Eating Chilean Christmas

Christmas in Chile--Pascua de Navidad, or simply Pascua[1]—falls in early summer, four days after the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.  Today it is celebrated with the familiar German-British-American-Global Christmas complex of decorations, gifts, trees, carols, Santa Claus (here El Viejito Pascuero, Little Old Man Christmas), decorated cookies and even roast turkey.

But it was not always so…..

Christmas Eve on La Cañada [Santiago, circa 1870]

It is eight o’clock in the evening.  La Cañada [today’s Alameda] has the happy appearance of an immense fair. For a distance of at least three miles, from the upper Convent of Carmen on the east to the train station on the west seethes a compact audience of all social classes and ranks. In all the cross streets of this great avenue extends a belt of stalls, booths, food stands, and shelters that would make the curious think the whole population had fled their houses because of some earthquake or similar calamity and had chosen that location for their stores.  In each booth a flag flutters in the wind; the national tricolor is always obligatory to protect the harp and the guitar whose harmonies resonate from all quarters.  Foods of all types, liquors, fruits, little empanadas, sweets, flowers, bunches of sweet basil, little ceramics made by the nuns, horchata with maliciia [a sweet drink with brandy], games, and all kinds of appetizing inventions for the Chileans’ gluttonous bulletproof stomachs, make up the commercial vocabulary of Christmas Eve.[2]

Valparaiso had a similar celebration, but US Navy Leutenant J.M. Gilliss, there in 1850 as part of a US Naval Astronomical Expedition, was evidently a bit disappointed:

  What he found was similar to the fair in Santiago, some of it a bit unrefined for his Anglo Saxon sensibilities:

Special Christmas food and drinks?  None are mentioned.  Chilean historian Daniel Palma’s article on Santiago food and drink at the end of the 19^th century, says:  “The [Christmas] kitchen addresses itself to the typical dishes such as empanadas, arrolladas and casuelas [turnovers, pork rolls, and boiled dinners], all accompanied by chicha [young wine or cider] especially prepared for the occasion.”  Among the wealthy, Noche Buena picnic dinners at the fair were “succulent and primitive banquets, alternating between cold cuts of turkey and roast lambs, with sparkling chicha, cups of sweet hot punch, legendary milk punch, and water punch with ices.”[3]

20^th Century

If Lieutenant Gilliss was disappointed by 19^th century Chilean Christmas, he would have been happier a few years later, as the familiar Global Christmas complex was beginning to arrive.  German immigration in the second half of the 19^th century brought Christmas trees, Christmas cakes and decorations, if only to the immigrant communities and Santa seems to have arrived early in the new century.

Cris Salazar’s blog on Santiago’s history, Urbatorium, chronicles Santa’s history and arrival in Chile.   Referring to the picture at left, in which Santa is carrying what appears to be a Christmas tree, Chris writes:

A "Viejo Pascuero" in the publicity of the Bazar Alemán Krass [downtown Santiago’s premier toy store], published in the capital press in 1910.  It is one of the oldest St. Nicolases in Chilean documents and shows that this persona was already in Chile, probably due to German influence.”

The Christmas tree, “el pino” also appears in the early 20^th century.  This illustration is from a 1931 Chilean cookbook, Hermanita Hormiga [4] (Little Sister Ant).

But “El pino” didn’t arrive at my wife’s home until 1962, remembered because it was also the year of the family’s first TV, bought especially for the 1962 World Cup, hosted by Chile.  Today it is a tradition, and comes out every year in early December.  It is plastic of course; natural Christmas trees aren’t part of Santiago’s 85° F. holiday season.

German immigration also seems to have brought pan de Pascua, holiday fruit cake, evidently descended from the German Christstollen.  It is lighter than the traditional English or American fruit cake and is THE essential food for holiday celebrations.  It is of course, available in supermarkets and bakeries, and those seem to be the source for most families. 

To assist Santiagueños in making this purchase, El Mercurio, Chile’s major newspaper, held a pan de Pascua tasting in 2008.  What was the standard?

What is a good Pan de Pascua? Easy.  It has a dark dough, dense and humid; adorned with nuts (walnuts and almonds, hopefully toasted), dry fruit (raisins, hopefully soaked), and candied fruit (hopefully natural) of good quality and quantity; seasoned with sweet spices (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, anise, ginger, vanilla, honey) and liquor (rum or cognac).[5]

 

  

The winner?  Supermarket Lider’s Ideal brand, at about $5 US for 2 lb. loaf.

But if you’d like to make you own, here is a recipe in English.  And to meet El Mercurio’s ideal, soak the raisins in rum first and add ginger.

