Milcao or Melcao (sometimes hypercorrected to Milcado) is a traditional dish originating from the

Chiloé Archipelago The Chiloé Archipelago ( es, Archipiélago de Chiloé, , ) is a group of islands lying off the coast of Chile, in the Los Lagos Region. It is separated from mainland Chile by the Chacao Channel in the north, the Sea of Chiloé in the east an ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. The dish is a type of

potato pancake Potato pancakes are shallow-fried pancakes of grated or ground potato, matzo meal or flour and a binding ingredient such as egg or applesauce, often flavored with grated garlic or onion and seasoning. They may be topped with a variety of condi ...

prepared with raw grated potatoes and cooked mashed potatoes mixed with other ingredients. It forms an important part of the Chiloé dishes

curanto Curanto (from arn, kurantu 'stony') is a traditional Chilote method of cooking food using heated rocks buried in a earth oven that is covered with pangue leaves and turf. The fundamental components are seafood, potatoes, along with other traditi ...

and ''reitimiento'', and is mentioned frequently in folklore as part of Chilote songs and riddles. The dish spread to the south of Chile and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

with the migration of many Chilote families to

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and ...

during the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.Chapalele y Milcaos, infaltables en el curanto
Chef Norberto E. Petryk, Alimentación Chile, 20 December 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2013.

Preparation

The most important ingredient is Chilotan potatoes, several different varieties of which are used to prepare milcao. Half the potatoes are cooked and mashed and the other half are grated, sometimes using the traditional Chilote tool of a volcanic

pumice stone Pumice (), called pumicite in its powdered or dust form, is a volcanic rock that consists of highly vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals. It is typically light-colored. Scoria is another vesicular vol ...

. One of two methods may then be employed. The most common method produces ''milcaos colados'', strained milcaos, sometimes pronounced as the rhyming ''milcaos colaos'' with a silent “d”, as is common in

Chilean Spanish Chilean Spanish ( es, español chileno) is any of several varieties of the Spanish language spoken in most of Chile. Chilean Spanish dialects have distinctive pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and slang usages that differ from those of Stand ...

. Here, the grated potatoes are strained to extract most of the water by folding in a dish cloth or pressing in a sieve or against a hard surface. Alternatively, the grated potato can be folded directly into the mash, to produce ''milcaos rallados'' (“grated milcaos”). In the straining method, the juice from the strained potatoes is saved and decanted to produce

chuño Chuño () is a freeze-dried potato product traditionally made by Quechua and Aymara communities of Bolivia and Peru, and is known in various countries of South America, including Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Northwest Argentina. It is a five-day pro ...

, a kind of

potato starch Potato starch is starch extracted from potatoes. The cells of the root tubers of the potato plant contain leucoplasts (starch grains). To extract the starch, the potatoes are crushed, and the starch grains are released from the destroyed cells. Th ...

. The chuño can then later be used to make ''milcao de chuño'', milcaos made with a base of potato starch. The strained or grated potatoes are kneaded into the cooked potatoes and

seasoning Seasoning is the process of supplementing food via herbs, spices, salts, and/or sugar, intended to enhance a particular flavour. General meaning Seasonings include herbs and spices, which are themselves frequently referred to as "seasonings". H ...

and

lard Lard is a semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig.Lard
entry in the ...

are added to form a

dough Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavening ...

. This is then shaped and pressed by hand into flat, round pancakes. The pancakes can be cooked in the oven, fried or (traditionally) baked and eaten with the

Variations

Most milcaos are savory, with chicharrones (pieces of fried pork meat and fat) commonly added before cooking. However, there are a number of sweet or neutral variations. *Milcao al horno o frito (oven-baked or fried milcaos): The most common methods of preparing milcaos. They may contain chicharron, which is either mixed in with the dough or stuffed into the pancakes like a

pie A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts (pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), sweete ...

. They have a reddish-brown crust and a pale center. *Milcaos de curanto (

milcaos): The traditional Chilote method of steaming the pancakes in an upper layer of the curanto, spread with

hazel The hazel (''Corylus'') is a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K. (1999) ...

and

nalca ''Gunnera tinctoria'', known as giant rhubarb or Chilean rhubarb, is a flowering plant species native to southern Chile and neighbouring zones in Argentina. It is unrelated to rhubarb, as the two plants belong into different orders, but looks si ...

branches. Cooked in this way, the milcaos gain a dark crust and retain an essence of the leaves in their flavor. This preparation method is less common because of the complexity of preparing a

.Photo of milcaos de curanto
March 2012, retrieved 17 February 2013. *Milcados pelados (peeled milcaos) or Baemes: Milcaos that are boiled and eaten sweetened with honey or sugar. *Milcaos chuño (potato starch milcaos): Instead of using grated potatoes, dried

from previous preparations is used to make the milcaos. They are fried and have a golden crust and a pale center. If they are boiled they can also be eaten sweetened, like the ''milcaos pelados''.

Ingredients

Potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United ...

es or Chilote potatoes *

Lard Lard is a semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig.Lard
entry in the ...

Salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantiti ...

* Vegetable oil for frying * Chicharrones

References

{{pancakes Chilean cuisine Latin American cuisine Pancakes Potato dishes