Merkén
Merkén is the Mapuche seasoning of dried, smoked and ground ají cacho de cabra chile, sometimes with toasted coriander seed and salt, made in the Maule and La Araucanía regions of Chile.
Chancho en piedra
Chanco en piedra
Chancho en piedra is a Chilean sauce of tomato, garlic, cumin and chilli, ground by hand in a stone mortar. Its name refers to the stone, not to pork.
A sauce with no pork in it
Chancho en piedra is a Chilean sauce of tomato, garlic, cumin and chilli, ground to a smooth paste in a stone mortar. Its name does not refer to pork. The Spanish Wikipedia article says the name refers to the stone used for grinding. It suggests a possible origin in the Quechua chanco or chancar, meaning to crush or grind, a word miners used for crushing ore, but presents this as a possibility only.
The sauce is closely related to pebre. Pebre is commonly chopped; chancho en piedra is ground in a mortar. One written account describes a homogeneous tomato paste, while regional accounts also document rustic pounded versions.
Origins in the record
The earliest written account the sources cite is Eugenio Pereira Salas's Apuntes para la historia de la cocina chilena, which first appeared in 1943. Pereira Salas places the dish in Talca and describes it as a grinding of tomato, chilli, garlic and onion, seasoned with salt, oil and pepper.
Oreste Plath's 1957 chapter on the pebre family names chancho en piedra as a regional variant alongside pebre en piedra. That places the name in the Chilean written record by the mid-twentieth century, without giving an origin date.
A popular story links the sauce to the Chilean War of Independence. In it, the guerrilla leader Manuel Rodríguez joined bandits led by Neira, and the two groups combined their ingredients on Piedra Peña hill. A bandit named Martínez is said to have joked that they looked like pigs eating off a stone. The article treats this as tradition, and no primary source is cited for it.
Sources for this section
Making it by hand
The cited Spanish Wikipedia account describes grinding cumin and garlic first, then grinding whole tomatoes fully into a homogeneous paste. A regional Maule account also documents a rustic result made by pounding tomato with garlic, chilli and salt in the mortar. Texture therefore varies between the documented versions; the defining method is crushing in a mortar rather than chopping alone.
The whole-tomato instruction belongs to the account describing the homogeneous version; regional recipes may cut or pound ingredients differently. The sauce is best served fresh. The sources do not say why stone changes the texture, and this page does not guess.
Sources for this section
Keeping and safety
The sources cite no tested preservation method and no storage duration. The Spanish Wikipedia article reports that some recipes add about 1 g of potassium sorbate per litre for preservation. That figure is a report of practice, not a validated process, and this page does not present the sauce as shelf-stable. Serve it fresh.
Sources for this section
History
Eugenio Pereira Salas, in Apuntes para la historia de la cocina chilena (first published 1943; cited here from the 1977 second edition, p. 88), records the dish as a grinding of tomato, chilli, garlic and onion and places its origin in Talca. Oreste Plath's 1957 chapter names chancho en piedra as a regional variant of pebre en piedra. The popular Independence-era legend is recorded by the Spanish Wikipedia article but is not documented.
Ingredients
Tomatoesground whole in the traditional method
proportion not stated
Whole cuminground in the mortar with the garlic
proportion not stated
Garlicground in the mortar
proportion not stated
Pepper (optional)
optional
Green chilli (ají verde) (optional)
Amount not stated
raw chilli is optional in some recipes; amount not statedto taste
Oil
Amount not stated
now usually included; amount not statedMethod
Risks and precautions · Standard risk
No tested preservation method or storage duration is cited. One source reports that some recipes add about 1 g of potassium sorbate per litre; this page does not treat the sauce as shelf-stable.
- Grind the cumin and garlic in a stone mortar, adding pepper if used.
- Add the whole tomatoes and grind them fully into a homogeneous paste, as described in the Spanish Wikipedia account. Regional sources also document rustic versions made by pounding tomatoes in the mortar, so texture varies by household and method. Older instructions used whole tomatoes rather than cutting them, though that rule no longer applies in every version.
- Season with salt. Raw chilli or paprika is optional, and oil is now usually included.
- Serve at once. The dish is slow to prepare, is best eaten fresh, and is rarely offered in public restaurants.
Places
Talca
Historical attestation · Locality evidencePereira Salas places the origin of the dish in Talca. This is a written attribution in a 1943 book, not a dated origin.
Chile
Documented use · Country evidenceDocumented as a Chilean sauce; the sources do not establish one precise birthplace.
