RETRACTED ARTICLE: Toward a characterization of Ecuadorian ceviche: much more than shrimp

Abstract

Ceviche is present in all the Pacific coast of Latin America. Its origin and history are still debated. The consensus is that it arises from creolization between local and Eurasian ingredients and techniques. Ecuadorian ceviche is both traditional and iconic, present in one form or another in its twenty-four provinces, adapting to the availability of products and becoming part of the identity of regions, parishes, and cities. The objective of this work is to confirm ceviche as a traditional Ecuadorian dish, to assess the most popular types of Ecuadorian ceviche, condiments and sides, and also to glimpse the wide variety of preparations that appear through adaptation to ingredient availability and food customs. We performed a review of both scientific and gray literature, a relative search volume analysis and a survey among culinary professionals (n = 403). The most popular in Ecuador is shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) ceviche with 54% of the responses, followed by fish, regardless of species (29%), and both lupin (Lupinus mutabilis) and black clam (Anadara tuberculosa) with 5%. The most utilized condiments are onion, lemon juice and cilantro a “holy trinity” with more than 90% usage. These results are in good agreement with those provided by Web search volumes. The variety of main ingredients, condiments and sides is ample, though, and suggests further research. Sustainability concerns related to ceviche are the sustainability of shrimp farming and fish capture, and the preservation of mollusks and their ecosystems.

Introduction

Ceviche is a preparation that extends through the Pacific coast of Spanish-speaking America, from Mexico in the north to Chile in the south. It consists mainly of citrus-cured fish or seafood [1]. The origin of the dish is unclear, with competing interpretations establishing different histories for the dish; these attempts range from a Babylonian origin carried to Persia, Al-Andalus and only then to America by Spanish conquistadores [2]; or a humble Peruvian and Ecuadorian fishermen fare consisting of raw, salt and chili cured fish that evolved to a Passiflora (either Amazonic P. edulis or the Andean P. tripartita) acid denaturation that acquired its present form through the citrus fruits brought by the Spaniards; firstly Seville oranges and later lime and lemon [2]. Kinilaw, a Filipino vinegar or calamansi (Citrus x microcarpa) cured fish dish—and also the cooking technique in general—predates the Spanish conquest by centuries and may have traveled to Mexico on the Spanish galleon [3]. The Spanish Language Academy suggests an Arabic etymology for the word [4] in agreement with Jurafsky [5]. Other proposed etymologies are Runa Simi (Quechua) siwichi meaning “fresh or tender fish,” “cebo” meaning small fish used as bait and even “son of a bitch!” supposedly by English-speaking sailors tasting the very spicy dish. These etymologies appear in newspaper articles [6] but not in books or other academic sources. Another hypothesis places the origin of the name in a non-documented Manteño language spoken from southern Colombia to northern Perú before the Inca invasion, where the suffix -iche would have meant “delicious” [2]. Whatever the origin, the word appears in print for the first time in 1820, in the fourth stanza of a pro-independence song named “La chicha” that exalted typical Peruvian food and chicha, a traditional South American maize beer, in assertion of the Peruvian independence from Spain. The song, after being so popular that it was the first piece sung to the liberating army in 1821, fell from popularity after the independence [7]. Accepted spellings for the dish are ceviche, cebiche, seviche and sebiche. Ceviche is the preferred spelling: A Google search returns twenty-five million results for “ceviche”; 1,190,000 results for “cebiche”; 285,000 results for “seviche”; and 62,800 results for “sebiche.”

Curing foods is a way to improve not only their durability but also their organoleptic properties [8]. Acidic media contribute to the preservation of foods by inhibiting bacterial growth [9]. It is thus no surprise that the earliest stew recipes are prepared in acidic media. One of these early recipes [10] became sigbāj (vinegar stew o vinegar soup), a Persian favorite, that was carried to Baghdad, then to Al-Andalus by the Muslim armies, where it was adapted to fish due to the Christian Friday food restrictions and closeness to the Mediterranean sea, where it became the Sephardic escabeche. This dish crossed the Atlantic with the Spanish conquistadores, who made landfall less than 20 km away from the current Peruvian–Ecuadorian border. This dish would have melded with the salt and chili pepper cured fish of the Manteño fishers and evolved into the dishes we know today.

