Embedded Files
Don Quixote – by Miguel de Cervantes – 1615
“‘That big dish that is smoking farther off,’ said Sancho, ‘seems to me to be an olla podrida, and out of the diversity of things in such ollas, I can’t fail to light upon something tasty and good for me.'”
Intro to Don Quixote
In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing. An olla of rather more beef than mutton, a salad on most nights, scraps on Saturdays, lentils on Fridays, and a pigeon or so extra on Sundays, made away with three-quarters of his income.
“When I worked for Tom Carrasco, the father of the bachelor Samson Carrasco that your worship knows,” replied Sancho, “I used to earn two ducats a month besides my food; I can’t tell what I can earn with your worship, though I know a knight-errant’s squire has harder times of it than he who works for a farmer; for after all, we who work for farmers, however much we toil all day, at the worst, at night, we have our olla supper and sleep in a bed, which I have not slept in since I have been in your worship’s service, if it wasn’t the short time we were in Don Diego de Miranda’s house, and the feast I had with the skimmings I took off Camacho’s pots, and what I ate, drank, and slept in Basilio’s house; all the rest of the time I have been sleeping on the hard ground under the open sky, exposed to what they call the inclemencies of heaven, keeping life in me with scraps of cheese and crusts of bread, and drinking water either from the brooks or from the springs we come to on these by-paths we travel.”
“Absit,” said the doctor; “far from us be any such base thought! There is nothing in the world less nourishing than an olla podrida; to canons, or rectors of colleges, or peasants’ weddings with your ollas podridas, but let us have none of them on the tables of governors, where everything that is present should be delicate and refined; and the reason is, that always, everywhere and by everybody, simple medicines are more esteemed than compound ones, for we cannot go wrong in those that are simple, while in the compound we may, by merely altering the quantity of the things composing them. But what I am of opinion the governor should eat now in order to preserve and fortify his health is a hundred or so of wafer cakes and a few thin slices of conserve of quinces, which will settle his stomach and help his digestion.”
With this the governor was satisfied and looked forward to the approach of night and supper-time with great anxiety; and though time, to his mind, stood still and made no progress, nevertheless the hour he so longed for came, and they gave him a beef salad with onions and some boiled calves’ feet rather far gone. At this he fell to with greater relish than if they had given him francolins from Milan, pheasants from Rome, veal from Sorrento, partridges from Moron, or geese from Lavajos, and turning to the doctor at supper he said to him, “Look here, señor doctor, for the future don’t trouble yourself about giving me dainty things or choice dishes to eat, for it will be only taking my stomach off its hinges; it is accustomed to goat, cow, bacon, hung beef, turnips and onions; and if by any chance it is given these palace dishes, it receives them squeamishly, and sometimes with loathing. What the head-carver had best do is to serve me with what they call ollas podridas (and the rottener they are the better they smell); and he can put whatever he likes into them, so long as it is good to eat, and I’ll be obliged to him, and will requite him some day.
In the words of Lope de Vega (Spanish playwright, poet, novelist and marine, whose reputation in the world of Spanish literature is second only to that of Cervantes) “The stew of a villain must contain some beef, mutton, hen, rump, vegetable and chorizo.”
Spanish Culinary History in Cervantes' "Bodas de Camacho" Carolyn A. Nadeau
Yet the description of the ingredients - whole sheep, hare, hens, geese, rabbits and other fowl and game - being prepared to simmer slowly in six different cauldrons pays homage to Spain's first and most well-known national dish, ollo podrido. What Calderon would later dub "Ia princesa de los guisadus," the ollo podrido was a fashionable dish during the Hapsburg monarchy. In the seventeenth century it represented the culinary taste of nobles both for its ostentation and its opulence. Yet everyone from kings to canons, to rectors and peasants enjoyed it. Although its beginning as a Simpler slew with humbler ingredients is generally agreed upon, no one really knows its point of origin. Some postulate that it is Gallic, or perhaps even Visigothic, in origin; while others theorize that the ollo podrido comes from the Jewish adafino, a stew prepared on Fridays to avoid cooking on the Sabbath. At each table ingredients for the stew would invariably change depending on the area, season, and economic level of those cooking. But in the sixteenth century, the ollo podrida becomes the fashion among the aristocracy and for three centuries is served from the richest tables to the poorest. Recipes would vary from one cook to the next but all agreed that the ingredients must be many and varied. Diego Granado, the first to record the ollo podrido in Spain, uses the very ingredients Sancho ogles at Camacho's feast: mutton, fowl and game.
The recipe contains other instructions for pork. vegetables, legumes, seasoning and presenting the stew but this citation demonstrates the excessiveness of the olla podrida that appeared both in the king's kitchen and at Camacho's feast. The olla podnda is one of Spain's rich gastronomic contributions to Europe. Culinary giants like Careme in his work, L 'art de la cuisIile ftanraise au dixneuvieme siecle, and Escoffier in Le Guide culinaire, mention that the olla podrida is Spain's first national dish to influence other European cooking. In an era when nationalism was on the rise, cooking began to shed its pan-european identity and take on national characteristics. The olla podrida that the cooks are simmering at Camacho's wedding and that Sancho later discusses in more detail as governor of Barataria exemplifies a national culinary expression much like those found in Granado's cookbook.
