Andean cuisine - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Andean cuisine is the cuisine that originated in ancient cultures in the Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

and is now widespread in the Andean states

Andean states

The Andean States are a group of nations in South America that are defined by sharing a common geography or culture such as the Quechua language and Andean cuisine which was primarily spread during the times of the Inca Empire, but also before and after it.Politically speaking, Argentina and Chile...

. Accounts of pre-Hispanic cuisine in the Andes dates back to the first horticulturists from the valley of Lauricocha

Lauricocha

Lauricocha may refer to the following:*Lauricocha Province - a province in the Huánuco Region in central Perú*Lauricocha - a parish in the central highlands of Perú*Lauricocha Culture - a sequence of cultural periods of Peru in the Huánuco area...

; archaeologists have suggested that they domesticated tuber

Tuber

Tubers are various types of modified plant structures that are enlarged to store nutrients. They are used by plants to survive the winter or dry months and provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing season and they are a means of asexual reproduction...

s, like potatoes and yuccas, around 10,000 BCE. The Andean

Andes

region stretched across many different landscapes, which meant that there was a great diversity of plants and animals used for cooking, many of which remain unknown outside Peru. The most important staples were various tubers, roots, and grains. Maize

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

was of high prestige, but could not be grown as extensively as it was further north. The most common sources of meat were guinea pig

Guinea pig

The guinea pig , also called the cavy, is a species of rodent belonging to the family Caviidae and the genus Cavia. Despite their common name, these animals are not in the pig family, nor are they from Guinea...

s and llama

Llama

The llama is a South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since pre-Hispanic times....

s, and dried fish was common.

Foodstuffs

Amaranth

Amaranthus, collectively known as amaranth, is a cosmopolitan genus of herbs. Approximately 60 species are recognized, with inflorescences and foliage ranging from purple and red to gold...

was one of the staple food

Staple food

A staple food is one that is eaten regularly and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a diet, and that supplies a high proportion of energy and nutrient needs. Most people live on a diet based on one or more staples...

s of the Incas, and it is known as kiwicha in the Andes today. In addition, they used amaranth to create effigies

Effigy

An effigy is a representation of a person, especially in the form of sculpture or some other three-dimensional form.The term is usually associated with full-length figures of a deceased person depicted in stone or wood on church monuments. These most often lie supine with hands together in prayer,...

of animals that were used in religious ceremonies. Later, the Spanish would ban the use of amaranth for this reason. There were also several types of edible clay, like pasa, which was used as sauce for potatoes and other tubers and chaco something associated with the poor or religiously devout. Just like in the rest of Central and South America chili pepper

Chili pepper

Chili pepper is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The term in British English and in Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia and other Asian countries is just chilli without pepper.Chili peppers originated in the Americas...

s were an important and highly praised part of the diet.

Quinoa

Quinoa

Quinoa , a species of goosefoot , is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the grass family...

was also an important foodstuff. The Inca Army was able to subsist on quinoa and fat when on long journeys.

Vegetable food

In the long Inca realm that stretched from north to south there was a great variety of different climate zones. In Peru in particular, the mountain ranges provide highly varied types of growing zones at different altitudes. The staples of the Incas included various plants with edible tubers and roots like potato

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

and sweet potato, in hundreds of varieties. Slightly over 4,000 types are known to Peru. There was also oca

Oca

Oxalis tuberosa is an herbaceous perennial plant that overwinters as underground stem tubers. These tubers are known as oca, oka, or New Zealand Yam. The plant was brought into cultivation in the central and southern Andes for its tubers, which are used as a root vegetable...

, which came in two varieties, one sweet and one bitter. The sweet variety could be eaten raw or preserved and was used as a sweetener before the arrival of sugar. The insipid, starchy root ullucu and arracacha

Arracacha

The arracacha is a garden root vegetable originally from the Andes, somewhat intermediate between the carrot and celery...

, something like a cross between carrot and celery were, like potatoes, used in stews and soups. Achira, a species of Canna
Canna (plant)
Canna is a genus of nineteen species of flowering plants. The closest living relations to cannas are the other plant families of the order Zingiberales, that is the gingers, bananas, marantas, heliconias, strelitzias, etc.Canna is the only genus in the family Cannaceae...

, was a sweet, starchy root that was baked in earth ovens. Since it had to be transported up to the power center of Cuzco it is considered to have been food eaten as part of a tradition. Though the roots and tubers provided the staples of the Inca, they were still considered lower in rank than maize

Maize

.

Several species of seaweed were part of the Inca diet and could be eaten fresh or dried. Some freshwater algae and blue algae of the genus Nostoc
Nostoc
Nostoc is a genus of cyanobacteria found in a variety of environmental niches that forms colonies composed of filaments of moniliform cells in a gelatinous sheath.The name "Nostoc" was invented by Paracelsus...

were eaten raw or processed for storage. In post-colonial times it has been used to make a dessert by boiling it in sugar. Pepino, a refreshing and thirst-quenching fruit that was eaten by common folk but scorned by "pampered folk" and were considered difficult to digest.