Food historian Julio Pazos describes Ecuadorian ceviche as a coastal dish that has made its way to Quito and can be found often with a location denominator: from Manabí, from Esmeraldas; depending on the style of preparation [11]. Pazos also mentions that the style of ceviche from Guayaquil is in line with Sephardic Spanish escabeches, in agreement with Jurafsky [5].

Ceviche is prepared in the twenty-four provinces of Ecuador [12] and is a national dish that unites instead of a dish that divides, as it happens in the tension between the coastal encebollado (albacore tuna soup) and the Andean hornado (roast pork). It is also a popular nostalgia dish in Ecuadorian migrant communities, particularly in Spain and Italy [13].

Ceviche is truly an Ecuadorian ethnic dish, possibly having originated and evolved in ancient times, underwent creolization incorporating exotic ingredients brought by the Spaniards, such as lemon, orange, onion and cilantro, and evolved again to reflect the food conditions of each territories and spawned variants [14], modes of preparation, and even new dishes that are part of provincial identities, such as beef ceviche in Loja [15], fish ceviche with peanut in Manabí [2], encebollado in Guayas [16] and volquetero in Pastaza [17].

This study arises from the lack of research about Ecuadorian ceviche, its identity and variety. The objective of this work is to confirm ceviche as a traditional Ecuadorian dish, to assess the most popular types of Ecuadorian ceviche, condiments, and sides, and to glimpse the wide variety of preparations that appear through adaptation to the local ingredient availability and food customs. In this way, we aim to set a foundation for a more detailed study of local variants and to distinguish Ecuadorian ceviche from other national styles.

Methodology

Study area

The studied area is Ecuador, a South American country that straddles the Equator, to which it owes its name. It is divided for the promotion of tourism into “four worlds”: the Pacific coast, the Andean highlands, Amazonia and the Galapagos islands. The country is divided into twenty-four provinces. Figure 1 shows the map of the study area with the four worlds (or regions) and the provinces that form them. The “four worlds” division is a relevant one, because it defines different agroalimentary regions, and to an extent, the available ingredients, which helps explain regional dish differences within the country.

Fig. 1

The study area. The country is divided into “four worlds” as distinct geographical and agroalimentary regions, and politically into twenty-four provinces

The present descriptive study was performed using a mixed approach. The instruments used were a literature review to establish the origin, history and state of the art in ceviche research; a relative search volume analysis to establish the interest in ceviche both at the country and at the provincial level; and a survey among culinary professionals of the twenty-four provinces of the country to find out what is considered Ecuadorian ceviche.

Origin, evolution and variety

In order to understand the origin, history and research concerning ceviche, we performed a bibliometric query using dimensions [18], searching for articles containing the word “ceviche” and the words “ceviche” and “Ecuador” from 2004 to 2021, and scientific database search with Harzing’s Publish or Perish software between the years 2004 and 2022 by keywords of interest. We also included gray literature in the form of self-published or institutional books and documents, Web pages and other non-editorially reviewed documents, in order to increase the comprehensiveness of the review [19]. The Web sites we included are mostly from high circulation newspapers, government bureaus and other reputable sources.

Interest

A relative search volume (RSV) analysis was performed using Google Trends, as it is considered a reliable measure of interest in a topic [20]. Search interest results for the word “ceviche” and related terms were obtained from Google Trends [21] including low volume searches from 2004 to 2021 and in the last 5 years. 2004 was chosen as the starting year because it is the earliest available date for searching.

Ingredients

A survey was applied during December 2021 to culinary professionals contacted through a local association, Asociación de Chefs del Ecuador (ACE), to get information about what they considered the most representative Ecuadorian ceviche. We used purposive sampling by targeting professional cooks because they are in contact with what is offered to consumers and have agency on the perception of authenticity [22], and to increment the richness and detail of the information [23]. The respondents were geographically stratified by province to keep the population proportions among Ecuadorian provinces. Ecuador has a population of 17,510,643 (2020) [24, 25], and the proportion of surveys per province was calculated to ensure a proper demographic representation for a minimum number of samples of 384, that allows 95% confidence with 5% error, after Taherdoost [26]. Our survey has n = 403, so the representativity is satisfied (Table 1).