Nadeau … Toronto Paper
Scappi again shows his pioneering spirit when he includes recipes unique to two specific countries: “to prepare a thick milk soup popularly called Hungarian Soup” (226) and “to prepare a dish of various ingredients called, in Spanish, olla podrida” (215). What Calderón would later dub “la princesa de los guisados” [the princess of stews], the olla podrida was a fashionable dish during the Hapsburg monarchy. In fact, Gómez Laguna speculates that Scappi became aware of this stew when he prepared the banquet for Carlos V’s coronation feast (1993, 10). In seventeenth-century Spain the olla podrida represented the culinary taste of nobles both for its ostentation and its opulence. Yet everyone from kings to canons, to rectors and peasants enjoyed it. Although its beginning as a simpler stew with humbler ingredients is generally agreed upon, no one really knows its point of origin. Some postulate that it is originally Gallic or perhaps Visigoth; others theorize that the olla podrida comes from the Jewish adafina, a stew prepared on Fridays to avoid cooking on the Sabbath[i]. [ii]. The Spanish recipe also bears a striking resemblance to the recipe, “On Cooking a Dish Called Ṣinhājī’” found in Ibn Razîn al Tujibî Fiḍālat al-Khiwān fī Ṭayyibāt al-Ṭaʿām wa-l-Alwān (Best of Delectable Foods and Dishes)[iii]. At each table ingredients for the stew would invariably change depending on the area, season, and economic level of those cooking. But in the sixteenth century, olla podrida becomes the fashion among the aristocracy and for three centuries is served from the richest tables to the poorest. Recipes would vary from one cook to the next but all agreed that the ingredients must be many and varied.
Scappi, who is the first to ever publish a recipe for olla podrida, opens by explaining the very name of the dish: “This preparation, oglia potrida, is named thus by Spaniards because it is made mostly in earthenware stewpots called oglias, and potride [sic] means a variety of well cooked ingredients” (215-16). He then goes on to enumerate the quantities of pork, beef, fowl, legumes, vegetables, grains and spices that are combined to make this stew. In total there are seven different pork products; five beef, goat and domestic fowl; six different wild birds (including 20 thrush and 20 quail); 12 vegetables and legumes; and three different types of seasoning. His detail to presentation is also exceptional as he explains how to present the meal in a series of layers over different platters, allowing time for each layer to rest, and a final addition of spices before serving:
Then set out great platters and put part of the mixture on them without the broth: get all the large fowl, quartered, and the large meats, and the salami sliced, leaving the small birds whole; divvy those up onto the platters over that mixture. On top of that put some of the other mixture with the saveloy cut into pieces. Make three layers like that. Get a spoonful of the fattest broth and splash it over top. (216-17)[iv]
Another olla podrida recipe appears in the sixteenth-century Hungarian cookbook, The Science of Cooking. While much shorter than Scappi’s, this recipe also includes pork, beef and a wide variety of poultry:
Boil the pig’s leg, then some beef, sausage and liver, and ten kinds of bird meat if you can have it, cook them all in one pot, begin it with the older animals, then the younger ones, add some salt, red cabbage, carrot, wild carrot, mix them together with meat, then pour boiled beef broth onto it, add some salt and black pepper, saffron and ginger, serve it once cooked. (The Prince of Transylvania’s Court 117)
One notes here the insistence of cooking the older animals first, a clear reminder of the time needed to make the meat more tender. The author finishes his recipe for olla podrida with the following statement: “This dish is cooked twice or thrice a year for the Holy Roman Emperor” (117). Again, we find connections between this dish and royalty.
Almost 30 years later, Diego Granado copies this recipe and many others of Scappi to publish in Spain Libro del arte de cozina [Book on the art of cooking] (1599), and, as a result, the first published recipe of olla podrida in its native country[v]. Granado naturally eliminates the explanation of the name that opens Scappi’s version and also edits out the seasonal suggestions offered at the end of the entry but essentially all else remains identical. While Granado’s cookbook brings to Spain the creative cooking found among the pages of Scappi’s work, the 1611 publication of Francisco Martínez Montiño’s cookbook overshadowed Granado’s, which left little mark on Spain’s culinary development and was not published again until late into the twentieth century.
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By the time Martínez Montiño publishes his cookbook, the olla podrida is already firmly established in the culinary culture of Spain as evidenced by its appearance in the works of numerous fiction writers[vi]. Martínez Montiño puts his own signature on this classic recipe when he includes, “Una olla podrida en pastel” [A hodgepodge stew in a pie] as part of his collected recipes. Like Scappi and Granado, Martínez Montiño includes a wide variety of pork, beef, fowl, legumes and vegetables. He cooks them separately and produces an excellent broth in which he stews vegetables.
Has de cocer la vianda de la olla podrida, cociendo la gallina, o vaca, o carnero, y un pedazo de tocino magro, y toda la demás volatería, como son palomas, perdices, zorzales, y solomo de puerco, longanizas, salchichas, liebre, y morcillas: esto todo ha de ser asado, primero que se echen a cocer. En otra vasilla has de cocer cecina, lenguas de vaca, y de puerco, pies de puerco, orejas, y salchichones; del caldo de entrambas ollas echarás en una vasija, y cocerás allí las verduras, berzas, y nabos, perejil, y hierbabuena y los ajos, y las cebollas han de ser asadas primero.
