Curanto is a traditional seafood meal from the Chiloe Islands in South America. It is cooked in a pit filled with firewood and stones, covered with leaves, and buried to create a sealed underground oven. The meal consists of seafood, meat, vegetables, and cheese and is served after cooking. The practice has existed for thousands of years and has no formal recipe. The dish is similar to clam in New England and hangi in New Zealand.
Curanto is a traditional seafood meal originating from the Chiloe Islands in South America. The meal is as much an event and cooking method as it is an actual recipe. To make curanto, a pit is dug in the ground and filled with firewood and stones, after which the wood is set on fire to heat the stones. The leaves are placed on top of the stones when ready and a variety of seafood, meat, vegetables and sometimes cheese are placed on top of the leaves covered in more leaves and finally buried to create a sealed underground oven. The food cooks and the flavors eventually blend together, at which point the pit is opened and the curanto is served.
The practice of making curanto has existed for thousands of years in the Chiloe archipelago. There is no formal recipe for the meal and it commonly consists of whatever food is readily available. Shellfish are very abundant on the islands, resulting in a meal consisting mainly of clams, snails and crabs, although fish, potatoes and meat from goats or cows are also used. Some of the ingredients that have become traditional were the result of early interaction with Spanish explorers. Similar dishes to curanto exist in several cuisines around the world, including clam in New England and hangi in New Zealand.
Making curanto starts with digging a hole in the ground. The pit is lined with rocks, usually at the bottom and sides; alternatively, the pit is dug in an area where there are already many rocks and stones in the ground. A fire is lit inside the pit and left to burn until all the stones are well heated. At this point, the traditional procedure was to lay fern leaves across rocks and place food on top of the leaves. The food is then covered with more fern leaves and some fabric such as burlap, which is buried under the ground to allow the food to cook.
The hermetically sealed chamber created keeps much of the heat around the food, meaning it cooks very quickly, sometimes in less than an hour. When the food is gone, the soil is removed and the pit is opened. At this point, the food is served to whoever takes part in the cooking. Curanto can be accompanied by bread or a special soup-like concoction of onions, garlic, parsley, lemon, and tomatoes called peure cuchareao. The curanto tradition eventually spread to Chile and Argentina, where it is sometimes prepared above ground in large pots.
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