In Venezuela, indigenous peoples based their diet on corn and yuca, which they complemented with hunting and fishing products; honey was used to sweeten some foods.
Some tribes developed migrant agriculture in plots called conucos, which can still be found in some rural areas of Venezuela today.
Once fire was discovered, the indigenous people cooked their food on wooden grills and used clay vessels to boil liquids, which they made themselves.
Among their foods were: casabe, arepa, and chicha. The preparation of casabe was based on a yuca tuber, which after peeling and grating, was squeezed to remove the toxic juice, the cyanogenic acid, until a flour was obtained that was shaped into large thin cakes to be cooked on clay griddles.
Corn, like casabe, was also a fundamental food in the indigenous diet; once the dried cob was shelled, the grains were boiled and ground on a metate, a slightly concave rectangular stone mortar, until a dough was obtained; with this, small tortillas were made, cooked on a griddle, and they are known as arepas to this day.
They also prepared small round breads, which were cooked under embers and called abotzos.
To make chicha, the corn, once shelled, needed to be ground and left to ferment; in some cases, women used chewing to initiate the fermentation process.
