Los Gauchos

History of the empanada Salteña

An empanada is a stuffed pastry filled with beef, chicken, or pork and mixed in a tasty and sometimes slightly spicy sauce that can also be mixed with eggs, onions, potatoes and other ingredients.
The name “empanada” comes from the spanish verb “empanar”, which means to wrap or coat in bread. It is known to have its origins in a region in Spain called Galicia where to this day there is an Empanada Festival.The Empanadas were initially made as a pie and cut into several pieces and evolved into the individual portions which made it a portable and hearty meal for the working people.
A Salteña is essentially an empanada from Salta, Argentina. In the early 19th century an Argentinian lady Juana Manuela Gorriti married the President Manuel Isidoro Belzu. They were later exiled to Tarija, Bolivia during the Juan Manuel de Rosas presidensy. The Gorriti family underwent extreme poverty, and they came up with their version of the “Salteña” or Empanada that helped them make a living. Historian Antonio Paredes Candia states that the nickname of “Salteña” came about because kids where told to “Ve y recoge una empanada de la salteña" ("go and pick up an empanada from the woman from Salta"). The most important characteristic of this type of empanada, is that the meat is cut into little squares of meat by knife, and cooked together with egg, potatoes and shallots.

Don’t be shy and enjoy this historical Argentinean tradition!