Related
More from Maule
Related in the family
Ai-manas (Timor-Leste chilli condiment)
Ai-manas is described as a very hot chilli paste served with Timorese meals. One published version blends fresh chillies, shallots, garlic, Thai basil, ginger, lemon and salt, and serves it with eggs. Sources do not establish a standard formula, precise birthplace or earliest date.
Ají criollo
A fresh, uncooked Ecuadorian table sauce of hot pepper, cilantro, garlic and lime, served with most everyday dishes.
Ají de maní
A spicy peanut hot sauce from the Popayán and Cauca region of Colombia, traditionally served with pipián empanadas and tamales.
Ají de maracuyá
A contemporary Ecuadorian hot sauce that pairs passion fruit juice with boiled chile peppers, oil and lime.
Ají de tomate de árbol
An Ecuadorian hot sauce built on tamarillo, a tart fruit that gives a sharper, fleshier base than ordinary tomato salsa.
Ají de uchuvas
A sweet, tart and spicy Colombian sauce of uchuva, the yellow physalis fruit, with hot pepper, scallion, cilantro and lime.
Ají picante (Colombian table ají)
A fresh Colombian table condiment of chopped herbs, scallion and tomato in a vinegar and chile base, served beside fried and filled dishes.
Ají verde (Peruvian green sauce)
Ají verde is a Peruvian green sauce of coriander, chilli, onion and garlic in a mayonnaise or cheese base. It is best known through Peruvian restaurant cooking abroad.
Modern era
'Nduja di Spilinga
Soft, spreadable Calabrian pork sausage made with a great deal of red chilli and fatty pork, stuffed into natural casings, sometimes smoked and matured while staying soft.
A measured dehydrator retrofit
A way to add independent temperature logging to an existing food dehydrator without changing its built-in controls or protections. It is a monitoring method, not a rewiring plan.
Abalone mushroom
Pleurotus cystidiosus is the abalone mushroom, a cultivated oyster-type fungus with dark brown caps that grows more slowly and is more demanding than other Pleurotus species.
Aceto Balsamico di Modena IGP
A dark, balanced vinegar from Emilia-Romagna made by combining cooked or concentrated grape must with wine vinegar, then acetifying and refining it in wood under a protected specification.
Active sour-cream starter
A living dairy inoculum that starts controlled cream fermentation, developing acidity and aroma before sour cream or cultured butter is finished.
Adjustable yogurt-maker
A small electric incubator holds jars at a selected temperature for yogurt and other documented warm food preparations. Controls, capacity and vessel arrangement vary by model.
Adygean salt
Adygean salt is a seasoned table salt associated with Adygea and the wider North Caucasian culinary tradition. Salt is blended with garlic and a variable selection of herbs and spices; the exact mix depends on the named style and maker.
African Caesar-group mushroom
The African Caesar-group mushroom, Amanita masasiensis, is a wild ectomycorrhizal species of central and southern African woodlands, eaten locally. The genus contains deadly poisonous species, so identification needs care.
Community
No community contributions have been published for this entry yet.
Share what you made
Sign in to contribute. Published comments and photos are free to read.
Sources
Wikipedia (es)History · Method · Etymology · Ingredients
Chancho en piedra (salsa)Eugenio Pereira Salas, Apuntes para la historia de la cocina chilena (1943; 2nd ed. 1977, p. 88): dish from Talca, grinding of tomato, chilli, garlic and onion.
Ingredients: tomatoes, whole cumin, garlic, optional pepper, green chilli, salt, oil; method: grind cumin and garlic, add whole tomatoes, add salt; optional raw chilli or paprika.
Some recipes add about 1 g of potassium sorbate per litre; the name refers to the stone mortar; Independence-era legend recorded as tradition.
Cited in: A sauce with no pork in it; Origins in the record; Making it by hand; Keeping and safety
Biblioteca Nacional de ChileHistory · Variant
Geografía gastronómica de Chile: artículos reunidos (1943–1994)Chapter Estampa del pebre (En Viaje no. 290, December 1957) names pebre en piedra and chancho en piedra as regional variants.
Cited in: A sauce with no pork in it; Origins in the record
Fundación para la Innovación Agraria (FIA)History · Method · Variant · Use
Patrimonio Alimentario Maule — Chancho en piedra (p. 110)Chancho en piedra is closely associated with Maule and especially Talca, though its origin is not fully established.
Maule accounts describe the common use of a mortar to pound or crush tomatoes and vary other ingredients.
The quoted regional preparation uses ripe tomatoes, garlic, optional onion and chilli ground in the mortar; rustic pounded versions are documented.
It is served with pan amasado, tortillas, and other foods; the sauce is especially popular with humitas at summer afternoon meals.
Cited in: A sauce with no pork in it; Making it by hand