🇸🇻 The cattle breeds of El Salvador

Cattle keep a small, quiet place in El Salvador's food story, which centres on maize, pork and seafood rather than beef. The cow reaches the table as beef shank and tripe in soups, as grilled and stewed dishes, and as fresh and hard cheeses. Milk ends up in puddings and a soft, crumbly dulce de leche.

• Sopa de pata, a soup of cow tripe with plantain and corn, is a local delicacy.
• Carne asada is grilled steak, served with chimol, a Salvadoran salsa.
• Quesadilla salvadoreña is a rice flour cake made with queso duro blando, a salty cheese.
• Meals often come with queso duro, queso fresco or cuajada cheese.
• Poleada is a white pudding of milk, cornstarch and sugar.

Cattle in El Salvador

Cattle keep a modest place in El Salvador's food life. The national table is built on maize, and pork and seafood carry much of the cooking, so beef tends to arrive as a supporting ingredient rather than the centrepiece. The cow reaches the plate in a handful of familiar ways: beef shank and bone in brothy soups, cow tripe in a soup counted a local delicacy, grilled steak served with a salsa called chimol, saucy beef stewed with potatoes and carrots, and minced beef tossed with mint and onion. Cheese is a quiet constant, eaten alongside meals and folded into baking. Milk shows up chiefly in puddings and confections rather than as a plain glass on the table. Together these uses sketch a small but steady beef and dairy strand running through the cuisine.

Milk, butter and beef

Beef turns up across the dishes. Sopa de res is built on beef shank and bone, simmered with corn, plantain, carrots and zucchini. Sopa de pata uses the tripe of a cow and is treated as a delicacy. There is carne asada, grilled steak eaten with chimol, a Salvadoran salsa; carne guisada, beef stewed with potatoes and carrots; lomo entomatado, beef cooked with tomatoes; and salpicón, minced beef with mint and onions. The cheeses are queso duro, a hard cheese, queso fresco, a fresh one, and cuajada, a curd cheese, all eaten with meals. Queso duro blando, salty and strong, flavours the quesadilla salvadoreña. Milk goes into poleada, a white pudding, and into a soft, crumbly dulce de leche.