Photo: Los mejores panes de pascua de Santiago

To accompany your pan de Pascua, the essential beverage is Cola de Mono, literally “monkey’s tail,” a descendant of the 19^th century milk punch.  Various stories explain the drink’s origins and name, but the most cogent is that:

In a party held by an elderly society lady attended by ex-President Pedro Mott, it began to rain torrentially. Then when Don Pedro decided to retire he asked for the return of his Colt pistol, which he had given one of his friends to hold.  As none of them wanted the president to be exposed to such a ferocious downpour, they hid his pistol. The party continued at a fast pace, until the wines and liquors were gone, but someone discovered an enormous pitcher of coffee with milk and improvised.  As he tried to give this flavorful find a bit of a mischievous touch, he added aguardiente [brandy] and sugar, improvising a drink that was appreciated by all.  Such a great discovery had to be baptized, and what better than to call it the “Colt of Montt,” from which the now known “Cola de Mono” was easily derived. [6] 

Cola de mono is now available pre-made, but who knows how it tastes?  This is my wife’s recipe:

1.  Bring three liters of milk (skim or whole as you wish) to a boil, being careful that it does not burn on the bottom, and cool in the refrigerator.

2.  Then mix 1 cup water with 1½ cups sugar, cloves, cinnamon sticks, zest from two lemons, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Bring to a boil and then simmer briefly so that all the sugar is dissolved and the spices have infused the liquid.  Then cool and strain.

3.  Mix the cold milk and cold sugar mixture, add Nescafé instant coffee (Chile’s coffee of choice) to taste and 1½  lt. of aguardiente. Serve well chilled. The final product should look like this:

Alejandra’s Cola de Mono

What else happens on Chilean Christmas?  In our house, my wife’s daughters, sons-in-law and granddaughters arrive at around dark, 8:30 or 9:00 PM.  Pan de Pascua, Christmas cookies, chips, olives, nuts and assorted nibbles are out for pre-dinner snacks and Cola de mono and pisco sours are offered to the grownups. Dinner is at 10:00 or 11:00, served buffet style with a cold main dish (salmon, turkey breast, ham, etc.) and salads. Champaign (demi-sec) is opened at midnight and served over pineapple sherbet, and Christmas abrazos (hugs) and kisses abound.  And then we surround the tree and delve into the multitude of presents.  More relatives arrive after midnight, bringing gifts and staying for cola de mono and pan de Pascua, but things quiet down by two or three AM and it’s off to bed.  Christmas day is simply “the day after,” with no special events other than recovery.

Here’s another Chilean family’s tradition, from the web site Navidad Latina. 

Christmas Chilean Style

 by Maria Jesús Riveros Miño.

I am a heart felt Chilean and can say that for Chileans the most significant and awaited holiday is Christmas, along with the New Year.  In the central region Christmas begins in early December when the Christmas advertisements come out for the fabulous toys that technology surprises us with daily; at this moment we see true consumerism, just like the rest of the world, but it all ends on the 24^th at 6:00.  Many people go to the “Mass of the Rooster” (celebrating the birth of Christ).  Many people do religious things, while others just spend the time peacefully with their families.  At about 10:00 PM they sit down at the table and enjoy the delicious Christmas supper that is usually turkey or chicken stuffed with corn.  The campaign glasses ring and we listen to the Christmas Eve toasts.  As midnight approaches we take the children for a walk while “The VIEJITO PASCUERO arrives” as we call Santa Claus or Father Christmas. Earlier the children would have been asleep and would have opened their presents on the 25^th, but the way children are now, they have no problem staying up until midnight.  When they come back to their house after their walk, they find all the presents and it is time to open them, but first they are dedicated to the baby Jesus.  Some sing Christmas carols, others go out in the street to play with their bicycles, skates or other toys, others go to discothèques or just go to sleep to await the new day.  Don’t forget that for us Christmas is in summer and everyone goes outside happily to play with their presents until the time got to bed to sleep as late as they want.

If turkey is on the menu, as it seems to be in many Chilean households, it will probably be stuffed with a meat-fruit mixture, or with corn stuffing.  Oddly, I could not find a Chilean recipe for corn stuffing (perhaps a kind reader will supply one) but here is a recipe for:

Chilean fruit and pork stuffing for turkey

100 gm. ham

125 gm. pork loin

3 apples

125 gm. prunes

125 gm. chestnuts, cooked and peeled

100 gm. sultana raisins

125 grams lard

1 glass white wine

Thyme, bay leaf, oregano, parsley

A pinch of cinnamon

Salt and pepper

Soak the raisins and prunes.  Peel the apples and cut into slices, mince the pork lion and the ham.  Melt the lard in a skillet and sauté the pork loin and ham, add the raisins and prunes, apples, chestnuts, cinnamon, herbs, salt and pepper and stir to mix.  Add the wine and boil until it has evaporated.  Allow to cool and stuff turkey with mixture. 

