Argentine · snack

Empanadas Tucumanas

Empanadas Tucumanas reads salinity 4.4, richness 4.2 and allium 3.6 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Argentine snack, about 5 hr 56 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Salinity 4.4 · Richness 4.2 · Allium 3.6 · Umami 3.0 · Earthy 2.8 · Sweetness 2.6 · Herbaceous 2.4 · Warm Spice 2.4 · Smoke 1.5 · Bitterness 1.1 · Nutty 0.7 · Heat 0.7 · Sourness 0.5

What's in it (13)

Time & effort: about 5 hr 56 min (1 hr 25 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 112.8 kcal, 4.4 g protein, 1.7 g fat, 20.4 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (9 steps)

  1. Tucumán argues with Salta about empanadas the way Naples argues with Rome about pizza, and the differences are specific. Tucumanas are made with matambre cut by knife rather than minced or shredded, they are juicy to the point of hazard, they contain no potato and no raisins, and they are fried in beef fat. The repulgue, the rope of pleats along the edge, is counted: thirteen is the traditional number.
  2. Cut the beef by hand into 5 mm dice. A mincer crushes the fibres and the filling goes pasty and grey; the knife is not nostalgia, it is texture. Freeze the meat for 30 minutes first to make the cutting easy.
  3. Melt 60 g of the grasa in a wide pan over medium heat, cook the onion for 10 minutes until translucent and sweet, and add the pimentón, cumin and ají molido off the heat so the paprika does not scorch and turn bitter.
  4. Return to medium-high, add the beef and cook only 3 to 4 minutes, until it has just lost its red colour. It finishes cooking inside the empanada, and meat cooked through now will be dry later. Season with the filling salt.
  5. Chill the filling thoroughly, at least 4 hours or overnight, ideally with a knob of the grasa stirred through. The fat sets solid, and it is that solid fat melting inside the sealed pastry that makes the famous jugosidad — a warm filling wets the dough and the empanada bursts in the fat.
  6. For the dough, rub the remaining grasa into the flour and dough salt, then work in the warm water until you have a smooth, soft, slightly greasy dough. Knead 5 minutes, rest 30 minutes covered, then roll thin — 2 mm — and cut discs 13 cm across.
  7. Fill each with 2 heaped tablespoons of cold filling plus some chopped egg and spring onion, wet the rim lightly, fold and press out all the air. Pleat the edge by folding a corner of the rim over on itself repeatedly along the seam, thirteen times.
  8. Fry in beef fat at 180 C, three or four at a time, 3 minutes a side, until blistered and deep gold. Drain upright so the juice stays in. Eat leaning forward over a plate, and bite the corner first.
  9. Substitutions: lard can stand in for the grasa de pella; flank steak can stand in for the matambre; oil can stand in for the beef fat.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.