Table 1 Surveys per province

Two of the four regions, Galapagos and the Amazonian provinces, are sparsely populated compared to the coastal and Andean provinces, so their contribution was smaller and the error margin of the analysis is higher. Respondents were contacted through Asociación de Chefs del Ecuador, the main association for Ecuadorian culinary professionals.

The survey asked respondents to select “the most Ecuadorian” of the ceviche mains and sides, along with the condiments required by Ecuadorian ceviche. The questions and alternatives are shown in Table 2. The alternatives were randomized except for the Provinces, to avoid both primacy and recency answer option order biases [27]. The main ingredient was provided with a choice to include important mains that may have been overlooked in the exploratory survey that guided the options.

Table 2 Survey questions. Choices shown in alphabetical order but were randomized in the survey, except for Province

We analyzed the qualitative data obtained based on response frequencies, both by country and by region, in which the error margin is higher due to the lower sample size for each region. Galapagos has a single response and is thus not considered for by region analysis.

Results and discussion

Literature review

The literature review shows there is an emphasis in food safety and foodborne parasites in the published research concerning ceviche. That is to be expected, given that it is a dish with raw ingredients served in hot climates. A Scopus search on the keyword “ceviche” between 2004 and 2021 returns 30 publications, most of which deal with foodborne diseases and parasitosis, three with a complex event framework named CEVICHE, one with migrant adaptation, one with cultural appropriation, and only a handful provide a gastronomic viewpoint. Due to this dearth of academic sources, gray documentation and press articles were included as sources. We approached Web recipes with care, because they are not considered trustworthy as a whole [28].

Relative search interest

Ecuador is the second country in the world after Peru in its interest in ceviche, as measured by Google Trends relative search volume (RSV). On a relative scale where 100 is the most popular search term, the order of the first five most interested countries remains unchanged: Peru, Ecuador, Belize, Costa Rica, and Chile. The interest and its variation are detailed in Table 3. In the topmost 10 countries, the interest in ceviche, which is measured by Web searches, is increasing.

Table 3 Interest in ceviche measured by Google Trends, by country. Relative search volumes

Local interest

Within Ecuador, the relative interest for ceviche in the twenty-four provinces has been changing when comparing the last 5 years with the last 17 years. The average interest in ceviche has increased from 68.75 in the last 17 years to 72.21 in the last 5 years. A breakdown of the search interest is presented in Table 4.

Table 4 Search interest in Ecuador, by province

These variations may reflect the increase in household Internet connection availability, which increased from 22.5% in 2012 to 53.2% in 2020, with different increase rates in urban and rural areas [29, 30]. The widest changes in interest are seen in the provinces of Cotopaxi and Chimborazo (both mountain provinces, far from the sea) with an increase in 11 places, and of Santa Elena, a coastal province, with a decrease in 11 places.

Ecuador is marketed for tourism as the “country of the four worlds.” Mapping the interest in ceviche to the four regions in which Ecuador is divided [31], we find that Galapagos has the most interest in ceviche (100), followed by Amazonia (73.3), the Pacific coast (72.3) and the Andes region (68.7).

City-wise, the places in which there is more interest in ceviche are Manta, Machala, Quito, Riobamba, Guayaquil, Loja, Santo Domingo, Cuenca, Ibarra and Portoviejo (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2

Search interest for ceviche in each province as a color scale, and the location of the 10 cities in which the search interest is highest. Galapagos islands not to scale

Main ingredient

The RSV analysis shows that the main searches related to ceviche in Ecuador are as follows (search place in parentheses, grouped for conciseness): shrimp ceviche (1, 2, 10); ceviche recipe (3, 4); fish ceviche (5); how to make ceviche (6); Ecuadorian recipe (7); chicken ceviche (8); and Peruvian ceviche (9). The two main searches have a popularity rating of 100, with the next search in popularity coming at only 47, decreasing from there.

