Salsa! The Aztecs liked it and so do we.
Salsa, Spanish for "sauce," is one of the classic ingredients of Mexican cooking. Salsas include tomatoes or tomatillos with a mix of ingredients including onions, garlic and cilantro. The Spanish conquistadors recorded the Aztecs using similar sauces, and some food historians speculate salsa was probably being eaten centuries before the Spanish arrived to write about it.
16th Century
The 16th-century Spanish missionary Bernardino de Sahagun wrote extensively about Aztec food after arriving in Mexico with the conquistadors. The website Gourmetsleuth.com quotes Sahagun describing vendors in the Aztec marketplace whose food sauces were made of tomatoes and many varieties of chilles, similar to the salsa we know today.
The Name
Alonso de Molina named the Aztec mix "salsa" in 1571, according to foodtimeline.org.
Cookbooks
The earliest cookbook reference to salsa that gourmetsleuth.com could turn up was in "El Cocerina Espanol"--"The Spanish Cook"--in 1898. It included recipes for Salsa Picante de Chile Colorado and Salsa de Chile Verde, a red sauce and a green sauce respectively. Both were "salsa frescas," salsas made of fresh uncooked ingredients.
Salsa Spreads
Foodtimeline.org says salsa began spreading beyond the Hispanic community in the 1940s, starting in the Southwest. Commercial salsa manufacturing dates back to 1947, when Dave and Margaret Pace started making salsa in the back of a store in San Antonio, Texas. Today, the Pace company is one of the top eight salsa manufacturers.
Continuing Growth
In 1991, according to gourmetsleuth.com, salsa sales surpassed ketchup. Today, its use has spread far beyond Mexican dishes. Seriouseats.com recommends using salsa on pizzas, burgers, grits and as an alternative to cocktail sauce for shrimp.
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