[Cook the ingredients for a hodgepodge stew including hen, beef, mutton, a piece of lean lard, all other fowl like pigeons, partridges, and thrushes, pork loin, hare, cooked sausage, cured sausage, and blood sausage. All of this should first be roasted then put on to boil. In another pot, cook cured beef, beef and pork tongue, pig feet, ears, and sausage. Fill another pot with stock from the first two and in that cook vegetables like collard greens, turnips, parsley, spearmint, garlic and onions which should first be roasted.] (100v)
His unique approach is that he then uses these many and varied ingredients as a filling for a pie. Once the ingredients are cooked he explains how to assemble and bake the pie:
Sacarás toda esta vianda en piezas, que esté dividida una cosa de otra, y las verduras en otra pieza, de manera que no esté nada deshecho, déjalo enfriar, y harás un vaso muy grande, bien gordo de masa negra de harina de centeno, o de [a]cemite, y lo asentarás sobre una hoja de horno, e irás asentando de toda la vianda que tienes cocida dentro del pastel, e irás sazonando con todas especias, y alcaravea, y echarás de las verduras, ni mas ni menos. Y cuando estuviere lleno el pastelón, ciérralo, y mételo en el horno de pan, porque no habrá horno de cobre tan grande, que se pueda cocer dentro; y pondrás sobre una hoja de horno de cobre, y no lo quites de la hoja donde está, hasta que se cueza: y cuando la masa del pastel estuviere más de medio cocida, agujerá el capirote de la cubierta, y hínchelo de caldo, y cueza en el horno por espacio de una hora.
[Put all the ingredients in bowls, each one separate from the other, and the vegetables in another bowl, and don’t let anything fall apart. Let them cool. Make a big, thick crust with rye or whole wheat dough. Place it on a baking sheet and fill the pie with all the cooked ingredients. Season with all spices and caraway. Add in all the vegetables, no more, no less. When the pie is full, seal it and place it in the bread oven because no copper oven would be able to hold it. Place it on a copper baking sheet and don’t remove it from the sheet until it’s done baking. When the crust is half baked, stick a needle in the top and fill with stock and let it continue baking in the oven for an hour.] (100v-101r)
Like Scappi’s recipe, Martínez Montiño’s is opulent and crafted for the most wealthy.
Within Spain, other versions of the dish appear in more modest cookbooks, like Libro del arte de cocina [Book on the art of cooking] (1607) by Domingo Hernández de Maceras, who was cook in a residence hall at the University of Salamanca. He presents a significantly more modest version of the dish although it too contains all types of animal products, garbanzos, garlic, turnips and seasoning (217).
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Outside of Spain, the olla podrida rapidly becomes one of Spain’s rich gastronomic contributions to Europe. Between the time that Diego Granado and Martínez Montiño published their respective cookbooks in Spain, versions begin to appear across Europe. For example, in the 1604 cookbook, Ouverture de cuisine [Opening the kitchen], Lancelot de Casteau titles his version, “Pour faire un pot pourry dict en Espaignolle Oylla podrida” [To make a potpourri called olla podrida in Spanish]. De Casteau’s recipe, even more extravagant than Scappi’s, begins with beef, chicken, mutton and duck to which he adds numerous other meats, poultry, and vegetables including raviolis filled with almonds and candied quince. The platters are finished with “a dozen feet of sheep well washed to put all around the plate” that are then decorated with cooked dates placed between the feet (de Casteau 1604).
Only a few years later, in the 1612 Dutch cookbook, Koocboec oft Familieren Kevkenboec, bequaem voor alle jouffrouwen, die hun van keucken-handel oft backen van toertkens ende taertkens willen verstaen [Cookery book or familiar kitchen book suited to all young women who want to understand the workings of the kitchen or how to bake pies and tarts], writer Antonius Magirus includes a lengthy version of the recipe, “Hoe dat men een goede menghelinghe oft Spaenschen huspot maecken sal, int Spaens gheheeten: oglia potrida” [How to made a good mixture or Spanish “hutspot,” that in Spanish is called olla podrida[vii]]. Schilderman and Sels have pointed out that Magirus substitutes ingredients that were available to the Dutch (2003, 61). As noted by the book’s subtitle, the shift from royalty to familiar kitchens is clear. Additionally, historian Deborah Krohn notes that this cookbook project appeals “to bourgeois women who could presumably learn both general things—the workings of the kitchen—and more specific instruction regarding the creation of particular dishes” (2015, 45). Similar to Martínez Montiño, who writes recipes for men and women cooking both in the royal kitchen and in private homes, it is clear that this Spanish recipe has appeal to a wide audience.
