Carne de sol com macaxeira (sun-dried beef with manioc)
Beef lightly salted and sun-dried, then desalted, grilled, and served with boiled, tender manioc (macaxeira), all drizzled with manteiga de garrafa (liquid clarified butter).
Beef lightly salted and sun-dried, then desalted, grilled, and served with boiled, tender manioc (macaxeira), all drizzled with manteiga de garrafa (liquid clarified butter).
The Northeast taught me that you can keep meat without losing it: you salt it, you offer it to the sun, and the sun gives it back to us, concentrated, almost severe. As a child in Recife, I watched manioc cook until it became tender like a soft word beneath a hard word. We grill the meat, we drizzle it with liquid butter, and the harshness of the sertão suddenly becomes generous. Taste it slowly: it is the memory of a dry land that never stopped nourishing.
- •Beef salted and sun-dried (carne de sol) — a nice piece (preserved protein)
- •Macaxeira (sweet manioc) — according to guests (starch)
- •Manteiga de garrafa (bottled clarified butter) — a drizzle (flavored fat)
- •Onion — one (garnish)
- •Coarse salt — for salting (preservation)
Carne de sol com macaxeira (sun-dried beef with manioc)
Beef lightly salted and sun-dried, then desalted, grilled, and served with boiled, tender manioc (macaxeira), all drizzled with manteiga de garrafa (liquid clarified butter).
Why this dish? Clarice grew up in Recife, capital of the Northeast. Carne de sol and macaxeira are the foundational flavors of her childhood region, the cuisine of the sertão that entered every home in Pernambuco.
The Northeast taught me that you can keep meat without losing it: you salt it, you offer it to the sun, and the sun gives it back to us, concentrated, almost severe. As a child in Recife, I watched manioc cook until it became tender like a soft word beneath a hard word. We grill the meat, we drizzle it with liquid butter, and the harshness of the sertão suddenly becomes generous. Taste it slowly: it is the memory of a dry land that never stopped nourishing.
Ingredients (period version)
- Beef salted and sun-dried (carne de sol) — a nice piece (preserved protein)
- Macaxeira (sweet manioc) — according to guests (starch)
- Manteiga de garrafa (bottled clarified butter) — a drizzle (flavored fat)
- Onion — one (garnish)
- Coarse salt — for salting (preservation)
Ingredients
- Carne de sol (or flank/sirloin lightly salted 24 h) — 600 g (protein)
- Fresh manioc (macaxeira/yuca) — 700 g (starch)
- Clarified butter (ghee, for lack of manteiga de garrafa) — 2 tbsp (flavored fat)
- Onion — 1 large, sliced into rings (garnish)
- Coarse salt — if salting at home (preservation)
Method
- If using real carne de sol, desalt it by soaking 2-3 h with water changes. (Homemade version: generously salt the meat, leave 24 h in the fridge, then rinse.)
- Peel the manioc, remove the central fiber, and boil in salted water 25-35 min until tender.
- Pat the meat dry, grill it in a very hot pan or on the grill, medium-rare to medium, with a golden crust.
- Sauté the onion rings in the clarified butter until golden.
- Serve the sliced meat, the tender manioc on the side, all drizzled with clarified butter and garnished with onion.
How it was made : In the sertão without refrigeration, meat was preserved by salting and drying it in the sun and wind: carne de sol (less dry than carne-seca) kept for weeks. Manteiga de garrafa, liquid clarified butter sold in bottles, also withstood heat without going rancid.
The contemporary twist : Present the manioc as oven-golden sticks alongside thin-sliced meat — a nod to 'sertão fries'.
Sources : Luís da Câmara Cascudo, História da Alimentação no Brasil · Câmara Cascudo, Dicionário do Folclore Brasileiro
Clarice Lispector · Charactorium