Chilean Lamb

Per capita consumption of lamb in Chile is

 exceedingly low.  It’s around a half a kilo per

person per year, even less than horse meat.  

Hardy Avilés, “Cordero todo el Año”

 

I wonder why.  It’s not the geography or climate; Chile produced around 3.4 million sheep in 2005, roughly the same number as pigs.  But Chileans ate around 22.5 kg of pork, and less than a half kilo of lamb.  Chile produces sheep, but exports them. Somebody else eats them.[1] 

Chilean huasos in wool ponchos with sheep, by Claudio Gay

Maybe history can tell us why.

The Spaniards who colonized Chile came from a nation of sheep.  From the 12th to the 16th century wool from Merino sheep was a major source of Spanish wealth, and lamb (or mutton[2]) was the major meat in the diet. Only Christians ate pork, and oxen were work animals, slaughtered mainly when old or sick. (Beef consumption remained low until the mid 20th century and Spaniards eat less beef than anyone else in Europe.[3])  But everyone, Christians, Jews and Muslims, ate lamb.

So it is unsurprising that the sheep, a sturdy breed called churras, came to the Americas early, brought by Columbus in 1493. From their arrival in the Antilles sheep were introduced into the other Spanish colonies, reaching Mexico by 1518, Peru by about 1530[4] and Chile in 1540 with Pedro de Valdivia.[5]   They prospered. In 1614 a remarkable 623,825 sheep (along with 323,956 goats, 39,000 cattle, and 4,278 horses) were reported to be in the district of Santiago.[6]

As in Spain, their meat was central to the diet; sometimes in great quantities:  Pereira Salas notes that one Captain Martín de Ibarra “ate at one sitting a leg of roast leg of lamb, a boiled hen, two one-pound loaves of bread, and for dessert a large plate of fruit.” [7]   Sheep, and lamb consumption, continued to prosper in the 18th century.  Writing in the 1780s, Juan Ignacio Molino found that:

Sheep transported from Spain have lost nothing in respect to size or wool, which remains long, fine and of a singular whiteness. Each sheep annually produces from ten to fifteen pounds.  The meat of castrated lambs is of exquisite flavor and is often preferred to that of calves. [8]

But that view was not universal. Writing of his experiences in the 1820s, British botanist and engineer, John Miers was less enthusiastic[9]:

  

As usual with topics of 19th century Chilean agriculture, the most complete discussion is from Claudio Gay, the French botanist, naturalist and illustrator who wrote prolifically and authoritatively based on his research in the mid 19th century.  He found Chilean sheep to have diverged significantly from their Spanish ancestors, due to harsh conditions and lack of selective breeding, 

….but nevertheless as a whole they exhibit characteristics that are extremely favorable. Of medium size, closer to small than large, the are lively, nervous, with a slightly long head and a more or less cylindrical body,  covered with short wool, curly, white and sometimes black. (p. 451)

Claudio Gay

Gay’s discussion and data suggest that lamb was the major meat in rural Chile, and that it was even the original filling for pastel de choclo, (p.162), but that lamb consumption declined through time. 

Lamb consumption in Chile is quite large, but less than in earlier times when mid way through the 18th century the department of Maule with its scarce population slaughtered no less than 150,000 lambs a year.  This consumption was and continues to be the basic animal food for the peasants, but especially for hacienda owners, who eat lamb alternately with jerked beef and poultry.  (p. 462) 

In general the peasants and even the families of medium fortune in the small cities eat little more than beans, peas, etc. and rarely meat, only one day a week at most.  The author of the estadistica de Maule [ca. 1830] calculates that each individual eats 51 lbs of meat a year:  5 lbs of beef, 30 ¼ of mutton and 15 ¾ of pork. (p. 374).

 Urban Chileans ate more meat than their rural counterparts, but here too lamb became less important through time. Based on slaughterhouse data, Santiago consumed approximately 40,000 sheep in 1773; 70,000 in 1842; 90,000 in 1859; and 105,000 in 1876.  In 1773 Santígüenos consumed about equal quantities of lamb and beef, while in 1842 and 1859 they ate approximately three times more beef than lamb; and in 1876 about 3.4 times more beef than lamb. Gay estimates that in 1858 Santiago’s annual meat consumption was about 49 kg (108 lbs.) per person, presumably including about 12 kg. (26 lbs.) of lamb.[10]

Southern Lamb

From the Rio Bio Bio River, some 300 miles south of Santiago, to Chiloé Island, lamb was more important than beef.  On the mainland, controlled by the Mapuche until the 1880s, abundant anecdotal evidence suggests that lamb was the major meat eaten.  German visitor Paul Truetler, who traveled among the Mapuche in the 1850s, speaks of the ”inevitable sheep” killed upon the arrival of visitors [11] and Edmund Reuel Smith, of the US Naval Astronomical Expedition, who visited Mapuche-controlled southern Chile in 1853  spoke very favorably of the mutton he ate there, usually boiled with a rich broth. [12]

Sheep arrived in Chiloé in 1568, but the wet forested landscape was far from ideal for their propagation.  Never the less, by 1783, 86,683 sheep and 2,160 rams, along with 17,307 goats, 3,780 cows, 1024 bulls and 8,426 pigs were reported in the statistical survey (although in the text the author said pigs were the most abundant animal.) [13]  Beef was clearly a distant third.

