Mexican Name Finder
IngredientSpanishnationwide

Piloncillo

"unrefined cane sugar cone"

Also called Panela.

Say it

pee·lon·SEE·yoh

Built from

Spanish pilóncone, sugar loaf+-cillodiminutive

What Piloncillo means

Piloncillo is a Mexican ingredient name of Spanish origin meaning "unrefined cane sugar cone". It is built from Spanish pilón (cone, sugar loaf) and -cillo (diminutive). It is pronounced pee-lon-SEE-yoh, and it is most associated with the whole country.

Named for the mould it sets in, a small truncated cone. The same sugar is panela elsewhere in Latin America, named for its rectangular panel shape.

This is a site about what Mexican words mean, so there is no recipe here. For the name itself: The words that appear inside dish names: the chiles (ancho, guajillo, pasilla, chipotle), the corn words (nixtamal, masa, tortilla, elote), and the tools (comal, molcajete, metate). Learn these and most menu items decode themselves.

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Piloncillo means unrefined cane sugar cone

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