Ch'arki (
Quechua for dried, salted meat, hispanicized spellings
charque, charqui, charquí) is a form of
jerky common in
South America made from dried and salted
meat, originally
llama, nowadays mostly
horse meat and
beef.
Llama is still widely used in
Bolivia. This was a very popular way to preserve meat in
Argentina,
Bolivia,
Chile,
Ecuador,
Peru,
Uruguay and
Brazil. It was industrialized in
charqueadas, also named
saladeros (in Argentina and Uruguay).