Attempting to adapt recipes from abroad to conform to the availability and tastes of a specific locale is again present in Gervase Markham’s 1615 English version of the recipe which appears in The English Housewife. He adds personal commentary on the exceptional quality of this dish as he opens his recipe: “To make an excellent olla podrida, which is the only principal dish of boiled meat which is esteemed in all Spain…” (1986, 77). While elements of the Spanish recipe are recognizable in Markham’s version, for example, the many meat, poultry and vegetable selections, Markham, like de Casteau and Magirus before him, includes ingredients that differ from the Spanish version: tubers like potato roots and skirret and leaf vegetables like strawberry leaves, succory, and marigold leaves. In the explanation of its presentation he includes Spanish dishware and layers of fruit seen also seen in the French version:
dish it up upon great chargers, or long Spanish dishes made in the fashion of our English wooden trays, with good store of sippets in the bottom[viii]; then cover the meat all over with prunes, raisins, currants, and blanched almonds, boiled in a thing by themselves; then cover the fruit and the whole boiled herbs with slices of oranges and lemons, and lay the roots round about the sides of the dish, and strew good store of sugar over all, and so serve it forth. (78)
Again in 1660, Robert May opens his cookbook The Accomplisht Cook with the recipe “To make an Olio Podrida”, showing once again the importance of this dish for the British (1685, 1-3).
Returning to Italy, the German-born Mattia Giegher (Mathias Jäger), published a 1623 treatise on serving, Lo scalco [The steward], in which he illustrates how to serve an oglia podrida. For these instructions he includes a table map with the oglia podrida as the centerpiece surrounded by different meat dishes (see below). Giegher organizes dishes to be served seasonly and places the oglia podrida as a third course among those served in winter. He writes: “è una vivanda alla Spangnuola, nella qual’ entran diverse cose, como Quaglie, Tordi, Pippioni, Pernici, Capponi, Pollastri, Carne de Vitella, de Castrato, e di Porco salvatico, Salsiccie, Salsiccioni, Prosciutto, Lingue, Peducci, e Grugni di Porco, Cavoli, Rape, Finocchi, Fave, Specierie, ed altri ingredienti” [(It) is a Spanish-style dish, in which various things are included, such as quail, thrush, squab, partridge, capon, chicken, veal, ox, and boar, regular sausages, big sausages, ham, tongue, pig’s feet and face, cabbage, turnips, fennel, broad beans, spices, and other ingredients] (49).
Illustration from Mattia Giegher, Le Tre trattati de Messer Mattia Giegher… P. Frambotto, 1639. Bibliothèque nationale de France. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb30504819t
La Gran Olla Podrida – Fogones en la Historia
Some relate it to the adafina, of which Juan Ruiz, the Archpriest of Hita already mentions it in his "The Book of Good Love" (1330 and 1343). It is a complete meal that the Jews prepared for the Sabbath; Christians would have added to the dish various portions of pork
Stanza 781
Algunos en sus cassas passan con dos sardinas;
Some men content themselves at home with one or two sardines
En agenas posadas demandan golosinas:
But when they eat with others then they have greater appetite
Desechan el carnero, piden las adefinas,
And they have mutton or the adefinas (a stew made by Jews)
Desían que non conbrían tozino sin gallynas.
Or say they’ll eat no bacon unless it is cooked with squab and greens
Adafina: The Story Behind the Recipe - UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies (washington.edu)
The origins of the word “adafina” are not exactly known. The more accepted interpretation is that it comes from the Spanish Arabic word addafína, which derives from the Classical Arabic word dafīnah meaning ‘hidden’ or ‘buried.’ This etymology makes sense since the adafina had to cook overnight on the hearth without further intervention; it was covered in the embers or set under an iron pot filled with glowing coals and left to slow-cook until the time for the meal came on Saturday. Sephardic Jews in Morocco still prepare their adafinas or t’finas in this way.
In Spain the dish also had other names, such as trasnochado (meaning ‘cooked overnight’), and albondiguillas (‘little meatballs’). These terms could be used in other contexts, but always referred to the Sabbath meal set to slow-cook before sundown on Fridays when used in the context of Jewish living. Adafina is in the same family as other one-pot meals in Spain such as ollas, cocidos, escudellas and pucheros, and it is similar to the ajiacos and sancochos of Latin America as well. Exclusively Sephardic are the names of hamín or ani, and adafina, all of which refer to the Sabbath meal and were used in Spain before 1492.
Adafinas were as varied as the households and towns of Spain. Common ingredients were legumes such as chickpeas and fava beans (other types of beans like red or pinto would come later from the New World), vegetables and, if one’s purse permitted, some meat. In some cases, the main protein appeared in the form of eggs. Huevos haminados refer to the eggs that went into the adafina or hamín as the main protein. When slow-cooked overnight in the pot with other ingredients, the eggs take a velvety and creamy texture different from regular boiled eggs. There are several contemporary recipes of Sephardic hamín–all very good–in Rabbi Robert Sternberg’s The Sephardic Kitchen, which the author gathered mostly in Israel from Sephardic families.
Drizzle of Honey
“In Toledo in 1580 Ana Lopez used to spy on the converso Diego Enriquez family through the cat hole in their door. She saw them make an adafina of meat with parsley, onions, cabbage and mint.”
La olla, mejor podrida (I) | Degusta - La Rioja (degustalarioja.com)
Whatever its exact origin, the rotten pot began to appear in Castilian literature in the mid-16th century as a symbol of rich and heterogeneous food. Such a dispending dish could not go unnoticed and was soon known throughout Europe thanks to the relevance and expansion of the Spanish empire. The rotten pot appeared earlier in foreign recipes than in ours: in 1570 Bartolomeo Scappi, cook of Pope Pius V, included it in his famous 'Opera dell'arte del cucinare'.
