Cancha: A Brief History

Photo: paramonguino

Cancha is the toasted corn that is often served at Peruvian restaurants, as something to nibble on prior, and during, your meal. Sometimes, cancha is added as a topping to ceviche, adding a nice crunchy contrast to the dish.

At my grandparent's house, where I grew up, in addition to bread, we always had hot, salty, cancha as an accompaniment for our main meal, lunch. That combination of bread and cancha on the table perfectly symbolizes the two essences of Peru: the bread, Spanish, and the cancha, Andean.

In his Dictionary of Traditional Peruvian Gastronomy, Sergio Zapata Acha, (2006 winner at the Gourmand World Cookbooks Awards, as noted at this link ), tells us a little bit of the history of this simple, yet important Peruvian food:

"[The word] comes from the Quechua cancha, meaning toasted corn, and according to Rodríguez (1875) 'is a commonly used Peruvianism.'

In the Moche language, cancha is known as quersu.

Cancha is called 'mayz tostado' (toasted corn) in the Quechua-Spanish Dictionary by González Holguín (1608).

In 1612, Luvovico Bertonio, notes the Aymara word hampi for toasted corn.

In Advertencias, a chronicle from 1545, Juan Ruiz de Arce o Albequerque, tells that in 'Tangaraya' (Tangarará, in Piura): 'They don't eat bread, they eat corn toasted and cooked, and serve this as if it were bread.'

Cancha is normally prepared as follows: In a clay pot, on a low heat, with a bit of lard, you add yellow corn with a bit of ground salt, and you don't stop moving it around until the grains are golden brown, taking care not to burn them.

Antonio Manrique Chávez, auther of El maíz en el Perú (Corn in Peru), writes: 'In the Southern regions, they use a clay pot, in which fat is heated, and when it is very hot, they add the dry corn, constantly moving it with a wooden spoon until it is evenly cooked and releases its characteristic odor. [...] In the Central and Northern regions, the cooking is done in pans, and they use oil to cook [the corn] uniformly.'

Juan de Arona calls cancha, 'toasted corn'.

According to Fidelis del Solar, in his 1876 Reparos al Diccionario de Chilenismos (Notes to the Dictionary of Chilenisms), the word cancha is 'common to all the Hispanic-American republics...', giving Juan de Arona credit for the acceptance of its use. Del Solar even mentions cancha in a poem (1876):

Viva la chicha que ensancha
los anímos apocados,
Y viva la chomba ancha,
Y viva también la cancha,
Que es pan comido a puñados.

Long live chicha (the fermented corn drink) which lifts up
Darkened spirts,
And long live the wide-mouth chomba (vessel in which to drink chicha),
And also long live cancha,
That is bread eaten by the fistful."

And you thought it was just some toasted corn at your table.


Source: Sergio Zapata Acha, Diccionario de Gastronomía Peruana Tradicional (Lima, 2006), translated by yours truly.

Click here for the Peru Food main page.

TAGS: Peru, Peruvian, food, cooking, cuisine, cocina, comida, gastronomía, peruana