The Empanada Atlas: The Central Provinces

While the classic variety is called criolla and filled with ground meat, an abundance of different fillings can be found in the city of Buenos Aires, such as ham and cheese, as well as other fillings ranging from the caprese to chicken, four cheeses, corn and vegetables, and meats such as osso buco.

Though the capital’s style has so many influences and varieties, some elements, like the flaky pastry and the intense use of onion, sweet pepper, and paprika, give Buenos Aires empanadas their own unique quality.  

These are either fried or oven-baked, varying greatly depending on the features of the cuisines of each of the 135 municipalities that make up the province of Buenos Aires.

They are typically filled with ground beef, onion, sweet pepper, olives, and bay leaf and/or cumin to give it flavor, while the traditional pastry tends to include butter or margarine.

 A classic of this province are bittersweet and highly savory empanadas, which contain beef or pork accompanied by prunes, cloves, or cinnamon. Of course, there are also empanadas filled with typical local fish, like mahi-mahi, surubí, and pacu.

Some areas in the province cook pirok, a variety of empanadas made with homemade dough brought by immigrants who arrived from Russia. They traditionally had just one filling: cabbage. However, onions and a bit of meat were added later.

 The typical filling here is meat or fish (such as armado, patí, raya, or pacu). The mixture can include ingredients such as pimiento, chilies in vinegar or bay leaf, sweet pepper, and green onion, since there are many different versions across the province.

The Felicia locality hosts a traditional celebration that pays homage to a group of women who worked tirelessly to create thousands of empanadas for a local charity: La Fiesta de la Empanada.

 Perfect for anyone who enjoys bittersweet flavors: in addition to raisins, they also have sprinkled sugar or syrup in the pastry. The typical filling is made up of cubes of meat, onion, egg, potato, chillies, and carrots in certain inner city areas.

 In 1942, in his book Memorias de un Viejo (Memories of an Old Man), Dr. Vicente Quesada wrote: “Each Cordoban empanada, big and in one solid piece, contained delicious ground meat, with olives and onion. The abundant juices ran down the hand of anyone who attempted the pleasant task of eating it.”

In San Juan, they say that the first local empanadas only contained ground meat, and egg and olives (a notable local product) were added later due to the influences of other locations. Criolla or cimarrona dough is used to distinguish it from puff pastry.

They are very juicy since they have a lot of onion, and can be fried or baked in a clay oven. In general, they include ground loin or rump meat, with white wine and beef fat in the dough. Like the empanadas in Santiagueña, the fried empanadas are called pasteles.

Fried empanadas are a classic of the province. They are often sprinkled with sugar and are neither hot nor spicy. They are more than double the size of salteñas and other empanadas in the northern region. 

There are also regions within the province where the beef is replaced by deer or wild boar, taking advantage of the availability of these types of animals that offer different flavors and textures to more traditional varieties.