Our survey response data agrees with Google Trends concerning shrimp and fish. Almost 83% of the responses consider that Ecuadorian ceviche is either shrimp or fish (Table 5). Figure 3 shows the popularity of main ingredients. Clam (black shell) and lupin (lupini beans) make another 10% of the responses; and crab (2%), chicken (1%) and others (4%), such as pig’s skin, hearts of palm, chiton, canned tuna and others, complete the remaining ingredients.

Table 5 Responses for main ingredient, in descending order

Fig. 3

Main ceviche ingredient. Shrimp is the most popular ingredient, followed by fish. Together, they make 83% of the responses

Chicken ceviche is more represented in Web searches than in the survey responses. This may suggest it is a novelty preparation and not.

Grouping the “four worlds” regions and comparing the main responses, greater variety is apparent in the Andes than in the Pacific coast or Amazonia. The two most common main ingredients shrimp and fish make up 90% of the responses in the Pacific coast (208 respondents, error margin 7%) but 74% in the Andes (168 respondents, error margin 8%) and 79% in Amazonia (24 respondents, error margin 20%). Galapagos has a single respondent. Table 6 shows the cumulative percentages of main ingredients per region. The most diverse main ingredient responses are from provinces in the Andes region, where non-seafood ingredients are used the most. This can be attributed to ingredient availability.

Table 6 Main ingredient choices per region. Galapagos not included

Less frequent main ingredients

The most common mains by far are fish and seafood, but there are several other popular ceviche main ingredients in Ecuador, particularly away from the coastal region. Beef ceviche is typical fare in Macará and Zapotillo, in the inland Loja province close to the Peruvian border [15]. It is prepared with lightly cooked meat instead of seafood, and it is similar to the Persian dish sikbaj, proposed as an ancient ancestor to ceviche by Jurafsky [5, 32]. Pig’s skin and ear ceviche is common in the central Ecuadorian Andes, especially in the city of Riobamba, which is also the chocho (Lupinus mutabilis) ceviche capital of Ecuador [33]. This lupin ceviche is not only Ecuadorian but shared with Peru and Bolivia [34]. The Peruvian capital of lupin ceviche is Ancash. Cevichocho (shortened name) is an appreciated, nutritious, inexpensive snack.

Other ceviche dishes considered “original” by local TV channel Teleamazonas are “guinea pig, pineapple, chicken, avocado and even liver” [35]. This may be seen as extreme choices, but reflects the diversification (after de Albuquerque [36]) that the dish is undergoing when expanding from the original coastal regions to places where fresh seafood is not readily available and is adapted to local ingredients and taste, thus amplifying the available alternatives.

Ceviche de concha

A distant third main ingredient, ceviche de concha, is prepared with the mangrove bivalve Anadara tuberculosa, a vulnerable blood cockle species. It is very popular in the Pacific coast, particularly in El Oro and Esmeraldas, partly because it is considered an aphrodisiac, particularly in the provinces of Guayas and Esmeraldas where preparations bear suggestive names such as “mattress breaker,” “lay me down, black woman,” and others even more explicit [37, 38]. Purportedly, this aphrodisiac effect is due to the zinc content, but it has been established that aphrodisiacs do not really work [39].

Mangroves are endangered ecosystems, their loss driven by subsistence economies and the shrimp trade [40]; and in addition to habitat loss, A. tuberculosa is endangered by overextraction. Measures are being taken to sustainably extract A. tuberculosa, and progress is being made by establishing a minimum capture diameter of 45 mm, strengthening the value chain, applying best practices, and low-intensity aquaculture of the species, but there is still room for improvement [41,42,43]. The same situation arises for other protected species used to prepare ceviche, such as wild shrimp, lobster, blue and red crab, octopus, dolphinfish and hake [44], which have seasonal capture prohibitions. Also, fishing restrictions have been proposed for Chiton spp. in Galapagos [45]. Spondylus extraction is permanently banned since 2009, even though it is a symbol of the Ecuadorian coast and has historically been a dish fit for royalty: the “ceviche of the Gods” [2].

Another sustainability concern is mislabeling or even seafood fraud, which has been identified as a problem in neighboring Peru, in sushi and ceviche restaurants, and in Ecuadorian dolphinfish production [46].