Further south sheep production became a major industry in the late 19th century, but it had little influence on the meat on Chilean tables. Starting in the 1890s with importation of sheep from the Falkland Islands, the Magallanes, Chile’s far southern province, became one of the world’s major centers of sheep production and by 1930 was exporting 600 to 800,000 head, canned and frozen.  But little if any of this Patagonian lamb came north to central Chile where local production and consumption was a half million head per year[14] in a population of 4.3 million—under 10 lbs. per person.

Tierra del Fuego Sheep, 1908

  

Eating Chilean lamb

Most Chilean lamb seems to have been boiled in soups and stews:  carbonada, pucheros and cazuelas, as was the case with the 1903 “working class family” whose diet was reported to consist largely of cazuelas of beef on weekdays (5 kg beef a week at 70 centavos a kg.) and of lamb on Sundays (.8 kg of lamb a week at 80 centavos a kg.).[15]  Middle and upper class diet was probably more varied; the 1887 New Kitchen Manual included 30 recipes for lamb along with 73 for beef, 46 for poultry and 18 for pork. Lamb recipes included mainly braised or stewed dishes, but also breaded and grilled lamb chops and numerous recipes for organ meats. 

This interesting recipe for muton stew with piñones is among them:

Carnero Guisado 

Fry a little bacon cut into cubes with a little minced onion; cut the meat, which should be from the leg, into pieces and place all in a pot with salt and pepper; fry lightly over a low fire and then add warm water; and when it is cooked add parsley, a leaf of mint [yerba buena], a heart of lettuce, soaked piñones [seeds of Araucaria araucana] and spices, all cut into small pieces, and  when served, a little sour lemon [agrio de lemon].[16]

 The late 19th and early 20th century increasingly brought foreign fashions to Chile, and French influence came to dominate the kitchens of the elite while heavily spiced Chilean Creole dishes fell from favor (see Do Chileans eat Chili?”).  It is tempting to believe that the spreading fashion for French food was accompanied by rejection Chilean dishes; especially those related to rural life—like lamb.  But I found no evidence to support this, and in fact the classic 1911 Chilean French influenced cookbook, La Negrita Doddy, includes numerous lamb recipes, both French (lamb chops a la Soubise; lamb chops a la Schiltilgheim) and Creole (lamb tomatican a la Chilena; lamb arvejado a la Clarita).  There are even instructions for roasting a 5 lb. leg of lamb for only 45 minutes, which would result in a decidedly rare roast in the French fashion.  And the very French Famous Recipes from the Hotel Crillón published in Santiago in 1951 continues to have lamb recipes: Gigot de sept heures (Seven hour leg of lamb), Saddle of lamb a la francesa, etc.  It looks like lamb continued to be popular among the elite, at last enough be served in their restaurants.

So if it was not a change in fashion or taste that took lamb off the tables of Chile’s middle and working class, what was it?

The Chilean ministry of agriculture places the blame on: 

…the myth that this meat has a high concentration of fat and is bad for the health because of its high level of cholesterol.  This idea may have been reinforced by a lack of education and information for consumers, and by the lack of transparency in the supply of lamb; in many cases what is actually being offered is the meat of sheep or rams which is more frivolous, tougher, and fatter. [17] 

But I suspect that this perception came after the fact:  the decline in lamb consumption began long before health concerns about fat and cholesterol.  Stories of experiences with strong mutton and unfounded fat and cholesterol concerns may be keeping lamb of the table of potential new buyers, but can hardly explain 150 years of decline.

It was price. 

And I blush, materialist anthropologist that I am, not to have considered this first.  The first hint came from the Sunday lamb dinners of the Famila Obrero above, at 80 centavos a pound in contrast to the daily beef at 70 centavos.  From this 15% premium in 1903, lamb increased in relation to beef by from 23 to 36% in Santiago and from 4 to 41% in Valparaiso in 1948-50.[18] And since Chilean beef is almost always sold off the bone while cuts of lamb include bone, the difference per pound of eatable portion was even greater.

Perhaps this is why my wife’s middle class parents, with seven mouths to feed (10+ with nana and family) in the 1950s and 60s didn’t eat lamb, and why her children hadn’t tried it until her recently acquired Gringo husband served it to them.  (They ate it, but haven’t added it to their household menus.)  By mid century lamb became expensive, a luxury food for those who knew it and could afford it.  But for the majority of Santígüenos, buying it simply didn’t and doesn’t occur to them.

Today Chilean lamb consumption is at its lowest point in history at only 200 grams per person per year—equivalent to about one good lamb chop—while production has fallen and exportation has increased.[19]

 

But there is lamb in Chile, even in Santiago. And now it is often less expensive than beef. Butchers in Santiago’s public market La Vega have lamb, as do specialty store GourMeat, and Jumbo supermarkets (occasionally).  Lider supermarkets seem to have it all the time, with the best selection in stores in working class neighborhoods, and I understand that Unimarc also has lamb.  I buy my lamb at Lider, where it comes in packages of mixed cuts, usually frozen, currently at 3,500 CLP a Kg., $3.50 US a lb.  It’s usually possible to select packages composed mainly of leg, shoulder or rib chops, but you have to do a bit of trimming.  The legs are sawed through the bone and can easily be cut into leg steaks about ¾ ” thick, and the racks are cut through the back bone and can be cooked whole or cut into chops. Shoulder chops are also usually cut through the bone, but other pieces are simply “chunks,” good for the stew pot.

Lider’s lambs are small, as the photo of rib chops with a pork chop shows, but are tasty and appropriately tender; rib chops and leg steaks are good grilled while shoulders are a bit tougher and are better braised.

 A lamb leg steak

 

                                                                 Rib chops surrounding a pork chop

Assorted shoulder chops.

