Fiambre is the traditional Guatemalan salad eaten yearly for Day of the Dead. It is a chilled, elaborate mixture prepared especially for the November observances honoring the dead and celebrating All Saints’ Day.
Recipes vary widely, but fiambre commonly combines cold cuts and sausages with vegetables, pickled ingredients, cheeses, olives, and other garnishes. Some versions contain dozens of ingredients, making the dish a culinary collection of family and regional traditions rather than one fixed recipe.
The dish is often linked to the custom of bringing relatives’ favorite foods to cemetery gatherings. As foods from different family members were combined, the tradition developed into a shared salad associated with remembrance, family ties, and communal meals.
Two familiar varieties are fiambre rojo, colored by beets, and fiambre blanco, which omits them. Curtido is a pickled vegetable preparation that may be included in fiambre, but it is not the name of the complete traditional salad.