flipLlama charqui — dried salted meat for travelers
Llama charqui — dried salted meat for travelers
Why this dish? Toroca lies on the roads that went up to Potosí and down to Sucre. For anyone who had to walk for days between these towns — carrying grain to the city, accompanying a herd — charqui was the only meat that did not rot. It is the trail snack that a family from this region would certainly have known.
Thin strips of lean meat, salted and dried in the icy sun and wind of the highlands, until hard and light. They are chewed as is on the road, or fried to flavor a soup.
If you leave tomorrow for the Villa Imperial de Potosí, do not go with an empty belly or an empty bag. I cut the meat into the thinnest strips possible, rub it with salt, and leave it in the wind and cold sun on the roof stones, three days, four if needed. It hardens, it darkens, but it does not spoil — it will wait for you at the bottom of the sack when hunger takes you on the road. Chew it slowly, and think of us.
- •Lean llama meat (or mutton) — a quarter (base)
- •Plenty of mine salt — a lot (preservation)
Llama charqui — dried salted meat for travelers
Thin strips of lean meat, salted and dried in the icy sun and wind of the highlands, until hard and light. They are chewed as is on the road, or fried to flavor a soup.
Why this dish? Toroca lies on the roads that went up to Potosí and down to Sucre. For anyone who had to walk for days between these towns — carrying grain to the city, accompanying a herd — charqui was the only meat that did not rot. It is the trail snack that a family from this region would certainly have known.
If you leave tomorrow for the Villa Imperial de Potosí, do not go with an empty belly or an empty bag. I cut the meat into the thinnest strips possible, rub it with salt, and leave it in the wind and cold sun on the roof stones, three days, four if needed. It hardens, it darkens, but it does not spoil — it will wait for you at the bottom of the sack when hunger takes you on the road. Chew it slowly, and think of us.
Ingredients (period version)
- Lean llama meat (or mutton) — a quarter (base)
- Plenty of mine salt — a lot (preservation)
Ingredients
- Very lean beef or lamb — 500 g (base (llama is hard to find))
- Coarse salt — 3–4 tbsp (preservation)
Method
- Cut the meat into the thinnest possible strips, along the grain.
- Rub generously with salt on all sides and let it purge for 1–2 hours.
- Dry in cold, dry air: traditionally in the wind and highland sun, alternatively in a dehydrator (60°C, 6–10 hours) or in a low-temperature oven with the door ajar, until the meat is hard and brittle.
- Store away from moisture; eat as is while walking, or rehydrate in a soup.
How it was made : The word charqui (from which English 'jerky' derives) refers to this dried Andean meat, attested before the Conquest and ubiquitous in the colonial economy: it was traded, and it supplied the miners of Potosí and the muleteers. The dry cold and altitude replaced smoking.
The contemporary twist : Crumbled over a quinoa soup, homemade charqui becomes an umami condiment akin to 'Andean furikake'.
Eulalia Bermúdez · Charactorium