GourMeat has better or at least more expensive lamb, and lamb is also available from local growers.  “Allegro” posted this comment to Chile Forum where a discussion of lamb was in progress:

I am a bit late to this discussion but I have to chime in because my husband and I have a sheep farm here. For one, if you do need lamb and have the capacity to store a whole one or can share it, you can buy lambs at almost any sheep farm in the central region. They won't advertise that they sell them but if you ask, they will sell them. In regards to the quality in the grocery stores, though... most, if not all, of the processed prime meat produced here gets exported. Our farm, for instance, sells to a particular prime meat broker (who does sell prime meats in Chile) and they export ours because we meet certain health standards required of the international market (my understanding is that most of the meat gets sent to Europe, not the US). None of our meat goes to market here in Chile. The meat that does go to market is that of the farms who do not meet the health standards (and I should add here that this doesn't meat it's *unsafe*, just not as desirable) or the farms in the south, which tend to produce less superior meat because they have lower grade grasses there because of the very short growing season. Ours and any of the lambs in the central region are entirely grass-fed and free-range and absolutely divine, in my opinion. It's better than anything I've had in the US. I've had lamb from other farms besides ours and they are just as good--no gamey flavor at all, lots of meat, absolutely incredible cooked over an open espino fire. If you do decide to venture out into the country a buy a lamb for yourself, keep in mind that Merinos have a milder flavor but Suffolk have more fat. I personally prefer Merino...

Lamb is also available at some restaurants.  I have had good braised lamb shanks at La Copa Feliz and at Casa Bosque, rib chops at Las Vacas Gordas and the Chilean classic, lamb criadillas (AKA lamb fries or testicles) at La Petit France.  Restaurants specializing in Patagonian food are sure to have lamb, and you may find it at parilladas, where the emphasis is on grilled meats.

Chilean Lamb recipes

There are lots, and the older cookbooks include many recipes for innards and less popular cuts, useful if you happen to have a whole lamb.  Here are some of classic Creole/Mapuche lamb dishes.

Spit Roasted lamb / Cordero al Palo

1 lamb

1 branch of maqui (Chilean wineberry) 

(or an iron bar of about 1 inch/ 3 Cm. in diameter)

10 Kg. charcoal

Salt

Cut the lamb into sections, season only with salt and skewer. The legs should be in the middle, the shoulders on either side, and the ribs on the sides. Roast with very little charcoal so that the lamb cooks slowly. It should roast for about three hours. Add additional charcoal during the last half hour for browning.

Lamb with peas / Arvejada de Cordero 

2 lbs. leg of lamb, in cubes

1 medium onion, chopped

3 cups peas

2 carrots, in half rounds

4 potatoes

3 cloves of garlic

½ cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon of thyme

Salt and pepper

Fry the whole garlic cloves in oil until very brown and remove. Brown the lamb in the oil, then add the carrots and the onion. Fry until the onion is transparent then add a cup of water and boil slowly until the lamb is tender. Then add the potatoes and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Add the peas and cook until tender. Add additional water if necessary, and adjust the salt and pepper and add thyme if the lamb is “of advanced age.” (also see the Arvejada de Cordero in  “Mapuche Food: Ethno Tourism/Ethno Gastronomy.”   Here’s a photo.) 

  

The next is a Mapuche dish that includes the luche, seaweed very similar to nori, (Japanese alga used for wrapping sushi) and locro, toasted wheat meal.  If you aren’t in Chile use nori for the luche and make your own locro:  toast wheat berries and grind them coarsely in a blender, spice grinder or sturdy mortar and pestle. For a more sophisticated version from Chilean Chef Miriam Andrea Yunge Rojas, see “Eating Chilean Seaweed:  Cochayuyo  and Luche”

Pot-au-fue of Luche and Lamb / Cazuela de luche y cordero[20]

Photo:  Municipalidad De Puerto Natales

2 lbs potatoes
½ lb. zapallo (winter squash)

1 carrot

3 cloves garlic

1 cup locro (wheat kernels toasted and ground)

¼ loaf of luche (or nori, 5 – 10 sheets crumbled)

2 - 3 shallotsCilantro

1 lb. peas
1 lb. lamb shoulder or backbone

Salt, water and chili (fresh green chili or merken)

Sauté the garlic, shallots, carrots and chili, then add the meat. When slightly browned add water to cover and boil until nearly tender. Then add the peas, potatoes and squash. When these are almost done, add the locro and boil 2 or 3 minutes more. Then add the cilantro and the luche, remove from heat and serve.

And the cridallas? Your local Jumbo or specialty meat market should be able to supply them for this interesting Chilean recipe:

Fricassee of lamb fries / Fricasé de Criadillas de Cordero

6 large or 12 small lamb fries – criadillas

1 medium onion, chopped

2 two cups of fresh bread cubes

3 cups potatoes, peeled & cubed

½ cup carrots, cubed
1 cup peas

1 glass white wine

2 tablespoons of minced parsley

2 cups broth from the criadillas

3 eggs

2 hard boiled eggs, chopped

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 tablespoons butter
 salt and pepper

  Photo: Oroyo

Boil 6 large or 12 small criadillas in salted water for 15 minutes and reserve the broth.  Peel the criadillas and cut into small cubes, and sprinkle with pepper. Fry the cubes in the oil mixed with the butter until lightly browned, and reserve.  In the same skillet, fry the onion and carrots in a tablespoon of butter.  Add the reserved criadillas, the parsley and the peas, a cup of the broth and the white wine.  Boil covered for 5 minutes, adjust the seasoning and keep warm. Fry the potatoes abundant oil and when slightly brown, add the bread cubes and continue frying until the bread is well browned. Drain on paper towels and reserve. Beat the eggs, and off the heat, add to the pan with the criadillas so that they form a creamy sauce with the liquid. To serve pour the criadillas and sauce into a large platter, surround with the potatoes and sprinkle the hard boiled eggs and bread cubes on top, taking care that the bread cubes don’t mix with the sauce and loose their crispness.

