then largely called All Saints’ Day, but the rise of Chicano cultural activism lead to an embrace of the bread, public altars, and the name Dia de los Muertos.^[14] In Latinx communities in Los Angeles, for example, many public altars serve as protests, such as those dedicated to the victims of police brutality.^[5]

With the rise of globalized cultural awareness starting in the 1990s, pan de muerto has become a cultural ambassador for Mexican popular culture. A 2019 Japanese exhibition at the National Museum of Ethnology on Mexican folk art, for example, included a baking demonstration and samples of the bread for visitors.^[15] As a form of cultural outreach and collaboration with local communities, some American museums and institutions create public altars that include pan de muerto.^[16][17]

Regional variations[]

In San Andrés Mixquic, despeinadas (literally, unkempt ones) are made with sprinkles and sesame seeds.^[18]

Muertes (deaths), made in the State of Mexico, are made with a mix of sweet and plain dough with a small amount of cinnamon. Other types in the region include gorditas de maíz, aparejos de huevo (egg sinkers, apparently after fishing weights) and huesos (bones).^[18]

In Michoacán, breads include pan de ofrenda (offering bread), the shiny pan de hule, (rubber bread) and corn-based corundas, made with tomato sauce and chile de árbol.^[18]

In Puebla, and in diaspora communities, the bread often is coated with bright pink sugar.^[7] Within Puebla, there are further regional specializations, with towns such as San Sebastián Zinacatepec known for baking pan de muerto.^[19]

In popular culture[]

While the bread has always been an expression of popular religious celebrations, by the late 2010s, pan de muerto had become more known through several American pop culture representations. It appeared in the 2017 Pixar film Coco, which broadened recognition of the bread outside the Mexican diaspora.^[20][5] In the award-winning young adult novel Cemetery Boys by Latinx author Aiden Thomas (2020), pan de muerto is a central component in a Dia de los Muertos celebration.^[21]

See also[]

• Dead-cakes

• Sin-eater

• Pan dulce
• List of buns
•  Mexico portal
•  Food portal

References[]

External links[]

• Media related to Pan de Muerto at Wikimedia Commons