His, which was copied by the Spaniard Diego Granado from end to end in 1599, he carried bacon, ham, nose, ears and pork legs, longanizas, ram, veal and cow, capones, chickens, chicks, hare, partridges, pheasants, anades, tordos, quail, francolines, chickpeas, beans, onions, chestnuts, cabbage, turnips, sausages, pepper and cinnamon.
It seems barbaric but Scappi fell short compared to the German Marx Rumpolt, who in 1581 published his 'Ein new Kochbuch' with a recipe for 'hollopotrido' that carries no less than ninety ingredients. He said in the end that "it is good for kings and emperors, princes and lords". Just like that.
The 1599 version of the recipe describes the serving as “and then have ready large plates, and put some of this mixture upon the plates without broth. And take all the birds divided in four quarters, and the salted meats cut into slices, and leave the little birds whole, and distribute them on the plate upon the mixture, and upon those put the other mixture with the sliced stuffing, and in this manner make three layers. And take a ladleful of the fattest broth, and put it on top, and cover it with another plate, and leave it half an hour in a hot place, and serve it hot with sweet spices.”
The 1607 version finishes the dish this way, “after it is well cooked, make plates of it, with mustard or some other and on top of the plates, cast parsley, because it looks nice and it is very good.”
I know of two late period recipes for this dish, one from Domingo Hernandez de Maceras’ Libro del Arte de Cozina, published in 1607 and one from Diego Granado’s book of the same name, published in 1599. Maceras was the cook of the Colegio mayor de Oviedo of the famous University of Salamanca in Spain. He was a cook for 40 years, so the cookbook published in 1607 might well describe dishes that go back to the 16th century.
From Spanish soup to potpourri – Swiss National Museum - Swiss history blog
From Spanish soup to potpourri
Spanish soup was once the ultimate in Sunday meals. This stew was cooked and served in bronze tureens. The dish and its tureen have disappeared from our culinary consciousness. Only a few robust museum pieces and the foreign word potpourri remain as reminders.
Felix Graf
Felix Graf was a curator at the National Museum Zurich until 2017. Now he works as a freelance publicist.
Spanish soup is a stew that was popular throughout southern Germany and in north-eastern Switzerland in the 16th and 17th centuries. Before church on Sunday, this precooked dish was placed on the hot embers in the hearth or in the tiled stove in an often richly ornate bronze tureen, where it would simmer for one and a half to two hours. One advantage of this old cooking technique was that the maid could also go along to hear the sermon.
The main ingredients were blanched cabbage and precooked chestnuts, slices of cooked ham, lean bacon or smoked pork loin, little parboiled veal sausages, veal and sweetbread or beef escalopes, and so on. Up to ninety different ingredients are recorded in the old recipes. Vegetables and meat were placed in the pot in layers, and meat broth was poured on top. The knob of the heavy lid of the bronze tureen contained a hole to allow the steam from the dish to escape as it simmered in the stove.
Olla podrida
As the name suggests, this practical stew, perfectly suited to the limited kitchen facilities of the time and the Sunday routine, comes from Spain. Olla podrida found its way to the court of Vienna as olio soup, to France as pot pourri and to north-eastern Switzerland as Spanish soup, at around the same time as Spanish fashion began to spread throughout Europe. The Spanish name olla podrida means something like rotten pot in the sense of long-cooked pot. Presumably, the name given to the Spanish national dish of the Early Modern period involves a misunderstanding. It was probably originally meant to be simply an olla poderida, a powerful pot. The name, misconstrued in Spain itself as a rotten pot, was then translated literally by the French as pot pourri. Given the many different ingredients, the French name for the stew also acquired the transferred meaning of mishmash and ultimately potpourri in the sense of a musical medley.
The cooking pot as a status symbol
The often richly ornate Spanish soup tureens simultaneously served as a cooking pot, table decoration and status symbol. They were produced in the harbour, bell and cannon foundries of the time, such as Füssli in Zurich and Schalch in Schaffhausen. As the strict moral mandates in Protestant cities like Zurich, Schaffhausen and Basel left little room for entertainment and representation, these were civil objects of prestige of the highest quality and popular gifts of honour by newly elected leaders to their guilds and associations. A fine example of this is a tureen, probably cast in Schaffhausen in 1614, from the Herrenstube, a guild now known as the Zunft zum Kleeblatt, in Stein am Rhein with the coats of arms in relief and the names of the former guild masters Beat Böschenstein, Hanss Jacob Graaff and Joss Hubenschmidt. Needless to say, the newly elected masters not only produced the Spanish soup tureen but also arranged for a lavish celebratory meal to be served up when they took up office.
Spanish soup tureen. Cylindrical casserole dish without base. Sides depicting country dance. Four seasons on embossed lid. From the Füssli bell and cannon foundry. Zurich, 1590–1600. Photo: Swiss National Museum
Spanish soup tureen. Cylindrical on three low feet. Smooth sides with three coats of arms in relief. From the former Herrenstube, now the Zunft zum Kleeblatt guild, in Stein am Rhein.1614. Photo: Swiss National Museum
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Spain 1563 (death date of author)
Regalo de la Vida Humana by Juan Valles
223 Olla podrida Capitulo 115
Take good mutton and good cow fat (lard or butter?) and a good capon and some young dove and pigs ears and a piece of pig head and pig trotters and if available longaniza, the best of all is to eat a curd or bishop stuffed with pork meat and throw in cabbage and turnips and cook slowly.