---

[1] Avilés, Hardy. 2002 Cordero todo el año. Campo Sureño, on line at http://www.australtemuco.cl/site/apg/campo/pags/20031213233217.html; and What Chileans Eat: The Chilean National Diet, Eating Chilean.  Chilean lamb consumption is probably a bit higher than this, since much Chilean lamb is eaten locally and does not enter national statistics. See Riquelme Osses, below.

[2] There is no generic English term, equivalent to pork or beef, for the meat of sheep, Mutton is the meat of sheep over 2 years old, yearling lamb is meat of animals between 1 and two years old.  But US usage refers to all sheep meat as lamb, so that’s what I do here unless mutton is referred to specifically.

[3] Spanish Cows and Beef. Iberia Nature: A guide to the natural history of Spain. On line at http://www.iberianature.com/material/cows.html

[4] Rodero A, Delgado JV, Rodero E 1992.  Primitive Andalusian livestock and their implications in the discovery of America. Arch Zootec 41: 383–400; and Wikipedia Merino

[5] Riquelme Osses, Jose Carlos. 2005. Medición de características  productivas de ovinos raza texel del sector de  Pillanlelbún en la IX región.  Tesis de grado presentada como  parte de los  requisitos para optar al grado de: Licenciado en Medicina Veterinaria. Temuco, Chile. On line at http://biblioteca.uct.cl/tesis/jose-riquelme/tesis.pdf

[6] Villalobos, R. Sergio, et. al. 1974  Historia de Chile, Tomo 2  Editorial Universitaria, Santiago de Chile. p.  174 (Google Books)

[7] Pereira Salas, Eugenio.  1977. Apuntes para la historia de la cocina chilena. Santiago: Universitaria. p. 30  On line at http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/documentodetalle.asp?id=MC0006512

[8] Molina, Juan Ignacio. 1987. Ensayo sobre la historia natural de Chile : Bolonia 1810 Santiago : Eds. Maule. On line at http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/documento_detalle.asp?id=MC0002868

[9] Miers, John. 1826. Travels in Chile and La Plata, Including Accounts Respecting the Geography, Geology, Statistics, Government, Finances, Agriculture, Manners and Customs, and the Mining Operations in Chile. Collected During a Residence of Several Years in these Countries. Vol. 2 London:  Baldwin, Cradock & Joy.  p. 312 (Google Books)

[10] Gay, Claudio. 1862-1865.  Agricultura, Tomo I. París: En casa del autor; Chile: Museo de Historia Natural de Santiago, p. 376, 451 & 462. On line at http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/documentodetalle.asp?id=MC0002688 ; and Vicuna Mackenna, B. 1877. De Valparaiso a Santiago: datos, impresiones, noticias, episodios de viaje.  Santiago: Imprenta de la librería de El Mecurio. P. 25 On line at http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/documentos.asp?id_ut=elferrocarrildevalparaisoasantiago(1849-1863)

Gay explains that sheep average about 100 lbs live weight and dress out to about 65 lbs. of meat, and since there are corresponding figures for beeves slaughtered and their weights. Here (for the arithmetically inclined) are my calculations:

	1773	1842	1859	1876
Beeves	6,925	33,373	41,500	57,658
lbs. meat	2,770,000	13,349,200	16,600,000	23,063,200
Sheep	39,904	70,691	91,250	105,653
lbs. meat	2,593,760	4,594,915	5,931,250	6,867,445
Ratio beef/ lamb	1.1	2.9	2.8	3.4

Note that this data is for fresh meat and does not include beef jerky or lambs slaughtered informally.

[11] Treutler, Paul.  Andanzas de un alemán en Chile, 1851-1863. Santiago: Editorial del Pacifico.

[12] Smith, Edmund Reuel. 1855. The Araucanians; or, Notes of a Tour among the Indian tribes of Southern Chile.  New York:  Harper & brothers. p. 269 On line at http://books.google.cl

[13] Beranger, Carlos de.  1893  Relación jeográfica de la provincia de Chiloé. Santiago de Chile : Impr. Cervantes. p. 41 On line at http://www.memoriachilena.cl//temas/documento_detalle.asp?id=MC0014220

[14] Correa Vergara, Luis. 1938. Agricultura Chilena, tomo II. Santiago: Imprenta Nascimenta.  P.197

[15] Eyzaguirre Rouse, Guillermo. 1903. Monografía de una familia obrera de Santiago. Santiago, Chile : Imprenta Barcelona. On line athttp://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/documentodetalle.asp?id=MC0001500

[16]Anonymous. 1882.  Nuevo manual de cocina: conteniendo 377 recetas de guisos escojidos de las cocinas francesas, española, chilena, inglesa e italiana: arregladas para el uso de las familias del país. Valparaíso: Libr. del Mercurio de Orestes L. Tornero. p. 50. On line at http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/documento_detalle.asp?id=MC0003181.

