What Machaca means
Machaca is a Mexican main dish name of Spanish origin meaning "pounded dried beef". It comes from Spanish machacar (to pound, to crush). It is pronounced mah-CHAH-kah, and it is most associated with Sonora.
The name is the method: dried beef pounded on stone or with a mallet until it shreds, a way of keeping meat before refrigeration.
This is a site about what Mexican words mean, so there is no recipe here. For the name itself: The plated dishes, most named for a cooking method or a place. Cochinita pibil is pork cooked in a píib, the Maya earth oven. Barbacoa gave English the word barbecue. Chiles en nogada is named for the walnut sauce that covers it.
