Dumpling Atlas

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Humitas

humitasay oo-MEE-tah

Fresh corn in its own husk.

DDated textFamily H · Leaf-wrapped grain parcels (separate inventions)

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Region
South America and Andes
First record
1586 · Renaissance & print
Fold
Leaf parcel or pillow
Cooked
Steamed, boiled

Anatomy

Inside

Argentine humitas in corn husks
As served. Photo Marcos Katz, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Dough
Maize dough
Made with
Fresh corn, cheese, corn husk
Cooked
Steamed, boiled
Size
About 9 cm across

Tastes of

  • fresh corn
  • cheese
  • basil

Texture

  • creamy

Field notes

Story

Andean fresh-corn parcels with cheese, onion or basil, wrapped in the corn's own husk ("en chala"). Borderline dumpling.

How to eat it
Unwrap and eat warm.
When
Summer harvest.

Did you know The name comes from Quechua humint'a.

Range

Where

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From Andes (word and earliest texts Peruvian Quechua; Ecuador and Chile today).

Pin · Quechua-speaking central Andes (pin at Cuzco). The word and earliest records are Peruvian/Inca, and no single origin town is documented. · historical or cultural region, not a town

How sure we are

Evidence

Fairly sure. A dated text records it by 1586.

We list 3 sources: 3 dated texts. How grading works.

First record 'Bollo de mayz ... huminta' in the Arte y vocabulario printed by Antonio Ricardo in Lima, 1586 (D, opened)

Sources

  • D

    Arte, y vocabulario en la lengua general del Peru llamada Quichua, y en la lengua española (Los Reyes [Lima]: Antonio Ricardo, 1586)

    Dated text · Anonymous (Third Council of Lima circle); Antonio Ricardo; scan on Internet Archive · 1586

    Spanish–Quechua section: 'Bollo de mayz. çara tanta, huminta' (OCR 'buminta'). A maize bun called huminta in the first printed Quechua vocabulary.

  • D

    Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), 'humita'

    Dated text · Real Academia Española · 1603 (huminta); 1787 (humita)

    Historical dictionary entry: from Quechua humint'a. The Quechua word huminta is registered from 1603 (Arte y vocabulario... Quichua, Seville reprint) as 'bollicos de mayz, que se cuezen en la olla'. Inca Garcilaso… Historical dictionary entry: from Quechua humint'a. The Quechua word huminta is registered from 1603 (Arte y vocabulario... Quichua, Seville reprint) as 'bollicos de mayz, que se cuezen en la olla'. Inca Garcilaso explains the two maize breads zancu and huminta. The Spanish form 'humita' is first recorded in Terreros y Pando's Diccionario castellano (1787), 'in Peru, a small cake of sugar and tender maize wrapped in a delicate choclo leaf', then 1789 (J. F. Aguirre's diary, 'Vmita ... served in the plant's own leaves'), 1807 (uminta). Used in Ec., Pe., Bo., Ch., Ar., Ur.
  • D

    Comentarios reales de los Incas (1609), as reported by RAE DHLE

    Dated text · Inca Garcilaso de la Vega · 1609

    Garcilaso de la Vega, Comentarios reales (Lisbon, 1609): maize breads zancu (sacrificial) and huminta (festive).

Found by research and reviewed, October 2026.

Notes from the research

Quechua huminta in the Lima Arte y vocabulario (1586) (D). Garcilaso 1609.

The tagline and story are editorial; facts trace to the atlas research. History sources are from the atlas and not yet independently checked.

Family H

Kin

  • uchepos

More leaf-wrapped grain parcels (separate inventions)