[17] Fundación para la innovación agraria. 2003. Calidad en producción de carne de ovina. Boletín de Ovinos. Ministerio de Agricultura. On line at http://www.fia.gob.cl/difus/boletin/bovinos/bovabril2003.pdf

[18] Almonacid Zapata, Fabián.  La agricultura Chilena discriminada (1910-1960): una mirad de las políticas estatales y el desarrollo sectorial desde el Sur.  Madrid:

S.A. de Fotocomposición. p.347 On line at http://books.google.com

[19] Producción y consumo de carne, 2010. Enfoque estadístico. Abril 2011.  On line at  http://www.ine.cl/filenews/files/2011/abril/pdf/enfoque_carnes_web.pdf  and production and export chart is from www.odepa.gob.cl

[20] Recipe adapted from  Alcafuz, Antonio. 2003 Kumiyal. Comida mapuche huilliche.  Programa Nacional de Salud para Pueblos Indígenenas, Servico de Salud de Osorno. Osorno, Imprentas America, as quoted in Montecino Aguirre, Sonia. 2006. Identidades, mestizajes y diferencias sociales en Osorno, Chile. Lecturas desde la Antropología de la Alimentación”. Tesis Doctoral,

Plateada – Chilean pot roast

With the changing seasons—Santiago does have seasons, you know--my wife puts away my shorts and tee-shirts and brings out the corduroy jeans, long sleeved shirts and sweaters.  And wants winter food; this time it was plateada a la caserola with puré de porotos, Chilean pot roast with bean puree.

Roberto Marín’s plateada - La Cocina de Lolo’s version

Plateada is among the 10 most popular home cooked dishes in Chile [1] and appears of the menu of every restaurant serving traditional Chilean Creole cuisine.  It is usually served as pictured, sliced with a little “of its own juice.”  

Plateada, literally “silver plated,” is a cut of beef, uncommon in English speaking countries where it is called “rib cap.” It is a flat muscle (the Spinalis dorsi if you really want to know) that is above the rib eye. The “silver” refers to the silvery skin on the rib side of the cut; on the other side is a thick layer of fat.

The rib cap is labeled “2” and shown in cross section in the rib-eye steak photo below. Of course most Chilean meat cuts are boneless following the lines of the muscles instead of being cut across the grain, so it comes as a flat, irregularly shaped piece of meat weighing a kg. or so. 

Photos:  plateada or rib cap in cross section          ….and whole, trimmed square.

Cooking plateada a la cacerola

“A tremendous national dish of great substance and marked meaty taste,” says Chef Roberto Marín Vivado in Chileans Cooking Chilean Style, plateada a la cacerola is “very tender and flavorful when prepared according to the rules.  It’s offered in all corners of the country with the announcement "Here's the best dish of Chile," ……which in vast majority of the time is a fallacy”.  He continues:

The errors that they always make in preparing plateada are:

1.      Removing all the covering of fat, leaving it thin and naked;

2.      Not marinating it long enough;

3.      Not browning it well enough;

4.      Not browning the onion and carrot with witch it is cooked;

5.      Adding water which gives the plateada the appearance, consistency and flavor of boiled meat and makes it watery besides.

His instructions are to get a “big thick and fat” plateada and if necessary remove some of the fat yourself, “don’t let the butcher do it.”  Rub it with four cloves of pureed garlic, salt and abundant freshly ground pepper—“at least two of three teaspoons.”  Put it in a sealable plastic bag with three tablespoons each of olive oil and red wine vinegar, expel the air, and put it in the vegetable section of the refrigerator for one or two days.

Heat three tablespoons of oil until almost smoking in a shallow wide pot with a lid.  Remove the meat from the bag, drain thoroughly, reserving the marinade, and put in the hot oil, fat side down.  Brown over high heat to a deep brown color, “I insist, an intense brown color.” If the meat is too big for the pan, cut it and brown in two batches, then remove.

In the abundant fat in the pan, brown four big onions, cut into eighths, and two big carrots cut into thick rounds until they are a nice golden color.  Add the meat, any meat juices that have collected, and the remaining marinade.  Cover the pan tightly and simmer for an hour, turning the meat from time to time. “Remember, don’t add water!”

Transfer the contents of the pan to a pressure cooker and cook for 30 minutes.  Then check for tenderness and if necessary, cook longer. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, continue to simmer in the original coverer pan for another two hours.  In this case, add a little water if necessary to replace the liquid lost in cooking—but in small quantities “to avoid producing boiled meat.”

When the meat is tender, remove from the pan and cut into ¾ inch thick slices across the grain of the meat.  Return the slices to the pan and simmer again until you take it to the table in a deep serving plate with all its juices.

 My plateada a la cacerola with spicy bean purée

In winter serve with the traditional Chilean stewed beans, or spicy bean purée; the rest of the year with rice and mashed potatoes and in summer, with porotos granados (shell beans) or salads.

*********

For once I followed the recipe religiously (more or less---I sieved the juices and left the sad brown veggies behind) and the photo above is what I got. No pressure cooker, but I didn’t have to add water since the vegetables created plenty of liquid and my pan has a tightly sealing lid.  The meat was tender but not falling apart with a very meaty flavor and the juices were rich and slightly sweet from the onions and carrots.  And in classic Chilean style, there was just enough ‘juice’ to moisten the meat… abundant gravy is not Chilean and does not go over the mashed potatoes. 

Or in this case, over the puré picante de porotos, the spicy bean puree, which in Chile is made from “peeled beans.”   They need only 30 to 40 minutes cooking (the package says 20) before being pureed with an emersion blender or food mill. To season the puré, sauté abundant minced bacon with merkén (Chilean ground smoked chili) and paprika for heat and color. When rendered, add minced onion to brown in the fat, and then garlic.  Mix with the bean puré and, to make it muy chileno, add Chilean aliño completo to taste.  It’s Chile’s own masala (complete seasoning) composed of cumin, paprika, oregano, garlic, chili, and pepper).  

