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Thali

Fire, pit and earth oven

Pachamanca

The Andean earth oven of Peru: marinated meats, potatoes, beans and corn baked on hot stones under the soil, as a feast and an offering.

Pachamanca comes from Quechua words for earth and pot. It is a meal cooked in the ground on stones heated in a fire. In the central Andes it marks harvests, family celebrations and festivals, and it is understood as a way of giving thanks to Pachamama, Mother Earth, who then returns the food.

What it is

The meats are lamb, pork, chicken, and sometimes guinea pig or alpaca, rubbed with a paste of chilli, garlic and Andean herbs such as huacatay and chincho. With them go the crops of the mountains: several kinds of potato, sweet potato, the tuber oca, broad beans in their pods and whole ears of corn. Sweet steamed corn cakes wrapped in husks, called humitas, are placed near the top. Everything takes on the scent of herbs, smoke and hot earth.

Where it comes from

Cooking in the earth is very old in the Andes. Farmers still bake freshly dug potatoes in small ovens built from clods of soil at harvest time, a simpler relative called huatia. Lamb, pork, chicken and broad beans were added after the Spanish arrival. Each region has its own seasoning. The area around Huancayo in the Mantaro Valley and the regions of Ayacucho and Huánuco are especially known for it. Peru has declared pachamanca part of the nation's cultural heritage.

How it works

Stones are stacked into a dome over a fire and heated for an hour or more. The dome is opened, and the food is layered among the hot stones, starting with potatoes, then meat, then beans and corn. Herbs and leaves go over it, then wet cloths, then earth, until no steam escapes. A cross or flowers may be set on the mound. After about an hour it is opened and served on the spot, with chilli sauces and corn beer or soft drinks.

How to do it

  1. Look for countryside restaurants that advertise pachamanca on weekends.
  2. Go for lunch. It is opened once, around midday.
  3. Watch the uncovering if you can.
  4. Eat with your hands. Start with potatoes and beans, then the meat.
  5. Add chilli sauce a little at a time.

Good manners

  • If a toast or offering to the earth is made, wait for it before eating.
  • Share from the common platter. Do not pick out only the meat.
  • Go slowly at altitude. The meal is heavy.

What is eaten

HuatiaAndean food cooked in a traditional earth oven of heated stonesChicha de joraAndean fermented drink made from germinated maizeTamaleCorn dough filled and steamed in a leaf wrapper, with many regional fillingsPapa a la huancaínaPeruvian cold potato starter with a creamy, spicy cheese sauce

Also part of it, and being written: Humita, Oxalis tuberosa, Guinea pig, Peruvian corn.

Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text by the Thali desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs vary from place to place. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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