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Alcoholic drinks from Andes

Chicha de muko (chewed-maize chicha)muko

Chicha de muko is an Andean maize beer in which the starch is turned into sugar by chewing, not by malting. Maize flour is moistened in the mouth and formed into small balls (muko) that are dried; the muko is then cooked with water and left to ferment in large clay vats into a maize beer.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Chicha de muko itself.

Short entryAlcoholic drinks

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo source gives amounts.
maize flour
StarterNo inoculum is added; the fermentation pots are never cleaned (FAO, on chicha made from maize flour). Salivary amylase from chewing replaces malt, but it is not a starter.
Start
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What changes: Maize flour is chewed, moistened with saliva and formed into small balls

Step 1 of 3
Chew maize flour into balls
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: dry muko balls.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

none; salivary amylase begins turning starch into sugar

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Chicha de muko is an Andean maize beer in which the starch is turned into sugar by chewing, not by malting. Maize flour is moistened in the mouth and formed into small balls (muko) that are dried; the muko is then cooked with water and left to ferment in large clay vats into a maize beer.

What makes this one different

Chewing supplies the enzymes that chicha de jora gets from sprouted maize malt.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Chicha de joraGerminated (malted) maize instead of chewing; has its own entry.
  • Masato (Amazon)Cassava chewed and spat; has its own entry.
  • Chicha de molle (Wari, Cerro Baúl)Maize and pepper-tree berries (Schinus molle) brewed in the Wari colony's brewery at Cerro Baúl, Peru; has its own entry, wari-molle-chicha-cerro-baul.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

In the Inca Empire, women called aclla, the "chosen women", were taken to the acllahuasi and dedicated to religion, weaving, cooking and chicha brewing. They began the brew by chewing maize, and much of their chicha went to ceremonies (Wikipedia, Chicha).

  1. [fao138] Lorence-Quiñones A., Wacher-Rodarte C., Quintero-Ramírez R. 1999, Cereal fermentations in Latin American countries, chapter 4 of Haard N.F. et al., Fermented cereals, a global perspective, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 138gov
  2. [wp-chicha] Wikipedia, Chicha (outline only)wiki
  3. [moseley2005] Moseley M.E., Nash D.J., Williams P.R. et al. 2005, Burning down the brewery: establishing and evacuating an ancient imperial colony at Cerro Baúl, Peru, PNAS 102(48):17264–17271paper