It’s a good pot roast, and of course can be made with other braising cuts: chuck/sobrecostilla, brisket/tapapecho, eye of round/pollo ganso, etc.

*********

But why is Chile’s favorite pot roast the plateada, a cut most of us have never heard of? 

Prior to the 20^th century (and during a good portion of it) most Chilean beef came from free ranging Criollo cattle, descendants of stock brought by the Spanish in the 16^th and 17^th centuries.  Four hundred years of natural selection to life in the Chilean central valley produced a strong, vigorous and tough (in all senses of the word) breed of cattle.  The 1882 New Kitchen Manual recommends this: 

                                              

Method for tenderizing meat before preparing it – Before putting on to roast or stew, beat or pound very forcefully for a minute with a wooden rolling pin;  this simple operation is the secret for tender and delicate meat. [2]

And although I found no discussion of plateada  in any historic Chilean cookbook explaining its popularity, I think it's because it turns out to be among the tenderest cuts of beef, ranking 3^rd in tenderness after the tenderloin and the flat iron steak.[3]  In the USA it appears occasionally as “rib cap steak” or rolled, as:

Midwestern Rib Cap

  

“Buckle your seat belts Ladies and Gents; this one is going to knock your socks off.  A little known cut that will amaze you in taste and texture.  The flavor is so intense that almost any description will fall short. A very rich cut so 8 ozs would be a safe serving size. This is a very unique piece of meat, and equally difficult to find, so remember where you saw it.”  Bryans Fine Foods

And here’s a report on rib cap steak from Chowhond, a North American food site:

"Okay, then -- you wanna know how it tasted. Let me tell you, folks, it did not disappoint. It was every bit as tender as a filet mignon, but with all the beefy flavor a filet never has. Ridiculously juicy, magnificently meaty. The best of all possible words."

Hummm….   Maybe I’ll grill the next one.

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[1] Terra, Blog Gouyr.net.  El Terremoto se quedó con el premio Bicentenario.  2010-03-26.  On line athttp://www.terra.cl/gournet/index.cfm?

[2] Anonymous. 1882.  Nuevo manual de cocina: conteniendo 377 recetas de guisos escojidos de las cocinas francesas, española, chilena, inglesa e italiana: arregladas para el uso de las familias del país. p. 40. Valparaíso : Libr. del Mercurio de Orestes L. Tornero  On line at http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/documento_detalle.asp?id=MC0003181

[3] Calkins, Chris R. and Gary Sullivan. n.d. Ranking of Beef Muscles for Tenderness. Calkins, Chris R. and Gary Sullivan..  BEEF FACTS  Product Enhancement.  On line at http://www.beefresearch.org/CMDocs/BeefResearch/Ranking%20of%20Beef%20Muscles%20for%20Tenderness.pdf

Vegetarian Chile

If you arrived here in search of that North American favorite, vegetarian chili, you have misgoogled; this is about vegetarian food in Chile. But it might be worth reading further; Chile has an extensive repertory of meatless dishes that fed the upper classes on meatless Fridays and the poor all year round.

The food of the country people is very simple….  most of the time eating vegetables and above all potatoes, beans, peas, wheat and corn boiled like rice or as toasted flour, and on rare cases meat, preferring to sell the animals they raise and never lack.  When it is the hacienda owner who feeds them, they seem to still be in the middle ages for the great uniformity of their food, because it is made up of only a single plate of beans in the north and peas in the south, simply cooked in water or seasoned with a little fat or pork cracklings. This is the diet of all year round, which they prefer and request, feeling that it makes them strong and long suffering for their work, which the results seem to confirm.[1]

Whether the Chilean peasantry’s diet was largely meatless by choice, as Claudio Gay’s 1860s work suggests, or through poverty, as is more likely (note that food for festivals and weddings was not meatless) they developed a large variety of meatless dishes, some now classics of Chile’s Creole cuisine.

The food of the indigenous Mapuche, which blended with colonial Spanish cooking to produce Creole cuisine, was based on maize, potatoes, common and lima beans, squash, and quinoa, along with the meat of domesticated llamas and wild game, fish and shellfish.  Some of today’s popular meatless dishes are direct descendants of Mapuche foods:

Humitas, Chilean tamales (and incidentally the subject of the first post in “Eating Chilean”) continue to be among the 10 most popular Chilean home cooked foods.[2] The original Mapuche humitas were made solely of maize (corn) picked while still in the milky stage, but today’s humitas also include lard, onion and basil, though a vegetarian or vegan version is a simple modification of the recipe in the link above.

Porotos Granados, shell beans cooked with corn and squash, are also among Chileans’ top ten home cooked meals.  Cranberry beans are boiled with a bit of onion.  When within 30 minutes or so of being done, winter squash (zapallo) is added, and when it has cooked soft,  corn cut from the cob is added and cooked for an additional 10 minutes until the stew is thick.  For a more detailed and illustrated recipe, take a look at this one by Chilean Gringa blogger Eileen Smith.  And for a winter version using dry beans and spagetti, there is Porotos con riendas (beans with reins).

Tomatican, another Chilean Creole dish with indigenous origins, is a stew of tomatoes, corn, and onions, which may include meat, lima beans or cochayuyo, eatable kelp. Vegetarian versions are common and have entered the international repertory of meatless dishes.  Here is a recipe from Mooswood Restaurant Cooks at Home.  The version with cochauyo seems not to be available elsewhere in English, so here’s one adapted from Recetas de Cocina.

