Pachamanca

Ingredients

Meat

• 2 kglamb or mutton
• 2 kgpork
• 1whole chicken, jointed
• 2 kgguinea pig or beef, optional

Marinade

• 6ají panca, blended
• 1large bunch huacatay
• 1 bunchchincho
• 1 bunchmint
• 1 headgarlic
• 2 tbspcumin
• 250 mlchicha de jora or beer
• salt

Vegetables

• 3 kgpotatoes
• 2 kgsweet potatoes
• 6 earsof corn
• 1 kgbroad beans in the pod
• 2 kgcassava

Also

• humitas, corn parcels
• banana leaves, or plantain and huacatay leaves

The pit

• clean non-porous igneous stones
• dry hardwood
• damp sacking or cloth
• earth

Directions

1. Use dense, dry, non-porous igneous stones. Never use river stones, porous rock or anything that has been sitting in water.
2. Marinate all the meat overnight in the blended ají panca, herbs, garlic, cumin, chicha and salt. Dig a pit about a metre across and 60 to 80 cm deep.
3. Line the base with a layer of hot stones, then a layer of leaves. Meat first, on the leaves, with more hot stones tucked between the pieces.
4. Cover everything thickly with leaves, then with damp sacking, then shovel earth over the whole mound to seal it completely.
5. Seal it properly with no gaps.
6. Leave it sealed for 2 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours, and do not open it to check.

Technique

• An oven or a covered barbecue version, called pachamanca a la olla, is common in cities and is a different but honest thing.
• The herbs are the fixed element: without huacatay and chincho it is simply a pit roast.
• It takes a day and several people, which is the point of it.

Substitutions

• Pachamanca a la olla, layered in a large covered pot on the hob.
• Beef or chicken in place of guinea pig.

Variations

• Pachamanca a la olla, the pot version.
• Made with only lamb and chicken.
• Vegetarian, with tubers, corn and humitas only.

History

Meat, potato and other vegetables, wrapped in leaves and slow-cooked over heated stones in an underground pit, documented among Indigenous Andean peoples, including the Inca and earlier civilizations, for many centuries before Spanish colonization, with its name combining Quechua words for earth, pacha, and pot or oven, manka, directly describing the earth-oven cooking method itself. Chosen herbs, including huacatay, a specific Peruvian black mint, are traditionally layered among the food during cooking, imparting flavour throughout the sealed pit as it slow-cooks for hours. Pachamanca carries deep ceremonial and cultural significance in Andean Peru, historically and still today associated with community celebrations, harvest festivals and significant social gatherings rather than routine everyday cooking.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pachamanca?

Pachamanca is a main from Peru: meats and tubers steamed underground on hot stones, Andean feast. Meat, potato and other vegetables, wrapped in leaves and slow-cooked over heated stones in an underground pit, documented among Indigenous Andean peoples, including the Inca and earlier civilizations, for many centuries before Spanish colonization, with its name combining Quechua words for earth, pacha, and pot or oven, manka, directly describing the earth-oven cooking method itself. Chosen herbs, including huacatay, a specific Peruvian black mint, are traditionally layered among the food during cooking, imparting flavour throughout the sealed pit as it slow-cooks for hours. Pachamanca carries deep ceremonial and cultural significance in Andean Peru, historically and still today associated with community celebrations, harvest festivals and significant social gatherings rather than routine everyday cooking.

How long does Pachamanca take to make?

Pachamanca takes 2 hr of preparation and 3 hr of cooking. The recipe makes 10 servings. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Pachamanca?

Yes, within limits. Pachamanca a la olla, layered in a large covered pot on the hob. Beef or chicken in place of guinea pig.

What is the most important thing to get right in Pachamanca?

Use dense, dry, non-porous igneous stones. Never use river stones, porous rock or anything that has been sitting in water.