And 21^st Century Chilean Christmas?

 “El Marketing” suggests that it will be more global, less Chilean, and expensive, if this ad for “The Perfect Present” from El Mecurio’s Saturday magazine (11 Dec., 2010, p. 30) is any indication: 

“What to buy for a foodie? And a runner? A techie?”

 

  

 The suggestions, top to bottom, left to right are: Secret of the Union Hams,” $9.30 US/100 grams; Pan de Pascua, $10.55; an automatic coffee maker, described as “Super cool,” $430; Ceramic knives, called “the ultimate in style," $80 each; a mortar and pestle, $24; and Cook with Jaime cookbook (in English), $108.

*******

Feliz Navidad Chilena

Plaza de Armas, Santiago, 2005   Photo:  Steve Davis

[1] “Pascua” is usually translated as “Easter” and in most of the Spanish speaking world that is what it refers to, but in Chile it refers to both events associated with both the birth and death of Jesus.  In Chile Easter is “Pascua de Resurrección”

[2] Tornero, Recaredo S. 1872. Chile Ilustrado. Valparaiso: Librerias I Ajencias del Mercurio.  On line at http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/documento_detalle.asp?id=MC0012105 All translations mine unless otherwise noted.

[3] Palma Alvarado, Daniel. 2004 De apetitos y de cañas. El consumo de alimentos y bebidas en Santiago a fines del siglo XIX. P. 394.  Historia No 37, Vol. II, julio-diciembre 2004: 391-417 On line at http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0717-71942004000200005&script=sciarttext

[4] Burnet, Marta.  1931.  La Hermanita Hormiga: Tratado de arte culinario. Santiago: Editorial Nascimento. P 324. On line at http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/dest.asp?id=lahermanitahormiga:tratadodearteculinario.

[5] Lineros, Locío.  2008. Cata de Pan de Pascua 2008. El Mercurio. (Revista) Wikén.  Dec 12, 2008. on line at http://diario.elmercurio.cl/detalle/index.asp?id={17bfc934-c11c-4f2b-abf1-f6bd62b26cb2}

[6] Cocinando en Navidad.  Chile.com.  On line at http://www.chile.com/secciones/ver_seccion.php?id=84224

Chilean Copper Cookware

For my birthday I received this handsome copper paila from my step daughters and their husbands (Thank you again, M, M, J & N.).  Aside from its beauty, I knew that copper was one of the best cookware materials because of its rapid and even heating.  But I also knew there were some problems in cooking in copper… but exactly what they were, I didn’t know.

  

As I began to search the internet, I quickly discovered that most copper cookware is coated with another metal because copper oxidizes when in contact with acids, creating the greenish patina seen on old copper, bronze and brass.  This patina, called verdigris, is toxic and can cause gastrointestinal problems if ingested. 

Traditionally copper was lined with a thin coating of tin, but tin scratches and will wear away in time.  Tin also melts at only 425° F, a temperature easily reached in cooking.  Nickel is also used as a lining, but the most common lining today is stainless steel.

My paila seems to be unlined.  There is no obvious lining, the color is the same inside and out, and ArteCobre, the major seller of Chilean copper cookware (and presumably of mine), makes no mention of lining.  Not a good sign, as one of the first copper cookware sites I encountered had this warning:

Source: The Copper Shop

 The information sheet which came with my paila said the following:

Cooking with pots or utensils of copper

 Copper has been commonly used in pots and kitchen utensils, it is very easy to work but it has its problems. What are the advantages and disadvantages of cooking in copper pots and utensils? (All translations mine unless otherwise noted.)

The advantages listed were:  copper’s even heating and rapid conductivity of heat, the reduced tendency of food to stick because of the uniform temperature of the cooking surface, copper’s antibacterial properties, that vegetables like asparagus and artichokes cooked in copper retain their bright green color, and that jams and jellies cooked in copper are delicious and maintain a brilliant color.  The final advantage is that

Poisoning from cooking in copper does not occur easily [La intoxicación cocinando con cobre es muy difícil] because the pot or utensil lets us know we should not use it through its green patina, and in addition, food cooked in it would have a strong flavor that would keep us from eating it.  By contrast, we are being poisoned slowly without realizing it from tasteless traces of lead or asbestos   in foods cooked in utensils of aluminum.  We only have to keep copper utensils clean and unstained [to avoid problems].[1]

When I searched the internet for the wording of ArteCoblre’s information sheet, I found it at En Buenas Manos, a site providing information on “Beauty, Ecology, Illness, Esoterica, Pets, Nutrition, Recipies, Reflections, Therapies, and Healthy Life.”  The author was Josep Vicent Arnau, Naturopath and Acupuncturist.

