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40 Salvadoran chefs break record with world's biggest pupusa: See it here

A team of more than three dozen cooks in El Salvador are claiming a new world record, having baked a giant pupusa measuring 18 feet across to mark the national dish’s day.

The pupusa is a tortilla-like flatbread filled with beans, cheese and meat, often topped with curtido (a delicious cabbage slaw made of mixture of apple cider vinegar, red onion, carrots and boiling water) and salsa.

Salvadorans celebrate National Pupusa Day every second Sunday in November, a day established by legislative decree in 2005.

A team of cooks in Olocuilta, El Salvador, is claiming a new world record, having baked a giant pupusa measuring 5.5 meters (or 18 feet) across to mark the national dish’s day. Every second Sunday in November, Salvadorans celebrate National Pupusa Day, established by legislative decree in 2005.
A team of cooks in Olocuilta, El Salvador, is claiming a new world record, having baked a giant pupusa measuring 5.5 meters (or 18 feet) across to mark the national dish’s day. Every second Sunday in November, Salvadorans celebrate National Pupusa Day, established by legislative decree in 2005.

This year, the people of Olocuilta, a municipality in the La Paz department of El Salvador just south of San Salvador, decided to improve upon a previous recording-breaking pupusa with the 18-foot-wide (5.5-meter) dish, local media outlet La Prensa Grafica reported.

Forty chefs created the dish together, the outlet reported.

Video footage of the creation shows dozens of people using what appears to be metal rods lifting the massive dish over a fire pit.

A team of cooks in Olocuilta, El Salvador, is claiming a new world record, having baked a giant pupusa measuring 5.5 meters (or 18 feet) across to mark the national dish’s day. Every second Sunday in November, Salvadorans celebrate National Pupusa Day, established by legislative decree in 2005.
A team of cooks in Olocuilta, El Salvador, is claiming a new world record, having baked a giant pupusa measuring 5.5 meters (or 18 feet) across to mark the national dish’s day. Every second Sunday in November, Salvadorans celebrate National Pupusa Day, established by legislative decree in 2005.

The largest pupusa on record with Guinness World Records was 14 feet and 9 inches (4.50 meters) in diameter and was made by in Olocuilta on Nov. 8, 2015.

In the traditional style of the region, that pupusa was made with rice flour instead of corn flour. The pupusa was made for Olocuilta's sixth annual pupusa festival.

According to Daniel Vasques, author of the website El Meson Santa Fe, pupusas are believed to have originated in the Mesoamerican region and are thought to have been around for more than 2,000 years.

The dish gained popularity in El Salvador in the 1950s, he said, and has since become a national staple.

A team of cooks in Olocuilta, El Salvador, is claiming a new world record, having baked a giant pupusa measuring 5.5 meters (or 18 feet) across to mark the national dish’s day. Every second Sunday in November, Salvadorans celebrate National Pupusa Day, established by legislative decree in 2005.
A team of cooks in Olocuilta, El Salvador, is claiming a new world record, having baked a giant pupusa measuring 5.5 meters (or 18 feet) across to mark the national dish’s day. Every second Sunday in November, Salvadorans celebrate National Pupusa Day, established by legislative decree in 2005.

Natalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: World's biggest pupusa ever measures 18 feet in El Salvador