Thin strips of lean meat salted and dried in dry air and sun until hard and concentrated. Very salty, intensely umami, it is nibbled as is or rehydrated in a soup.

Why this dish? In guerrilla warfare, in the Sierra and later in Bolivia, fresh meat could not be carried. Charqui — salted and sun-dried meat, inherited from Andean peoples — was the criollo solution for having protein on the move, in the pack, during the long columns described in Che's diaries.

Listen carefully, because in a column it can save you. You take the leanest meat, slice it thin as a leather strap, rub it with salt without mercy. Then hang it in the sun and dry wind, away from flies, and wait — the patience of the guerrilla. It hardens, darkens, and weighs nothing in the pack. When hunger twists your stomach in the middle of the jungle, you chew a piece of charqui, or throw it in hot water with a few grains, and you're revived. The revolution is also won with a stomach that holds.

How it was made : Charqui (from which the English word "jerky" derives) is a pre-Columbian Andean technique adopted by all South American travelers. Without refrigeration, salt and high-altitude sun drying allowed meat to be kept for months — an ideal ration for shepherds, muleteers, and later guerrillas.

The contemporary twist : Present on a snack board as "campaign ration" with a mate on the side, a nod to the marching diaries.

Che Guevara · Charactorium