Meats

Peoples of the Altiplano

Altiplano

The Altiplano , in west-central South America, where the Andes are at their widest, is the most extensive area of high plateau on Earth outside of Tibet...

had two large domesticated animals: llama

Llama

The llama is a South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since pre-Hispanic times....

s and alpaca

Alpaca

An alpaca is a domesticated species of South American camelid. It resembles a small llama in appearance.Alpacas are kept in herds that graze on the level heights of the Andes of southern Peru, northern Bolivia, Ecuador, and northern Chile at an altitude of to above sea level, throughout the year...

s. They were kept for their wool and used as pack animals that were often employed in large caravans. The llama in particular was highly valued and white llama adorned in red cloth with gold earrings would often go before the Inca ruler as a royal symbol. Animals were believed to represent various gods depending on what color they had and were sacrificed in great number and the blood was used as a ritual anointment. The control over the sacred animals was very rigorous. Shepherds had to preserve every last part of any animal that died and present a full animal to the Inca or risk severe punishment. Among the food products made from the Peruvian camelids was sharqui, strips of freeze dried meat, the origin of modern-day jerky

Jerky (food)

Jerky is lean meat that has been trimmed of fat, cut into strips, and then been dried to prevent spoilage. Normally, this drying includes the addition of salt, to prevent bacteria from developing on the meat before sufficient moisture has been removed. The word "jerky" is a bastardization of the...

. The meat of the common folk was the cuy, the guinea pig

Guinea pig

. They were domesticated by 2000 BC and were easy to keep and multiplied rapidly. Guinea pigs were often cooked by stuffing hot stones inside them. The entrails would often be used as an ingredient in soups along with potatoes, or made into a sauce. They could also be employed for divination, which later brought them into disfavor by the Catholic Church.

There was game in the form of the wild camelid

Camelid

Camelids are members of the biological family Camelidae, the only living family in the suborder Tylopoda. Dromedaries, Bactrian Camels, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, and guanacos are in this group....

s vicuña

Vicuña

The vicuña or vicugna is one of two wild South American camelids, along with the guanaco, which live in the high alpine areas of the Andes. It is a relative of the llama, and is now believed to share a wild ancestor with domesticated alpacas, which are raised for their fibre...

and guanaco, whitetail deer, huemul deer and viscacha

Viscacha

Viscachas or vizcachas are rodents of two genera in the family Chinchillidae. They are closely related to chinchillas, and look similar to rabbits...

, a kind of chinchilla

Chinchilla

Chinchillas are crepuscular rodents, slightly larger and more robust than ground squirrels, and are native to the Andes mountains in South America. Along with their relatives, viscachas, they make up the family Chinchillidae....

which was hunted with lassos. Hunting rights were controlled by the state and any meat would go into the state warehouses for storage. There were massive royal hunts where hunting teams would force huge herds into enclosures and there are reports of several thousand animals being caught in a single great hunt, including puma, bear, fox and deer.

One of the mainstays of the Inca army, and of the general population, was dried fish. Limpets, skates, rays, small sharks of the genus Mustelus, mullets and bonito

Bonito

Bonito is a name given to various species of medium-sized, predatory fish in the Scombridae family. First, bonito most commonly refers to species in the genus Sarda, including the Atlantic bonito and the Pacific bonito ; second, in Japanese cuisine, bonito refers to the skipjack tuna , which, in...

were among the fish caught off the Peruvian coast. Other sea creatures like seabird

Seabird

Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...

s, penguins, sea lions and dolphins were eaten and so were various chiton

Chiton

Chitons are small to large, primitive marine molluscs in the class Polyplacophora.There are 900 to 1,000 extant species of chitons in the class, which was formerly known as Amphineura....

s, mussels, chanque (an abalone

Abalone

Abalone , from aulón, are small to very large-sized edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae and the genus Haliotis...

-like animal) and various crustaceans. Like other American peoples the Inca ate animals that were often considered to be vermin by many Europeans, like frogs, caterpillars, beetles and ants. Mayfly

Mayfly

Mayflies are insects which belong to the Order Ephemeroptera . They have been placed into an ancient group of insects termed the Palaeoptera, which also contains dragonflies and damselflies...

larvae were eaten raw or toasted and ground to make loaves that could then be stored.

Food preparation

Cooking was often done by putting hot stones in cooking vessels and there was extensive use of the huatia
Huatia
A huatia is a traditional Peruvian earthen oven which dates back to the days of the Inca Empire. A banquet prepared with this sort of oven is known as a Pachamanca...

, a type of earth oven

Earth oven

An earth oven or cooking pit is one of the most simple and long-used cooking structures . At its simplest, an earth oven is simply a pit in the ground used to trap heat and bake, smoke, or steam food...

and the paila

Paila

A paila is an earthenware bowl used as a plate in several South American countries. Dishes served in a paila are often prepared in it inside an oven. By extension the word paila is also used for the dishes eaten in it such as Paila marina and Paila de huevo...

, an earthenware bowl.

The Inca often got through times of food shortage because they were able to preserve and store many of their crops. It is estimated that at any given time in Incan history, there were three to seven years worth of food in the state warehouses. In the high elevations of the Andes, setting out potatoes and similar tubers out in the dry days and cold nights would freeze-dry them in a matter of days. The farmers would help the process by covering the crops to protect them from dew, and by stomping on them to release the excess water quickly. In addition to fruits, vegetables and roots, the Inca also preserved meat by drying and salting it, making for complete nutritional stores. These food preservation techniques, combined with their far-reaching road system, allowed the Inca Empire to easily withstand droughts and to have the means to feed a standing army.

Foodstuffs

Vegetable food

Meats

Food preparation

See also