There is a certain attractive logic to the idea that cooking in unlined copper is safe if you keep the copper clean and don’t eat anything cooked in it that tastes bad.   And the articles I read on En Buenas Manos’ web site were sane, reasonable and not just marketing quackery, but Mr. Arnau’s credentials didn’t instill a great deal of confidence. (See Wikipedia’s article on Naturopathy and judge for yourself.) 

Surely there is more authoritative advice. 

And, of course, there is.  I. Herbert Scheinberg, M.D., (1920-2009) professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, was one of the nation’s experts on copper toxicity and Wilson’s disease, a genetic disorder causing the toxic accumulation of dietary copper in the liver, brain and other organs. According to one of the best articles I found, “The Importance of Copper Cookware for Cooking” from the site Retinning and Copper Care:

[Dr. Scheinberg] contends that unless the copper has oxidized extensively enough to produce the green-blue copper salts commonly known as "verdigris," and/or highly acidic foods are to be cooked in the pot [with scratched or worn lining], use of the vessel is not dangerous. If acidic foods come in contact with the copper, they'll dissolve and absorb the copper salts, which are toxic. If the salts are present, the pot should be scoured. 

 [He says ] "Yes, people can get gastrointestinal upsets. But contrary to popular belief it's not fatal."

 The US Food and Drug Administration also has something to say about cooking in unlined copper pans:

John Thomas, of the division of regulatory guidance at the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition says that the agency cautions against using unlined copper for general cooking because the metal is relatively easily dissolved by some foods with which it comes in contact and, in sufficient quantities, can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.[2]

So where are we?  At one extreme we have The Copper Shop’s “NEVER COOK WITH AN UNLINED COPPER POT,” and at the other, ArteCobre’s “Poisoning from cooking in copper does not occur easily. “  Somewhere in the middle the FDA “cautions against using unlined copper for general cooking” and Dr.  Scheinberg says, “unless the copper has oxidized extensively … and/or highly acidic foods are to be cooked, …use of the vessel is not dangerous.”

At this point it is obvious that my paila is not going to be my everyday pot.  Egg whites and whipped cream are said to have more volume when beaten in unlined copper bowls, but what can be safely cooked in unlined pans? 

Unlined copper vessels are produced especially for making sugar syrups and candies:

A sugar pot or sugar boiler is an unlined copper pan that is used, primarily by pastry chefs, to make sugar syrups. Because copper is so responsive to the heat, the pan gives the chef instant control as he or she boils the syrup to just the right temperature.

The acidity of the unlined copper causes some of the sugar to "invert," or split into glucose and fructose, which helps resist the sugar's tendency to recrystallize. The pans are also unlined because a traditional tin lining would come too close to melting temperatures in some cases….[3]

They are also used to make jams and jellies, as in the Mauviel jam pan below, where it seems that the high sugar content offers some protection against the acids contained in the fruit… how and why, I could not discover.

And they are used for making polenta:

What they are clearly not used for is cooking acidic foods; no tomato sauce, meats braised in wine, or sausages with sauerkraut.  But it seems to me that, if used with caution, and cooked in sparkling clean pans, foods that are low in acid should be safe.  (But note I am an anthropologist, not a chemist, toxicologist, MD or anything close to being pertinent to this issue… this is not a recommendation for others.)

 

So what are low acid or non acidic foods?  Here are some examples of foods that occur frequently in my cooking[4] (For reference pH 7.0 is neutral; above 7.0 is alkaline; and below 7.0 is acidic; orange juice is 3.3 – 4.2)

 

It looks like green olives and tomatoes will definitely be excluded from my piala. Wine too, with an average pH of 3.3 to 3.7.[5]  But most everything else looks OK, especially if the bulk of a dish is a food that is close to neutral, like rice.

  

  

What did I cook?  Paella. 

Here’s my paella recipe.  Average pH of ingredients: around 6.0 – 6.2.  Serves 4.

Olive oil as needed

1 medium onion, chopped

1 - 2 cloves garlic, minced

½ green bell pepper

½ red bell pepper

3 chicken thighs, boned (bones reserved)

2 smoked sausages, 4-5” long

2 lbs. mussels

1 lb.clams (mine were very small, more ornamental than substantive)

1 ½ cups short grain rice

Thyme, paprika (AKA ají de color), saffron (if you have it, I didn’t)

1 cup green beans or peas (frozen/pre-cooked)

½ cup black olives

Minced parsley

Clean mussels and clams, discarding any broken ones and those that don’t close.  Reserve a dozen or so mussels, and steam the rest for 3-5 minutes in a cup of water until they open. Remove the meat from the open mussels and save the broth.  Add 2 - 3 cups water and the chicken bones to the mussel broth (+ onion trimmings, parsley stems, etc.) and simmer until needed. 