          Bundled...             and packaged cochayuyo

Incidentally cochayuyo is an excelent addition to meatless cooking of all kinds. types.  In Chile it replaces meat in dishes ranging from stews and soups to pastas to empanadas.  There are several more recipies in English at Seaweed: Cochayuyo and Luche.  It is occasionally available by mail in the US at Amigo Foods or Tu Chile Aquí and in Europe at Cresta Ecologia. 

 

Vegetarianism as a movement, which began in England in 1847[3], seems to have arrived in Chile in the late 19^th century, along with many other European influences.  Der Vegetarier for June 15, 1891:  “Herr Rudolf Franck describes the progress of Vegetarianism in Chili. Though the Valparaiso Society numbers only 12 members, it possesses a library and reading room, but, as yet, no restaurant. The chief reason for this want is the difficulty in finding a manager.”   Three years later “the Valparaiso Vegetarian Society, which was founded in 1889, now counts 25 members, mostly Germans...” [4]

By the 1930s, there were evidently enough Chilean vegetarians to support publication of a cook book, the 1931 Manual of Chilean Vegetarian Cuisine, [5] which, along with many French, Spanish and Italian recipes (pastas, tortillas, vegetable pies and puddings) includes a variety of clearly Chilean dishes: pancurtas (dumplings or noodles for soup), maize chupe (chupes are milk based stews), humitas, stewed hominy, cochayuyo “meatballs,” cochayuyo pudding, fried cochayuyo, stuffed cochayuyo, etc.




Her recipe for Stewed Hominy (mote de maiz guisado) is as follows: 

First pass the maize kernels through clear lye, and when the husks are loose, remove them and boil until cooked, then grind in the machine [food mill], fry in vegetable shortening with a little minced onion and parsley and lighten with milk. To serve, top with two egg yokes, grated cheese and cream, and surround with fried potatoes.

Among those Chilean vegetarians of the 1930s the most famous today is Manuel Lezaeta Acharán, author of La Medicina Natural al Alcance de Todos [6] (Natural Medicine in Reach of Everyone), which by 1989 had been published in 148 editions around the world and was the most-read book of natural medicine in Latin America.

Born in 1881, he entered the University of Chile medical school in 1899, but was forced to drop out because of syphilis and gonorrhea, then incurable. After unsuccessful treatment by numerous conventional physicians, he met German priest and practitioner of hydrotherapy and diet therapy Tadeo de Wiesent, who returned him to health in a few months. Thereafter, completely disillusioned with conventional medicine, he devoted his life to study and practice of natural medicine. He became an attorney and Professor of Spanish and History at the Santiago Institute of Humanities, and traveled through out the Americas promoting his Thermal Doctrine of the Science of Health. [7]

His ten rules for health are:

Breathe pure air.  Eat exclusively natural products.  Be sober constantly.  Only drink plain water.  Be very clean in every way.  Dominate the passions, seeking greater chastity.  Never be idle.  Rest and sleep only as necessary.  Dress simply and with ease, and Cultivate all the virtues, trying to always be happy.

Lezaeta Acharán’s dietary philosophy is based on what he considers to be natural law:

The natural order establishes that the mineral kingdom sustains the vegetal and the vegetal sustains he animal, from which results that ingestion of mineral substances, as are almost all pharmaceutical products, is to introduce extraneous materials into the organism that should not be assimilated and thus need to be eliminated. (p. 7)

Knowledgeable persons… have demonstrated without a doubt, that man is fructivorous that is, that his organism is constituted to feed itself on fruits.  Darwin, Lamark, Haecke, etc. have confirmed that the physiological analog of the man is the fructivorous ape.  (p. 8)

The meat of animals has not been destined to feed man and, more than food, it is a stimulant owing to the toxins that it possesses, among which are creatine, creatinine, cadaverin, etc., which injected into a rabbit in small quantities cause its sudden death. (p. 8)

Many think that a fruit diet is insufficient because shortly after having eaten they feel the need to eat again.  On the other hand a plate of meat or beans or “satisfies” the person for several hours. This is explained because fruits and seeds are digested and assimilated easily without leaving unhealthy residues.  In contrast a piece of meat or a plate of beans require an extended effort that makes the individual feel full for the four hours or more required for digestion, or better said, for “indigestion.” (p. 98)

The diet he recommends is based on fruits, seeds, leaves and roots, and includes limited amounts of whole grain bread, soft cheeses, hard cooked eggs, honey, milk, olives and even wine, but meats, fish and legumes (beans, lentils, etc.) are to be avoided:

Breakfast:  Only raw fruits in season or dry if fresh are not available. Lacking this, a plate of raw oatmeal soaked in water for 20 minutes or more, and sweetened with honey or raisins, figs or bananas. 

Dinner at mid day:  Freely if hungry, preferring salads with olives or chopped hard cooked egg, vegetables in season with nuts, omelets of vegetables mixed with egg, fresh cheese [quesillo] or raw sugar; a little bread is possible if it is whole grain or toasted.  Avoid lunch meats, fried foods, and condiments such as pepper or mustard.

Supper:  If hungry one may eat as in mid day, but in smaller quantities.  Generally a salad or a bit of raw fruit will be sufficient.  Eat slowly and deliberately to generate abundant saliva. Avoid sweets, conserves, milk, aged cheese, soft cooked eggs, and meat broths.  Don’t smoke. (p. 181)

Lezaeta Acharán’s teachings continue to be followed in Latin America and Santiago’s Villa de Vida Natural [8] includes a spa, hotel and restaurant with reasonable prices for meals and stays of one to 10 days.  Other Villas exist in Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, and perhaps elsewhere. 

