If you know your Mapudungun, you will know that the word curanto is a combination of cura, “stone”, and antu, “sun” or “heat”, suggesting stones heated by the sun. In a traditional Curanto en hoyo (“in a hole”) the stones are heated by wood fire in a hole dug in the ground (usually around half a meter deep).
Once the stones are hot enough, several types of seafood, meat, sausage, potatoes, and potato preparations are layered one by one on the stones in the pit. Large nalca leaves (also known as Chilean wild rhubarb) are used to cover the ingredients and then, finally, a layer of turf, grass side down. Sealed like this, it is left to cook for several hours in the heat and steam produced.
Curanto is not a dish to prepare in small quantities and is usually cooked in a festive atmosphere with family and friends, sometimes with music and storytelling around a campfire. Today it’s popular across southern Chile, but its origins are on Chilhoé Island. And it originated a very long time ago.
According to Chiloé: The Ethnobiology of an Island Culture, edited by Anton Daughters and Ana Pitchon (2018), “Archeological excavations on Chilhoé have uncovered evidence of curantos dating back to the first occupants of South America. One site … shows stones in a pit with shellfish remains dating to 11,500 B.P. [before present, where present is set as AD 1950]… [Another] shows a carefully arranged curanto pit dating to 5000 and 6100 BP, while a third dates to 1830 BP… Spanish
This Article was originally published on World of Fine Wine