Heat copper paila over a low flame until moderately hot (be careful, this won’t take long) add olive oil, chicken and sausages and sauté over low heat until brown.  Remove meats and sauté onion, adding garlic and bell peppers after a few minutes. Then add thyme, paprika and saffron. Return meats to paila and add the rice.  Sauté rice for 2-3 minutes, then add 3 cups mussel/chicken broth.  Raise heat until the broth boils, then lower to a simmer.  Cook without a lid for 15 to 20 minutes, tasting the rice for doneness from time to time (it should be al dente) and adding additional boiling broth if necessary.  When about ½ the broth has been absorbed, add the reserved mussel meat and green beans or peas and stir.  Then add the clams and mussels by pushing them into the rice. When rice is done, add olives and parsley, turn off the flame, cover paila with a lid, dish towels, etc. and allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes.

 

Serve with lemon quarters, salad and wine.

*********

It was great, with no off taste and (obviously) no greenish tint.  And we felt fine afterwards… and still do. 

I’m not going to use my paila every day, but I’ll make this paella again, and use it for polenta and risotto and jam.  Maybe I’ll even make fudge.

---

[1] Handout, ArteCobre.  The text appears at En Buenos Manos, on line at http://www.enbuenasmanos.com/articulos/muestra.asp?art=125.

[2] Blumenthal, Dale (1990). Is That Newfangled Cookware Safe? DHHS Publication No. (FDA) 91-2242. On line at

http://www.enotalone.com/article/7807.html

[3] How to Make a Sugar Syrup in a Sugar Pot (or Not). O Chef. On line at http://www.ochef.com/735.htm

[4] Master List of Typical pH and Acid Content of Fruits and Vegetables for Home Canning and Preserving.  On line at http://www.pickyourown.org/food_acidity_ph_list.htm, and Measuring the pH Value of Meat. Eutech instruments.  On line at http://www.eutechinst.com/techtips/tech-tips35.htm  Beef reaches its lowest pH 18 to 24 hours after slaughter, after which it rises again.

[5] Pandell, Alexander J. 1999. The Acidity Of Wine.  On line at http://www.wineperspective.com/the_acidity_of_wine.htm

Breaded Whale Cutlets?

Thumbing through my wife’s classic Chilean cookbook, La Gran Cocina Chilena [1], I came across this recipe in the fish and seafood section:

Breaded Whale Cutlets  (Escalopas de Ballena)

1 kg. whale

2 teaspoons  vinegar

2 eggs

¼ lt. of oil

¼ kg. bread crumbs

Salt, pepper, parsley

Cut the meat into thin cutlets, and soak in vinegar water for approximately 48 hours. Then season with salt, pepper and parsley.  Beat the eggs and pass the cutlets through the beaten egg and then through the bread crumbs.  Heat the oil in a skillet and fry the cutlets. (All translations mine unless otherwise noted)

Aside from confirming my suspicion that the 2000 edition had not received much editing from previous editions (Chile stopped commercial whale hunting in 1983[2]), it made me curious—and cost me several weeks of research.

Was whale once important in Chilean diet?

Well, yes        ...and no.

Except for a brief and evidently unsuccessful marketing campaign to bring whale meat to the urban population in the 60s, whale meat was important only to indigenous Chileans.  Whale oil, on the other hand, was a major ingredient in Chilean margarine for many years.

Whales in Aboriginal Diet

On the coast of Chilean Patagonia, like other coasts where whales and humans existed, a beached whale, with it’s tons of meat and fat, was a gift not to be refused.  The Chilean coast, from the Island of Chiloe south to Tierra del Fuego, was the home of maritime hunter-gathers, the Yaghan, Kawésqar, and Chono[3]  “Canoe Indians.”  They lived on an almost exclusively meat diet, and traveled long distances trough the channels of the southern archipelago in bark canoes warmed by fires built on sod platforms. The men hunted seals and the women dove for shellfish in the frigid water.  They had no clothing other than seal skin capes.  Darwin, like most other Europeans, reacted to them with a mixture of pity and horror:

While going one day on shore near Wollaston Island, we pulled alongside a canoe with six Fuegians. These were the most abject and miserable creatures I anywhere beheld. ….these Fuegians in the canoe were quite naked, and even one full-grown woman was absolutely so. …These poor wretches were stunted in their growth, their hideous faces bedaubed with white paint, their skins filthy and greasy, their hair entangled, their voices discordant, and their gestures violent.  ….Whenever it is low water, winter or summer, night or day, they must rise to pick shellfish from the rocks; and the women either dive to collect sea-eggs, or sit patiently in their canoes, and with a baited hair-line without any hook, jerk out little fish. If a seal is killed, or the floating carcass of a putrid whale is discovered, it is a feast; and such miserable food is assisted by a few tasteless berries and fungi.[4]

