Store

Cuy Foodways

Cuy

Specialised

⚠ NOT AN EXOTIC CURIOSITY. The guinea pig was domesticated in the Andes thousands of years ago and is a documented Andean livestock animal: raised indoors on kitchen scraps and alfalfa, requiring no pasture, producing protein on a smallholding that could not carry cattle. In Ecuador it is CEREMONIAL and festive food — weddings, baptisms, fiestas, the return of a relative — spatchcocked and turned over charcoal until the skin crisps, and served with potato, mote and peanut sauce. Strongest in Azuay, Cañar, Chimborazo, Tungurahua and Imbabura. ⚠ IT ALSO HAS A RITUAL AND HEALING ROLE in some communities, which is recorded as practice, not endorsed as medicine.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Kichwa community documented
  • Kañari community documented

Languages: Spanish, Cañar-Azuay-South Chimborazo Highland Quichua

What is recorded

  • The guinea pig is a documented Andean domesticate raised as livestock, kept indoors on household scraps and forage, and eaten ceremonially at weddings, baptisms and festivals. It is recorded as part of an Andean food system, not as an exotic or novelty food. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • related to Peruvian Cuisine documented

    One Andean domesticate and one livestock tradition across the highlands of Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and southern Colombia.

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.