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Italy 1570
Bartolomeo Scappi
“To prepare a dish of various ingredients called, in Spanish, olla podrida”
This preparation, oglia potrida, is named thus by Spaniards because it is made mostly in earthenware stewpots called oglias, and potride [sic] means a variety of well cooked ingredients.
To make that preparation, get two pounds of salted, marbled pork jowl, four pounds of desalted sowbelly, two pig’s snouts, two ears, four feet split in half and semi-salted for a day, four pounds of wild-boar meat with its brisket fresh, and two pounds of good salsicciono. When everything is cleaned, cook it in unsalted water. In salted water in another copper or earthenware pot also cook six pounds of wether rib, six pounds of salted veal kidney-fat, six pounds of fat beer, two capons or hens, and four fat domestic doves; remove from the broth whatever of all those ingredients is cooked first without disintegrating; set it aside in a vessel. In another earthenware or copper pot, in the broth from the above meats, cook two hindquarters or a hare, cut up into pieces, three partridges, two pheasants or two wild ducks, large and fresh, twenty thrush, twenty quail and three rock partridge. When the above things are cooked, strain and mix the broths together, minding that they are not too salty. Then get peas, brownish-red chickpeas and white chickpeas that have soaked to soften them, cleaned garlic bulbs, chopped old onions, hulled rice, shelled chestnuts and parboiled haricot beans. Cook all of that together in the broth. When the vegetables are almost done, put in kohlrabi, Savory cabbage, yellow rape, and saveloy or sausage. When it is all cooked and rather more thickened that broth-like, stir it up so that everything blends together, testing it from time to time for its saltiness. Into that add pepper and cinnamon. Then set out great platters and put part of the mixture on them without the broth: get all the large fowl, quartered, and the large meats, and the salami sliced, leaving the small birds whole; divvy those up onto the platters over that mixture. On top of that put some of the other mixture with the saveloy cut into pieces. Make three layers like that. Get a spoonful of the fattest broth and splash it over top. Cover everything over with another platter and let it sit in a warm place or half an hour. Serve it hot with mild spices over top. That preparation is more common in winter than at any other time. The partridge, pheasants, thrush, ducks and quail can be not only boiled but also roasted on a spit, then right afterwards cut up. Instead of the capons and hens you can boil fat domestic geese and ducks, and of those ducks or geese take only the rump and breast. If you want to make that dish in the summer, get the meat that is available. Instead of hare, get a kids’ hindquarters roasted on a spit and cut into pieces. That dish can be made with a variety or more or fewer ingredients, entirely at your discretion. (248-49)
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German 1581
Rumpolt's Ein New Kochbuch
To make Hollopotrida/ with all ingredients
I. Beef cooked in broth/ till it is done/ but not overcooked/ pulled from the broth/ and let cool/
and the broth reserved/ and cleanly covered.
2. Pork prepared in a water/ and cooked till done/ pull it from the broth/ and let it cool.
3. Backbone of (a) pig/ pulled from the broth (when) well cooked/ and let cool.
4. The tail of a pig cooked/ and let cool.
5. Pigs ears cooked through.
6. The sausages also roasted. (fried)
7. Cook the liverwurst/ and see/ that you do not overcook it/ pull it onto a board/ and let it cool.
8. 'Prepare a Zirwonada-sausage in an Italian style, cook it and let it cool'
9. Roasted Capon.
10. Cooked capon/ that is only half cooked/ save the broth therefrom/ because you need (use) it with the beef broth.
11. Roast partridges or
12. Cooked partridges/ that are half-way cooked.
13. Grouse not roasted through.
14. Cooked grouse/ that are half cooked.
15. Pheasant that is half roasted.
16. Pheasant that is half cooked.
17. Pieces of Veal/ half roasted. (fried)
18. Pieces of beef roasted through.
19. Vealsausage half roasted. (fried)
20. Smoked beef/ that is not overcooked.
21. Smoked veal/ that one brings to a light simmer/ and let cool.
22. Smoked chickens/ that are not cooked through
23. Geese that are not roasted through.
24. Ducks that are half roasted.
25. Cooked ducks
26. Roasted (fried) juniper thrushes / that are not overroasted.
27. Assorted small birds roasted.
28. Cooked small birds.
29. Cooked juniper thrushes.
30. Bones of veal/ not overcooked.
31. Cooked mutton or ram.
32. Roasted mutton or ram/ that is cooked through.
33. Innards or jellied-brawn/ that are cooked through/ that one cuts them/ skewers them/ and roasts/ especially when they are clean and prepared/ that they do not taste of their origins.
34. Carrots cut nicely large/ and blanched in boiled water/ and let cool.
35. Spinach cleaned/ blanched a little/ and the water squeezed out.
36. White turnips peeled clean/ blanched and cooled.
37. Roast rabbit (hare)/ not cooked through.
38. White brassica rapa L. rapifera sucosa (could not find the exact type, and brassica rapa could be either turnip or rutabaga) cut coarsely/ and blanched in water.