Other ingredients and condiments

The condiments used can be divided into three groups, according to their mentions: a “holy trinity” in Ecuadorian ceviche made of onion, lemon or lime juice and cilantro, all of which have a usage of over 95%; frequent ingredients are tomato, tomato ketchup and orange juice, which were mentioned in the majority of the responses; and chili, mustard and bell pepper, less used ingredients, appearing in less than half of the responses with the least mentioned ingredient, the bell pepper, appearing in little less than one-third of the mentions. The chart shown in \* MERGEFORMAT Fig. 4 details the condiment use and the percentage of mentions received.

Fig. 4

Condiment use frequency in Ecuadorian ceviche. The “holy trinity” of ceviche is onion, lemon and cilantro, followed by tomato, ketchup, orange juice, chili, mustard and bell pepper

Sour lime (Citrus aurantifolia) is the preferred citrus for making ceviche, due to its acidity. Orange juice is used alongside lemon in Ecuadorian ceviche in 51.12% of the responses. Fish and shrimp cooking liquid is often used to add volume and flavor to the dish.

Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) is almost the only herb used in Ecuadorian ceviche, belonging to the “holy trinity” mentioned by almost 96% of the respondents. In the northern province of Esmeraldas, Chillangua (Eryngium foetidum) is used instead of cilantro as they have a similar aromatic profile, with both essential oils rich in aliphatic aldehydes, mainly E-2-dodecenal [47]. It is worth mentioning that both herbs have shared ethnopharmacological uses (antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic), presumably due to the similarities in phytochemical composition [48, 49].

Ecuadorian food is generally less spicy than its Peruvian counterpart, and ceviche is no exception. The use of chili (Capsicum pubescens) is less prevalent than other condiments, mentioned in 46.4% of the responses. The liberal use of tomato ketchup (62.53%) and mustard (41.69%) as condiments seems to be mainly Ecuadorian.

Sides

Sides provide the starch in ceviche. Our survey shows that the most popular sides are chifles (fried thin green plantain slices), tostado (toasted corn), patacones (fried and smashed plantain slices), popcorn, bread, boiled yuca and rice. Chifles and popcorn are usual in the coast. Bread is a frequent side from Guayaquil (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5

Sides for ceviche. The most popular is chifle, followed by toasted maize and patacones (fried plantain chunks). Popcorn, yuca, rice and bread come behind. Sweet potato is seldom used, unlike in Peruvian ceviche

Plantains (Musa x paradisiaca), from where chifles and patacones derive, are a lowland crop, cultivated in the coast and Amazonia; and corn, from where tostado and popcorn derive, is a typical Andean crop. Yuca is also a coast and Amazonia crop. Plantain provides 67% of the sides and corn provides 22% of the sides. Although sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is very popular in Peruvian ceviche, it is less popular in Ecuador.

A “typical” Ecuadorian ceviche?

Based in our data, the typical Ecuadorian ceviche would be a shrimp ceviche, with chifle as side and with onion, cilantro, lemon, tomato, ketchup and perhaps orange as other ingredients. The shrimp ceviche recipe published by Armendaris [50] is very close to what our data suggest. Its ingredients are cooked shrimp, red onion, lemon juice, mustard, cilantro, ketchup, black pepper, tomato, orange juice, chili, oil and salt. The suggestion is to serve it with popcorn and chifles in the coast and with toasted corn in the Andes. Shrimp ceviche is also the most frequent search term in our analysis, so there is an agreement between our data and Web search interest. Shrimp ceviche, though, accounts for 54% of the results, leaving ample space to other main ingredients, condiments and sides, and space for growth and adaptation (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6

Shrimp and fish (Pacific cornetfish) ceviche garnished with chifles (plantain chips). Santa Elena province. Shrimp ceviche usually has more tomato and ketchup than fish ceviche and is redder. The authors

Ceviche derivatives

One of the flagship Ecuadorian dishes is Encebollado meaning “with onion.” It is a tuna (Thunnus albacares), yuca (Manihot esculenta) and onion soup that is the provincial dish of Guayas—the most populated province in Ecuador. It derives from ceviche de balde (bucket ceviche), a cheaper variety of ceviche sold by street vendors in enameled iron buckets, famous as a hangover cure [12]. As Ecuadorian ceviches have more liquid in them than those of other countries, and provided that fish in Ecuadorian ceviche is often cooked, this brothy, warm ceviche naturally found its way into a soup [12].

