Machaca (northern dried-shredded beef with eggs)

Sonora, Chihuahua, and Baja California, Mexico — cattle-ranching preservation tradition, pre-refrigeration

Machaca is sun-dried, pounded, and shredded beef — a Northern Mexican preservation technique that produces intensely flavoured dried beef. It is rehydrated by cooking with scrambled eggs, tomato, chile, and onion to create machaca con huevo, the canonical northern Mexican breakfast. The beef is pounded while drying to separate the fibres, then sun-dried until jerky-like, shredded finely. Commercial machaca is available but homemade using ranchera or chuck is preferred.

Intensely savoury, beefy, concentrated — the drying process amplifies umami; mild chile and fresh tomato provide balance