39. Roasted mountain cock (capercaillie, grouse)
40. Roasted Turkey (I suspect this could be subject to debate ;-)/ that is also not cooked through.
41. Roasted black grouse (cockerel or hen.)
42. Cooked black grouse.
43. Roasted crane.
44. Cooked crane.
45. Roasted young chicken/ roasted in (their?) juices.
46. Cooked young chickens.
47. Roast from a stag/ not overroasted.
48. Roast from a doe/ roasted in juices.
49. Pork roast/ not overroasted.
50. Parsley root/ scraped (peeled)/ blanched/ and cut apart.
51. Assorted welltasting herbs chopped/ and added thereto.
52. Also a little garlic.
53. Oregano herb.
54. Grated Parmesan cheese.
55. Grated rye bread.
56. Smoked pork/ that is not overcooked.
57. White head (of) cabbage/ that has been blanched.
58. White head (of) lettuce also blanched.
59. Venison ears/ that have been cleaned out/ and cooked through.
60. Lamsfeet also not cooked through.
61. Mutton feet/ that are not cooked through.
62. Calves feet that (are) smoked/ and not overcooked.
63. Ox feet that are not overcooked.
64. Dried (or smoked) Lamb(meat)/ that is not overcooked.
65. Cooked lamb(meat)/ that is not cooked through.
66. Smoked goat(meat).
67. Cooked goat meat.
68. Whole pepper.
69. Nutmeg blossom (mace).
70. Crushed pepper
71. Ginger.
72. Saffran/ mixed under the grated bread and Parmesan cheese/ sprinkled into the dish.
73. Beef lung-roast. * According to Hopf, _Lungenbraten_ is a variant of _lummelbraten_, and refers to the loin (lat. _lumbus_): piece of meat from the loin, roast loin, sirloin
74. Roasted roast of mountain goat.
75. Roast of an ibex
76. Roasted marmot (woodchuck or groundhog)
77. Cooked marmot (woodchuck or groundhog)
78. Roasted duck (perhaps a Ducking duck sorry, no latin)
79. Cooked snipe or woodcock
80. Roasted snipe or woodcock
81. Cooked suckling pig.
82. Roasted suckling pig.
83. Roasted coney (rabbit).
84. Smoked beef tongue.
85. Cows utter/ when it is cooked/ so cut it nicely across/ lay it on a rack/ and brown it clean off.
86. Pigs feet an ears/ be they from tame of wild pigs.
87. Green cabbage that is poached.
88. Parsnip root scraped (peeled) and blanched.
89. Rutebaga coarsely cut/ and blanched.
90. Pellitory, or Spanish Chamomile (or perhaps regular chamomile?) Bot Anacyclus pyrethrum L. or Anacyclus Officinarum Hayne.
Take a broad tinned fish-kettle/ and prepare the herb (vegetable) items and meat items/ be they roasted or cooked/ as described before/ nicely one after another/ layered/ that one mixes together roasted and cooked/ green herbs/ that have been chopped small/ grated bread/ and parmesan cheese/ the garlic/ that has been cut small/ and the spices/ so now mentioned mixed
together/ that it does not all come in a pile. And when it is served/ so take the beef/ chicken and capon broth/ that has been lightly salted/ pour it over through a hair cloth (sieve). Take also a browned flour (roux) thereto/ set it over coals/ but not on a burning flame/ that it does not scorch/ and see/ that you do not let it overcook/ that you may especially prepare (present) any piece in a bowl. Because such a dish can not be simmered long/ because it is almost completely pre-cooked. And such a dish you can prepare for ten or twelve tables/ or only for one table. And a cook must hurry and hustle/ to get this stuff put all-together. Whoever also wants to prepare it/ must start two to three days before/ that he brings it all together/ and cleanly prepares (it)/ that (it) is welltasting/ and not oversalted. Therefore it is called Hollopotrida/ that many things come together/ and it is good for kings and emperors/ for earls and lords to serve.
Some notes to the translation:
As this is a 1st level translation only I try not to make judgment calls about what specifically might have been meant, I leave it up to whoever wants to redact/re-create this recipe to decide if they want to interpret fry in a pan or roast on a rack over open flame or... Likewise, while Rumpolt states gesotten in many of the preparations, he never states how he wants things
cooked (in water, wine, ale, broth, or without liquid (is it still "cooked then" ....)
In German the word Braten can denote a roast as well as the cooking methods of roasting or frying. In cases where I thought they might mean frying (as in a frying pan) I noted so in parenthesis, but it is my interpretation only.
In several of the vegetable preparations he states equellt or Uberquell. Technically quellen is to soak in water, I am taking it to mean blanch or poach. But am willing to hear other interpretations!!!
