¬ I often times refer to living in the high desert of NM as living within a dehydrator. With something close to 25% percent relative humidity we really do. Carna seca, perhaps present in most cultures, is a vernacular food to NM that is a way of preserving meat in way of drying with the power of the sun. It may look and taste reminiscent of jerky, however the sun-drying maintains that raw bloody flavor and nutrients of the meat in a way a dehydrator could not. If you’ve had the pleasure of making or having sundried Carne seca, you know what I’m talking about.
Within the ethos of / shed there is a quest to honor and learn from our terrain, the ingredients are the connection point, and the food becomes the fruit of the quest. In so it is also a way for me to connect to not only the terrain I come from for generations on both maternal and paternal sides, but with those that I come from. My paternal linage comes from the Conchas from Taos Pueblo where I spent my formative years in my grandfathers adobe house with a dirt roof and beautiful orchard. Unfortunately these formative years were at the end of his and I was only able to glean a glimpse of such a life. To this day the trees still threaten to produce fruit and tangled in their overgrowth are remnants of farming implements. At Taos Pueblo there is no written culture, everything is taught and passed down through participation. With this you can imagine a lot can be lost overtime. One thing that seems to me to be fading is the traditional foods, and I’m not talking about the fry bread or prune pies which are delicious in their own regards, that have replaced the food of the ancient ones, but the foods that they ate before this shift in culture. For me, cooking, and eating endemic foods that can only be found in our terrain is a way for me to connect to my ancient ones. The dish that expresses this the most is our Carne Seca.
Carne seca is made at the Pueblo, but as you can tell by the name it is also a sSpanish thing. My maternal lineage is mostly Spanish ( mother spain ) Martinez and Chavez and so this is also a way for me to connect also with those lineages. We are currently fixing up a old adobe that will soon house / shed that was built by a Chavez and in the attic was a string loosely tied to the rafters going north to south between two little doors that let in the sunlight and created airflow that once hung meat to dry for winter. It’s sweet to witness and participate in living with my terrain and all that it teaches me, as long as I am willing to listen. It’s a portal to the past, but also the deepest way to be present, and what becomes the future. The work we put in today will remain long past us. While I love cooking things that tell a story of who we are and where we come from, I also realize and love the idea that we are forging a new set of terrain practices.
Sun dried carne seca is a / shed staple and always evolves with the year and seasons. Some of our favorites are made with elk or bison, a little NM lakebed salt, and a sun-dried endemic herb like Fetid marigold ( Dyssodia papposa ) or Crow-weed ( Monarda fistulosa ). This is a very simple seeming dish, but simplicity is deceiving. With only three ingredients nothing can be hidden, you taste everything, and it is important that each component is it’s fullest expression of itself. Below is a guide on how me make Carne seca, and perhaps a launching point for you to do so yourself. If you never embark on that quest, perhaps at least, it can provide an insight into a seemingly simple dish.
CARNE SECA
Meat
Salt
Dried herb
Sunlight
↴ NOTES
↓ MEAT
The meat needs to raised or hunted in a way the animal had utmost ability to enjoy and sustain itself, then killed in a way that induces minimal stress. Then the meat needs to be processed properly, if done so the meat will not have that gamey taste people often attribute negatively to meats more wild.
When the time comes a chuck of meat is frozen to the point that it stays solid but can be sliced with a knife. The freezing process also helps kill bacteria et cetera if you are worried at all about that.
↓ SALT
We travel down to southern New Mexico during hot months of summer and collect salt from ancient lake beds that no longer hold water, but produce mineral rich salt. With the heat of summer the salt forms a layer on the surface that we gently peel away.
↓ HERB
When working with wild plants you realize they grow at their own pace. You have no control other than your own participation in their process. Fetid marigold for instance in our terrain will shoot up after monsoon rains and when the heat has reduced it’s intensity. There is a week maybe two where the plant is bright green and full of life and energy while bursting with aroma, so much so that when you are driving this time of year and pull off the side of the road you will often smell a burst of fetid marigold. The plants will continue it’s process longer than that week but we want it in this state so that it holds all of it’s energy, flavor, and aroma, just before the flowers start producing seed. We collect as much as we can/need and dry in the sun with airflow just long enough to dry out the plant, but so that the color doesn’t start to fade and store in bins that block out any light. When needed we pull out what we need and grind on a matate ( grinding stone ).
↓ PROCESS
We slice the meat and put on a cutting board or wax paper. As soon as the the meat has thawed out and the myoglobin becomes dark red full of oxygen we thin out the meat a little with the back of the knife and sprinkle salt and ground marigold.
We then put the carne into full sunlight, and in a matter of minutes you will see the meat drying out and the oils from the fat melding with the salt and marigold. Once dry to touch and before the meat sticks to which ever surface we used then we flip the meat over allowing the second side to dry out. Once dry we’ll pile all the pieces together until we need them, if we intend to hold them over a period of time we will allow them to dry further together. You can’t really over dry them, but you can under dry them ( for preserving ). If preserving they can be kept away from humidity, we use paper bags and bins but you could use ziplocks et cetera.
↓ PHOTOS
