Arepa de maíz (Corn Cake of the Plains)
A round corn cake, crispy outside and soft inside, cooked on a hot griddle. Simple, nourishing, it is the substitute bread of regions without wheat.
A round corn cake, crispy outside and soft inside, cooked on a hot griddle. Simple, nourishing, it is the substitute bread of regions without wheat.
Where European wheat does not grow, man makes himself a bread of corn, and I assure you it equals ours. The grain is soaked, pounded, kneaded into a dough that is flattened into a disc and cooked on a clay plate reddened by fire. It browns, swells a little, and clings to the body like no baker's bread. I have broken many a one under the palms, asking no more of my table than this warm disc and a little meat.
- •Pounded corn (corn masa) — as needed (base)
- •Water — for the dough (binder)
- •Salt — a pinch (seasoning)
Arepa de maíz (Corn Cake of the Plains)
A round corn cake, crispy outside and soft inside, cooked on a hot griddle. Simple, nourishing, it is the substitute bread of regions without wheat.
Why this dish? Corn appears in his field diet. Where wheat was lacking, the arepa was the daily bread of the Venezuelans around him; Humboldt ate it with his tasajo between barometer readings.
Where European wheat does not grow, man makes himself a bread of corn, and I assure you it equals ours. The grain is soaked, pounded, kneaded into a dough that is flattened into a disc and cooked on a clay plate reddened by fire. It browns, swells a little, and clings to the body like no baker's bread. I have broken many a one under the palms, asking no more of my table than this warm disc and a little meat.
Ingredients (period version)
- Pounded corn (corn masa) — as needed (base)
- Water — for the dough (binder)
- Salt — a pinch (seasoning)
Ingredients
- Pre-cooked corn flour (harina de maíz, arepa type) — 250 g (base)
- Warm water — approx. 300 ml (binder)
- Salt — 1 tsp (seasoning)
- Oil — a drizzle (cooking)
Method
- Mix the corn flour and salt, add warm water little by little, kneading until a soft dough that no longer sticks.
- Let rest 5 minutes, then form balls and flatten into discs 1.5 cm thick.
- Heat a pan or griddle with a drizzle of oil, cook the arepas 5–7 minutes per side until a golden crust forms.
- Optionally finish in a hot oven for a few minutes: the arepa should sound hollow and puff slightly.
- Split and fill, or eat plain with the dried meat.
How it was made : Corn, domesticated in Mesoamerica for millennia, was the mother grain of the continent. It was soaked, sometimes with lime (nixtamalization), then pounded and cooked on the budare, a clay griddle. It was the bread of the poor and travelers alike, where European wheat did not thrive.
The contemporary twist : Split the arepa and fill it with the shredded tasajo from the first recipe: a llanos 'sandwich,' bridging two of Humboldt's dishes.
Alexander von Humboldt · Charactorium