Contemporary anthropology, with a different perspective than Victorian England, views them with neither pity nor horror (although their treatment by civilized people evokes both), but with interest and respect for their adaptation to a difficult environment.  But Darwin’s observation was substantially correct: the mainstay of their diet was seal meat, but beached whales--and shell fish and sea birds--were important.[5]  

Kawésqar seal hunting [6]

The strong tides, narrow channels and shallow inlets made stranded whales relatively common, but sick or injured whales were actively hunted.  Martin Gusinde, Catholic priest and anthropologist who conducted research among the peoples of the Chilean archipelago in the 1920s writes:

It seems almost incredible that the little Yámanas and Alaculufes [Yaghan and Kawésqar], with their fragile and weak canoes, dare to approach live whales in that violent and powerful ocean.  In fact they do so, confident as much in their personal skill as in the efficacy of their harpoons.  The Fuegians never approach a completely healthy whale, as that would be very dangerous.  But there is a chance of success when they approach a whale that has been harassed by a sword fish or is mortally wounded.  Then many canoes approach from all directions.  The men throw their long harpoons and all pull violently on the lines to enlarge the many grave injuries of the animal.  It is attacked from all sides, until at last, each man has thrown all his weapons at hand.  It is strange to see the whale riddled with so many harpoons, javelins, and darts!  Sometimes it happens that after so many hours of work by the Indians the animal escapes, in spite of being gravely wounded. But if the men are able to kill a sick or wounded animal, then they drag the enormous prey to the beach, taking advantage of the tide to push the deformed body of the animal as far on land as possible.  This fish, of incalculable abundance, feeds many families for several weeks; its meat and oil, bones, tendons, barbels, and teeth have many uses.[7]

By 1946-48, when they were studied by French ethnographer Joseph Emperaire, the Kawésqar had largely abandoned their mobile way of life, and lived mainly in the village of Puerto Eden on Wellington Island.  Mestizo hunters had greatly reduced the seal population and the Kawésqar lived largely on shell fish, small game and food provided by the Chilean government—a diet much different from their fat-rich diet of the past.

Puerto Eden

But occasionally a stranded whale was found, and those families who retained a semblance of independence…

…would leave silently during the night, steering toward where the whale was stranded.  Camp was established as close as possible to the beached whale, and for as long a time as the Alcalufe [Kawésqar] temperament could endure it, they fed themselves on the whale meat.  Later the families returned to Puerto Eden completely transformed… The children, in particular, became unrecognizable with the layer of fat that accumulated under their skin.  In other times, according to the old people, the stranding of a whale was the pretext for parties and dances among the entire group.[8]

Whales were also important to other Chilean indigenous costal people like the Lafquenches, Mapuche speakers of south central Chile, and Changos of northern Chilean and southern Peru.[9]  The Changos not only scavenged beached whales, but according to Spanish monk, Antonio Vazquez de Espinosa who visited the area (in 1615?),[10] they hunted whales using harpoons or lances with copper points.

Commercial whaling off the Chilean Coast

We’ll never know when the last stranded whale fed the remaining Kawésqar, but by the 1790s American whalers had discovered the rich whaling grounds of the Pacific and Chilean whales were (metaphorically) feeding the New Bedford and Nantucket, Massachusetts Yankees.

The year 1792 marks the opening of the bold and innovative whaling cycle.  Participating in these events were ore that 24 English vessels, 8 from Dunkirk, 6 from Nantucket and one form Bedford, all crewed almost completely by North American officers and crews.  The harvest was plentiful.  Most returned to their ports of origin with full cargos.[11] 

 

By the 1830s whalers from Europe and America crowded Chilean ports; over 100 were active in 1834.[12]   But while they were allowed to enter and restock at major Chilean ports, they were not allowed to hunt in Chilean waters, leaving the productive inshore waters (more or less) untouched.  This opportunity was not ignored; in 1840 Chilean José Olivares began hunting sperm and humpback whales from the Caleta (fishing village) of Tumbes in Concepción Bay.  His family continued the enterprise until 1944, joined over the years by many others from Punta Arenas to Coquimbo.