In spite of Lezaeta Acharán’s fame, vegetarians remain a distinct minority in Chile, where annual per capita meat consumption is now over 81 kg. (just under ½ lb. per day), but meatless meals continue to be a regular part of many households’ diets.  Recipes in the most recent (April, 2011) edition of Chile’s major food magazine, Paula Cocina are almost all meatless (presumably for Lent), and my wife’s family has always had occasional meatless dinners; usually once a week or more. 

Our most popular meatless dishes are tortillas, Spanish style omelets, and vegetable tarts or pies; both of which I learned from my wife.

Tortilla Española

Tortillas are literally “little cakes” a term the Spanish applied to the Mexican maize bread, the Aztecs called taxcal, and to little breads or cakes most everywhere.  But this tortilla is a mixture of eggs and vegetables (sometimes meats are added) eaten as a main course or cut into small pieces as appetizers or tapas. Serve hot or at room temperature.

The classic Spanish tortilla contains potatoes and onions, but an infinity of tortilla varieties are popular in Spain and in here in Chile as well.

The basic procedure is to precook the vegetables, season with salt and pepper, mix with beaten eggs and allow to soak for a few minutes.  The mixture is then poured into a hot, well-oiled skilled and cooked slowly until about ¾ set.  The tortilla is then turned over (here’s how) and cooked a few minutes more, until the center is set but still moist.

Tortilla de porotos verdes (green beans)

The classic Spanish tortilla of potatoes and onions calls for the vegetables to be simmered in olive oil until cooked, but not brown, then drained and added to the eggs.  For a slightly less caloric version parboil the thinly sliced potatoes for a few minutes instead of frying.  Green beans, another family favorite, are also best parboiled, as are broccoli, cauliflower, etc., but spinach, zucchini, chard, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, eggplant, etc. are best sautéed in olive oil along with a few sliced onions.  Very wet vegetables like spinach, chard, tomatoes and zucchini should be drained or squeezed to remove most of their liquids.  A tablespoon or two of flour added to the eggs is also a good idea with many fillings to prevent watery tortillas.  And while not traditional, cheese also makes a good addition.

Some of our favorites are spinach and onion, French cut green beans with mushrooms, sliced zucchini with red bell peppers, potatoes with bell peppers, caramelized onions, and so on.  And of course a tortilla is a great way to use leftovers.  Do you have leftover rice, Brussels sprouts and winter squash?  Make a tortilla.

Another favorite is a vegetable pie, a pastel de verduras, like my wife’s green bean, onion and mushroom tart below.

The procedure is to make a pie crust, then parboil the beans and sauté the mushrooms and onions.  Mix with blanched green beans and moisten with cream (½ cup or so), fill the crust and top with a lattice of pie dough.  Bake in a moderate oven until the crust is brown.  Spinach or chard also makes a good filling.    

Vegetarian restaurants and products

Santiago is not Portland (said be the US’s most veggie friendly city), but there are a few vegetarian restaurants; tofu, quinoa, textured soy protein, and a wide variety of grains and legumes are available if you know were to look; and there are fresh fruits and vegetables in great variety and low cost in ferias, “farmer’s markets."  On the other hand, non-vegetarian restaurants (except Chinese restaurants) seldom have main dishes without meat or seafood, and most shortening and margarines contain fish or animal fats, so breads and pastries are suspect. 

Links:

“The Vegetarian Endeavor in Santiago” in Revolver Magazine has restaurant reviews.

Reinaldo’s blog: Tiendas de comidas vegetarianas (Stores with vegetarian foods)

Cocina del mercado A blog on vegetarian cooking and recipes by the chef/owner of one of Santiago’s best known Vegetarian restaurants—in Spanish.

Chile Forum:  Food in Chile. An English language forum with a search function where you can search for (and find!) where to buy tofu, soy milk, etc.

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[1] Gay, Claudio. 1862-1865.  Agricultura, Tomo 2. París: En casa del autor; Chile: Museo de Historia Natural de Santiago, p. 161. On line at http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/documentodetalle.asp?id=MC0002688

[2] Terra, Blog Gouyr.net.  El Terremoto se quedó con el premio Bicentenario.  2010-03-26.  On line at http://www.terra.cl/gournet/index.cfm?pagina=blog_comentario&idpost=16733&idblog=16&titulo_url=El_Terremoto_se_quedo_con_el_premio_Bicentenario

[3]  The Modern Vegetarian Movement. How Vegetarians Work. On line at http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/vegetarian2.htm

[4] History of Chile Vegetarian Societies, international Vegetarian Union on line at http://www.ivu.org/history/societies/chile.html

[5] Vergara Díaz, Lucía. 1  931. Manual de cocina vegetariana chilena. Santiago: Impr. Gutenberg, selected chapters on line at http://www.memoriachilena.cl//temas/dest.asp?id=manualdecocinavegetarianachilena

[6] Lezaeta Acharan, Manuel. 1997.  Medicina natural al alcance de todos, 2nd Edition.  Mexico, D.F.: Editorial Pax.  On line at Google books

[7] Manuel Lezaeta Acharán. Wikipedia Español.  On line at http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Lezaeta_Achar%C3%A1n

[8] Villa De Vida Natural “Manuel Lezaeta Acharan”, Tomas Moro 261, Las Condes. Telefonos 716 3250