Since empanada recipes vary and each Latin American country claims to have the best recipe, let's try to describe what a Uruguayan empanada is like.
The main ingredient for the dough is wheat flour, as a true Uruguayan empanada requires good old wheat flour. Usually, only water and salt are added. Beef fat (lard) can also be included. Beef fat makes the dough flakier. Compared to butter, beef fat melts at a higher temperature and, therefore, makes the dough easier to work with because it is more elastic. You might wonder why beef fat?
Well, this is related to the fact that Uruguay has four times as many cattle as inhabitants—four cows per person. Need I say more? However, since cow tallow can sometimes be hard to find in certain parts of the world, I decided to use pork fat. Of course, if you can find beef tallow, you should use it.
Traditionally, Uruguayan empanadas are filled with seasoned beef. With four cows per inhabitant, it makes sense to use beef, doesn't it? And please, make sure to use really good quality meat. I chose minced beef, but feel free to cut sirloin or a similar cut into cubes.
Uruguayan empanadas are usually baked. There are other ways to prepare empanadas, for example, in Venezuela and Colombia, they are served fried. Traditional Uruguayan empanadas are served with the famous herb sauce called chimichurri. However, some people seem to think that chimichurri doesn’t go with empanadas. Of course, opinions and tastes vary. Which do you prefer?