Another Chilean whaling family, the Macayas, got their start some 40 years later.  In about 1880 Don Juan Macaya, farmer and father of 14 children, welcomed a young immigrant to the island Santa María, south of Concepcíon. He was Juan Da Silva, descendant of an old Portuguese whaling family.  Da Silva, overwhelmed by the numbers of whales of all species seen off the island’s shore, convinced Macaya to become a whaler, saying, according to family historian, "You’re wasting time on land, because these whales you see there are a millionaire business.” [13]

Source: Seacoast NH

During the 19^th century the main products from whales were oil and baleen or whale bone. Whale oil was used for lighting, especially important in Chile for coal miners’ lamps, in soap, as a lubricant, and in paints and many other products. Baleen, with which many whale species filter food from large mouthfuls of seawater, was used where strength and flexibility were required, including collar stiffeners, buggy whips, parasol ribs, and corset stays.[14] 

Source: Whale world

Captured whales were dismembered at sea or in on-shore whaling stations and stripped of their oil-bearing blubber and whale bone.  Small quantities of meat were sometimes taken, to be fed to the crews, but the carcass and most of the meat was simply discarded into the sea.

By the last third of the 19^th century petroleum largely replaced whale oil and synthetics began to take the place of whale bone, and as the price of whale oil went into a sharp decline, so did the whaling enterprise.

But starting in 1905 a new technology, hydrogenation, by which oil was converted to a solid, created new markets for whale oil, this time as human food in the form of margarine and shortening.   And at about the same time19^th century whaling methods, the open whale boat, and the hand-thrown harpoon, were replaced by motorized ships with harpoon canons and harpoons with explosive charges. Whaling became much more efficient and profitable, and whaling became a major Chilean industry as new companies were formed in Valparaiso, Punta Arenas, on Chiloe Island, Valdivia, and Corral.[15]

But the largest was established in 1936 in the fishing village of Quintay, south of Valparaiso, by a Chilean conglomerate, the Compañía Industrial INDUS, manufacturer of a wide range of products from animal and vegetable oils.  Facing a shortage of raw materials, INDUS went into the whaling business and established a large on-shore whale processing plant. Two years later INDUS opened a hydrogenation plant.

In its period of maximum production (decade of the 50s)  [INDUS’] operation accounted for 2% of the whales captured and 1% of whale oil production world wide, all destined for the national market.  The main species taken were the fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) and sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus).[16]

INDUS 6 in Iquique

INDUS’ processing plant in Quintay.

Quintay workers, 1960

Photos:  Balleneros de Quintay

The table below shows Chile’s whale catch in relation to the rest of the whaling world for individual years from 1910 to 1980.[17]

Whale Meat in 20^th Century Chile

In 1965, near the peak of Chile’s whaling production, an article entitled “Nutritional value of whale meat consumed in Chile” appeared in a Chilean journal of nutrition, public health and toxicology. [18]  It began:

The Chilean dietary panorama manifests a scarcity of proteins of animal origin. At the same time, consider the reality that the national territory possesses an extension of more than 4,000 km of coast, and therefore, great fishery resources, thus promotion of consumption of fish, shellfish and whales assumes an indisputable importance.  ….whales used for consumption belong to the varieties finback, blue and humpback, always referring to young animals.  The sperm whale is not eatable by man due to the composition of its fat, but it is processed for the preparation of meal for animal feeds.  The variety of whale preferred in the country is the finback, whose meat is quite similar to that of beef, especially when coming from young animals.

The conclusion, in an English summary was, “The results show that this meat is an excellent source of good quality protein which is highly digestible.”

The article is followed by a public service ad from the Chilean national commission to encourage consumption of “fishery products,” and although whale is not mentioned, the sea creature pictured looks reasonably whale-like. 

I did not discover a campaign specifically promoting whale meat, but there was a campaign to promote whale products, including meat. The poster below, from Balleneros de Quintay, shows foods (translated in red) prominently.

Products obtained from the whale
(click to enlarge)

Ultimately, however, whale did not become popular in Chilean diet, and production was largely exported or converted into whale meal.

The hunting and butchering of whales in Chile was focused primarily on the production of oils, meat meal, bone meal, and finally, meat.  This was largely because the species most commonly token, the sperm whale, was destined exclusively for the production of oils, derivatives, and secondary products; consumption of its meat never gained a place in the national market due to objective problems (difficulties in preservation and cooking) and subjective values (whale meat was considered second class).  Loin meat of fin whales [Balaenoptera physalus], was preferred for human consumption.  The production of meat, principally meat from fin whales, required a series of additional steps during the hunt. The animal could not be harpooned in the loin; and had to be chilled through the opening in the abdominal cavity from the anus to the diaphragm. Only during the last three seasons that the Quintay plant  operated (1964-67), working with three modern whale hunting ships provided by their partner, the Japanese Nitto Whaling Company, did the production of whale meat become important.  As much as nine thousand tons of meat was exported to Japan in 1965.  Meat left over from rendering [the oil] was made into meat meal used in the production of feed for cattle, poultry and domestic animals.  It is estimated that for every 5.45 kilos of whale meat 1 kilo of meat meal was obtained.[19]

But some Chileans did become enthusiastic eaters of whale meat.  Workers at the Chome whaling station “remember the abundance of the weekly 15 kg. of the prized meat of these large cetaceans that the industry provided to each family of its workers.”[20]

Postscripts

The whaling station at Quintay is now the site of the Centro de Investigación Marina Quintay (Quintay Marine Research Center) of the Universidad Andrés Bello and a museum.  Go for a visit; Quintay is also home to excellent sea food restaurants.    

