How Dry I Am

Order machaca in some Mexican restaurants and you might just get stewed shredded beef--a far cry from the real thing. Genuine northern Mexican machaca is air-dried beef ( carne seca ) that is often pounded to powdery flakes. It’s used in soups and tacos, cooked with eggs, and the chewy thin sheets of meat are also eaten as is. New on the market is machaca produced from northern California-raised beef by New Lion International, a Del Mar-based company. New Lion’s La Parrilla Carne Seca is seasoned with garlic and salt, dried in gas-fired stainless-steel ovens, shredded and packed without preservatives in pouches that keep it fresh for up to a year.