Narrator: Sandwiched in a 5-meter-wide metal grid,
this is Argentina's attempt
to fry the world's largest torta frita.
But before this dough ever touches the pan,
it takes a team of 24 people
to prepare the bread and lift it with a crane,
all so it can be served to the 20,000 people
who came to Mercedes, Argentina,
to eat the biggest torta frita in the world.
Narrator: We visited Mercedes to see
how this torta frita is made
and what it takes to make such big batches.
Making this torta frita
begins with a dozen individual bags of flour,
weighing 9 kilograms each.
The flour is emptied on a table,
and a team of 12 kneaders make individual mounds of flour,
forming a crater in the center.
Once formed, another volunteer comes around
and adds a large ladle of fat into each mound.
Kneaders then mix the flour and fat together,
gradually adding about a pitcher of water
as they mix and knead the dough.
But kneading this dough isn't easy.
Gabriela is the head kneader of the festival
and has been making giant torta fritas since 2009.
Narrator: While the dough is being formed,
another group of volunteers lights a wood fire
underneath the 5-meter pan that will cook the torta frita.
The pan itself is full of 1,600 kilograms of grease,
which festival organizers have collected
over the course of three months.
Narrator: After the dough has been combined
into a single massive ball,
it's covered with a cloth and left to rise for 15 minutes.
The next step is the most difficult part of the process:
flattening and shaping the dough.
Working together,
bakers walk around the dough in covered shoes,
using their feet and body weight
to push the edges of the dough out
until it starts to resemble a giant disk.
Narrator: Working together, the team of bakers
uses a 6-meter-wide rolling pin
to get the dough as flat as possible.
Standing in the center of the roller,
two workers use their feet
to help apply even pressure across the pin.
Going section by section,
the bakers then rock and roll the pin
to gradually flatten the dough.
[crowd clapping]
Narrator: While the bakers try their best
to roll the dough into a single flat sheet,
it's easier said than done.
Parts of the dough rip and need to be patched.
Narrator: The metal grid weighs close to 1,000 kilograms
and helps sandwich the torta frita
so it can be lifted by the crane.
Narrator: But it could all go wrong
if the grid isn't tight enough.
[crowd cheering]
It takes about 10 minutes to fry the first side.
And after all of that, they have to take it out again,
spin it, and cook the other side.
Narrator: When the bread is done,
workers peel off large sections
and hand them out to the hungry crowd.
Narrator: In Argentina, torta frita is a popular street food
that's often enjoyed with a warm cup of yerba mate.
Narrator: The Fried-Cake Festival began in 1999
as a way to honor and remember veterans
who served in the Falklands War.
And in 2009, festival organizers decided to make
the world's largest torta frita.
Over the years, Uruguay and Argentina
have passed that record back and forth.
And while this annual tradition was paused
at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Mercedes' torta frita returned in 2022
to reclaim the world title.