In 2008 Chile passed a bill banning all whaling and declaring Chilean waters to be a whale sanctuary. 

Links:

Centro Ballena Azul Blue Whale Project.  “Since 1997, Dr. Rodrigo Hucke-Gaete has researched blue whales in Chile and in Antarctica. Within this work he was able to discover the largest aggregation of blue whales in the Southern Hemisphere, in the area of Chiloé-Corcovado, south of Chile. Further research has mainly focused on identifying the summer arrival of whales in southern Chile.”

Centro de Conservación Cetáceas Center for Cetacean Conservation

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[1] Alfaro, Mónica T. 2000. La Gran Cocina Chilena, 8th Edition.  Santiago:  Ediciones Occidente S.A. p. 303

[2] Who caused the decrease in whales? Greenpeace. On line at http://www.greenpeace.or.jp/campaign/oceans/factsheet/3_en_html.

[3]The Yaghan are also known as the Yámana or Yamana; the Kawésqar are AKA Alacalufes.  There is only one surviving Yaghan speaker, about 20 Kawésqar speakers  and no surviving Chono speakers.

[4] Darwin, Charles. 1909.  The Voyage of The Beagle. The Harvard Classics

Edited By Charles W Eliot LLD. New York:  P. F. Collier & Son. p. 228-29.  On line at  http://www.archive.org/details/voyageofbeagle00darwuoft

[5] Schiavini, Adrián. 1993.  Los lobos marinos como recurso para cazadores-recolectores marinos: El caso de tierra del Fuego. Latin American Antiquity 4(4):346-366.

[6] Barros Valenzuela, Alvaro. 1975. Aborígenes australes de América. Santiago : Lord Cochrane, Chapt. 5. En el país de Ayayema.  On line at http://www.memoriachilena.cl//temas/documento_detalle.asp?id=MC0001753

[7] Gusinde, Martin.  1951.  Hombres primitivos en la tierra del fuego. Sevilla: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos de Sevilla. p. 212. On line at http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/documento_detalle.asp?id=MC0004214 

[8] Emperaire, Joseph. 1963 (French original, 1955) Los Nómades del Mar.  Ser Indígena - Portal de las Culturas Originarias de Chile. P. 86. On line at http://www.serindigena.cl/territorios/recursos/biblioteca/libros/pdf/nomades_mar.pdf

[9] Bollaert, William. 1860. Antiquarian, Ethnological and Other Researches in New Granada, Ecuador and Chile. London: Trubner & Co.  p. 171 on Line at books.google.com 

[10] Vázques de Espinosa. 1942 (1628) Compendium and Description of the West Indies. Translated by Charles Upson Clark.  Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 102. On line at http://www.archive.org/details/smithsonianmisce1021942smit  

[11] Pereira Salas, Eugenio. 1971.   Los primeros contactos entre Chile y los Estados Unidos: 1778-1809. Santiago : Andrés Bello. p. 42 On line at http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/documento_detalle.asp?id=MC0033424

[12]Ballenas en la bahía de Concepción. Tell Magazine. Feb. 16, 2009  On line at http://200.24.235.2/tell.cl/concepcion/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=640&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

[13] Jorsep (Jorge Sepúlveda Ortiz) 1977. La epopeya de la industria ballenera Chilena. Revista de Marina Armada de Chile En Línea, 1997 #6 On line at www.revistamarina.cl/revistas/1997/3/filippi.pdf

[14] “Baleen” and “Whale Oil” from Wikipedia.

[15] Jorsep, op. Cit.

[16] Balleneros de Quintay: Historia, Educación, y Conservación de un Pueblo Ballenero.  On line at http://ballenerosdequintay.unab.cl/index.php?page=inicio

[17] Whaling Statistics. Whaling Library.  On line at http://luna.pos.to/whale/sta.html

[18] Valor nutritivo de la carne de ballena consumida en Chile.
Schmidt-Hebbel H., Pennacchiotti L, Pérez J.,González C., Meruane J. 1965.
Rev. Nutrición, Bromatología y Toxicología, 1:155

[19] Balleneros de Quintay, op. cit.

[20] Astudillo, Antonio.  2001. Vestigios de una ballenera. Revista Chilena de Antropología Visual  1:85-94.  On line at http://www.antropologiavisual.cl/etastud.htm