Another offshoot of ceviche is Volquetero (dump trucker). It references the truck drivers during the construction of the Amazonian Road. Being from other parts of the country, these drivers would want their ceviche, but there was no fresh fish, as they were away from the sea with no available cold chain. They developed a solution to satisfy the craving using canned tuna, lupini beans, onion, lime juice and chifles. Thus, the ceviche volquetero, shortened to Volquetero, was born, which is an important local dish in the province of Pastaza.

Status as traditional food

We consider Ecuadorian ceviche to be a proper traditional food as it satisfies the requirements set forth in Rocillo-Aquino et al. of place, time, know-how and cultural meaning [51]. The defined place of Ecuadorian ceviche comes from the Manteño culture, through the Inca domination and the Spaniards making landfall in the Ecuadorian–Peruvian border, and then to provincial and local varieties, often with defining ingredients. The 25 years, or one generation, needed to establish tradition are satisfied even with the more modern cases of encebollado and volquetero. Its “Know-how,” the “What?” (ingredients), the “How?” (techniques) and the “Who?” (persons making the dish) are satisfied. The cultural meaning is present since the pre-Inca times in which the Spondylus ceviche was the food of the Gods [2], and although it is now forbidden, ceviche recipes and main ingredients denote local identities.

Food safety

The acidic lemon or lime juice used in ceviche reduces the risk posed by certain bacteria such as Vibrio parahaemolyticus, but not all: Salmonella enterica is not affected by the acidic environment and can cause food-borne diseases [52]. Parasites, mainly zoonotic nematodes, are a common food-borne disease associated with the consumption of raw fish dishes, such as Japanese sashimi, Peruvian tiradito or ceviche [53, 54]. These are unaffected by acid environment in ceviche.

There is research concerning the food safety of Ecuadorian ceviche. Orden-Mejía et al. conducted a microbiological evaluation of shellfish ceviche sold in Guayaquil [55] in which they found no Salmonella but highlight the public health need for controlling Aerobic mesophiles, as these include most pathogens that can cause foodborne disease outbreaks [56] and total coliforms, which are a quality and hygiene indicator [57]. Salazar-Llorente [58] found varying levels of contamination, spoilage microorganisms and opportunistic pathogens in high-demand food—including ceviche—sold in the three major Ecuadorian cities: Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca. Ecuadorian ceviche, particularly shrimp, lupini, chicken, meat and some recipes of fish ceviche cook or at least poach the protein ingredients, helping reduce the risk of infection and parasites. This differentiates Ecuadorian ceviche from Peruvian or Chilean ceviche in which the protein is always raw.

Conclusions

Ceviche is a pan-Ecuadorian dish that unites instead of dividing, incorporating a wide variety of ingredients, some of which defy our notion of what is ceviche. Despite that very ample provincial and local variety, shrimp ceviche with onion, cilantro and lemon, and diced tomato, ketchup and mustard, with a side of chifles, can be considered the quintessential Ecuadorian ceviche. Fish ceviche is not specific concerning the species, provided it is white fish, allowing for a larger variability in its preparation. There is a “holy trinity” in ceviche: onion, lemon and cilantro, which are used in over 90% of the preparations.

Ceviche has spawned other dishes, namely encebollado and volquetero, which are part of provincial identities, and now have names of their own.

Some varieties of ceviche pose sustainability concerns: black shell, crabs, sea snails and octopus require enforcement of the fishing and extraction bans, minimum capture size and habitat protection to reach sustainable extraction.

Future studies could include more specific region, province and community ceviche styles and traditions. There is ample variety and more should be known about it.

Limitations of the study

Scientific gastronomic research is still a budding field, so there is a dearth of academic sources. Where these have not been available, we relied on books and reputable news and reputable recipe Web sites to build our investigation. We hope that soon peer-reviewed publications can be the bulk of the literature sources and consider this work a contribution in this direction.