Charque
Beef salted heavily and dried into a strongly preserved ingredient that is desalted before it is cooked in stews; a Brazilian form of salt-dried meat that keeps far longer than the lightly salted carne-de-sol.
Built structures · Terraces, platforms and stands
Charque drying rails (varales)
Varales · Charque rails
Open wooden rails in a sunny, ventilated yard, on which salted beef sheets for charque are hung in the air and sun. The rails are a Latin American premises arrangement that the FAO describes in its meat-processing guidelines.
Rails for hanging meat in the sun
Charque is salted beef dried in the air. In the premises the FAO describes, the drying happens on open wooden rails that run in one direction across a sunny yard. The salted sheets are hung over the rails, so the sun and the air reach both faces. The arrangement is simple: nothing encloses the product, and nothing directs the air except the open yard itself.
The FAO guidelines separate this open drying from carne-de-sol, which is dried in a ventilated covered space with netting against insects and birds. The two products need different equipment, and the guidelines keep them apart in the plant flow.
Sources for this section
Spacing and access
The FAO figures give the rails their working clearances. At least 0.80 metres lies between runs so a hand-pulled trolley can pass, and the upper and lower rails sit 0.70 metres apart so the meat pieces stay separate. These are minimum clearances, not a full layout. The guideline does not give the rail length, post height, bracing or joinery.
A second design from a 2023 Argentine thesis shows a different tray-type structure. Its tray is a metre square, its tube is 20 by 10 millimetres and its mesh is 20 millimetres. That is a student design, and it is recorded here only as a contrast. It does not describe the traditional rails.
What the rails do not show
The rails are an apparatus record. They say nothing about drying times, product temperature, salt levels or the safety of the finished meat. The sources do not give them as a validated process, and a builder who copies the spacing would still need to work out the timber sections, posts and fixings for a local site.
Anyone adapting the rails should measure their own drying outcomes and treat the food-safety controls as a separate matter.
Sources for this section
History
The FAO guidelines of 2007 describe open charque drying on hung rails in salted-meat premises. A 2023 thesis from the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo documents a different tray-type arrangement, which is a separate student design and is not treated here as a traditional pattern.
Site
SettingAn open yard in a salted-meat premises, sited away from pollution and fenced against animals.
GroundA concrete plinth area is named as part of the premises. The FAO text gives no foundation or drainage detail for the rails.
ClimateSun and natural ventilation are the drying forces. The FAO guideline recommends a sunny, ventilated site.
FootprintRails run north to south, with at least 800 mm between runs and upper and lower rails 700 mm apart.
NotesUpper and lower rails separate the meat pieces. The rail length, height and post spacing are not given.
A build is made where it stands: moving it means building it again.
How it is built
Risks and precautions
Use task-specific protection when measuring, sawing and fixing the timber. This is a general workshop precaution, not a source instruction.
Materials
- Wooden rails
- Posts or supports
- Concrete plinth
- Choose a sunny, naturally ventilated site away from pollution, fenced against animals, as the FAO guidelines recommend.
- Set out the rails north to south, with at least 800 mm between runs for trolley access and the upper and lower rails 700 mm apart. The spacing figures are the FAO's; the rest of this sequence is proposed.
- Set the posts and fix the wooden rails. The FAO text gives no sizes or joinery, so these need a local design check.
- Hang the salted sheets over the rails in direct sun, keeping them apart so air and sun reach both surfaces.
- Move the product on trolleys between the rail runs, and take it in to the covered area when the drying stage ends. The FAO flow separates open charque drying from covered carne-de-sol drying.
Places
Latin America
Documented use · Region evidenceThe FAO guidelines describe salted-meat premises in Latin America. They name no single country for the rails, so none is recorded here.
Related
Used for
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Sources
FAOEquipment · Method · History
Guidelines for slaughtering, meat cutting and further processing, section 3Charque is dried in the open on hung salted sheets of meat (mantas) over wooden rails in direct sunlight; carne-de-sol is dried in a ventilated covered space with netting.
The rails are aligned north to south, with at least 0.80 m between runs and upper and lower rails 0.70 m apart.
The site should be sunny, naturally ventilated and away from pollution, with animals excluded.
Cited in: Rails for hanging meat in the sun; Spacing and access; What the rails do not show
Universidad Nacional de CuyoEquipment
Tesis de grado (Ramón Guajardo, 2023), figures 3.6 and 3.7A student design shows a tray-type structure with a 1 m square tray, 20 × 10 mm tubular section, 20 mm mesh and rails about 0.5 m high. These belong to that design only.
Cited in: Spacing and access