[Sca-cooks] Potatoes, revisited

[Decker, Terry D.]

For fun, let's expand a little on the Andean use of the potato.

Chuno, with the little tidle over the "n," is what the natives call the
"freeze dried" potatoes.  It and other potato products are still produced in
the Andes, but they are in the decline as they are labor intensive.

For chuno, the potatoes are frozen at night, then warmed indirectly by the
sun.  They are then trampled to slough the skin and to force out residual
water.  For "white" chuno, the mashed potatoes are soaked in cold running
water for one to three weeks, then sun dried for 5 to 10 days.  As they dry,
a white crust forms (ergo the name "white" chuno).  "Black" chuno bypasses
the soaking.  The normal method of ingestion is in soups and stews where the
liquid can rehydrate the chuno.

References to chuno appear in Jose de Acosta's "Historia natural y moral de
las Indies" (1590) and in accountings of mine rations.  In general, the
product was considered a native food only fit for the lower classes.

Papa seca is made by boiling and peeling potatoes, which are then cut into
chunks, sun dried and ground.  The resulting meal is cooked with meat and
vegetables.

One interesting side note is B. Cobo notes that chuno is a source of fine
white flour for cakes and other delicacies in his "Historia del nuevo mundo"
of 1653.

Bear