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Spain 1599
Granado’s recipe for Olla Podrida, from 1599, as translated by Mistress Brighid ni Chiarain (available on-line), is as follows:
To make an olla podrida
Take two pounds of salted hog gullet, and four pounds of de-salted shoulder ham, two snouts, two ears, and four feet of a hog, divided and removed the same day, four pounds of wild boar with the fresh intestines, two pounds of good sausages, and everything being clean, cook it in water without salt. And in another vessel of copper, or earthenware, also cook with water and salt: six pounds of mutton, and six pounds of calf kidneys, and six pounds of fat beef, and two capons or two hens, and four fat domestic pigeons. And of all these things, those which are cooked first should be removed from the broth before they come apart, and be kept in a vessel, and in another vessel of earthenware or of copper, with the aforementioned broth, cook two hindquarter of hare, cut in pieces, three partridges, two pheasants, or two large fresh wild ducks, twenty thrushes, twenty quail, and three francolins. And everything being cooked, mix the said broths and strain them through a hair-sieve, taking care that they should not be too salty. Have ready black and white chickpeas which have been soaked, whole heads of garlic, divided onions, peeled chestnuts, boiled French beans or kidney beans, and cook it all together with the broth, and when the legumes are almost cooked, put in white cabbage and cabbage, and turnips, and stuffed tripes or sausages. And when everything is cooked before the firmness is undone, taste it repeatedly in regard to the salt, and add a little pepper and cinnamon, and then have ready large plates, and put some of this mixture upon the plates without broth. And take all the birds divided in four quarters, and the salted meats cut into slices, and leave the little birds whole, and distribute them on the plate upon the mixture, and upon those put the other mixture with the sliced stuffing, and in this manner make three layers. And take a ladleful of the fattest broth, and put it on top, and cover it with another plate, and leave it half an hour in a hot place, and serve it hot with sweet spices. You can roast some of the said birds after boiling them.
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Transylvannia 1603
The Prince of Transylvania’s court cookbook From the 16th century THESCIENCE OF COOKING Trans: Bence Kovacs
transylvania-v2.pdf (medievalcookery.com)
OLLA PODRIDA
Boil the pig’s leg, then some beef, sausage and liver, and ten kinds of bird meat if you can have it, cook them all in one pot, begin it with the older animals, then the younger ones, add some salt, red cabbage, carrot, wild carrot, mix them together with meat, then pour boiled beef broth onto it, add some salt and black pepper, saffron and ginger, serve it once cooked. This dish is cooked twice or thrice a year for the Holy Roman Emperor.
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Belgium 1604
Ouverture de Cuisine, by Lancelot de Casteau.from James Prescott
To make a potpourri called in Spanish Olla podrida. Take a piece of beef with two ribs, put it to boil in a large pot, and put with it a capon or hen. Having boiled half an hour, add a small leg of mutton, then you will put a duck also into the pot. Then some small thighs of reclothed veal , two stuffed pigeons, two partridges, two small stuffed cabbages, two woodcocks, two Bologna sausages, and two mortadellas cooked separately for putting on top, half of a Mainz ham also cooked separately, some pigs’ feet and ears also cooked separately.
Then what you have in the small pot you will put each sort separately into the plate, the Bologna sausages also here and there. Then have a small hen turkey roasted and well larded, a dozen small birds also roasted, and put in the middle of the plate on top, and look well to put everything so that one can see it, then take a dozen sheep’s feet well cleaned for putting around the plate. Then you will take a pound of dates cooked in wine and sugar, and put them with a spoon, and put them between the sheep’s feet. Afterwards you will take the stock from your pot, heat it very hot, and you will pour here and there without wetting the roasted [meat], and ravioli: and serve thus.
Daniel Myers translation of Ouveture
Ouverture de Cuisine (medievalcookery.com)
To make a potpourri called "Oylla podrida" in Spanish.
Take a piece of beef of two sides, put it to boil in a large pot, & put with a capon or chicken: have it boil a half hour, put a little leg of mutton therein, then put a duck also into the pot: then little legs of veal redressed two stuffed pigeons, two partridges, two little stuffed cabbages, two begasses, two Bologna sausages, and two partly cooked mortadellas to put thereon, the drippings from a ham of Mayence also partly cooked, the feet and ears of a pig also partly cooked: then put the little sausages also into the pot, salted lemons cut into quarters, four entrail sausages, four yellow roots, that are stuffed with veal meat redressed, four stomachs of sheep that are stuffed with good herbs & good fat cheese, with a fried onion & raw eggs, like stuffings are made, & fry it in butter: & put into the pot a handful of marjoram and mint together, cauliflower in two parts: then you have little pots there, or put in potatoes stewed like is said above, again another pot with capers of Majorca well washed & boiled with good broth, & white wine, a little pepper: then another pot put pine nuts & pistachios that are washed: then make green raviolis, like written above: then the other little raviolis filled with almonds & ground, & quince candied with sugar & cinnamon, two egg yolks therein, & fry the raviolis in butter, & keep so on a plate: then take peeled chestnuts, and put in the pot, & let stew well together, put therein half an ounce of ground nutmeg: have another little pot, and put therein large peas, and Roman beans that are well cooked together: then look well in the pot that it will not be cooked too much: that when it is cooked enough remove, & put into separate plates: take a very large plate, & dress the meats between the ones with the others: then the hams of Mayence that you have put into the plate, the one here the other there, & the boiled raviolis must be moistened with fat broth, & sprinkled thereon cinnamon & parmesan, & put them in the plates here & there: the other raviolis similarly: then that which you have in the little pot put each sort separately in the plate, the Bologna sausages also here & there: then have a little guinea fowl roasted & well larded, a dozen little birds also roasted, & put in the middle of the plate thereon, & look well the placing you choose that one can see them, then take a dozen feet of sheep well washed to put all around the plate: then take a pound of dates cooked in wine & sugar, & put them with a spoon, & put them between the sheep feet, after take the broth from your pot, chafe it very hot, & cast thereon & without it moistening the roast, & raviolis: & serve so.
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Spain 1607
Domingo Hernandez de Maceras’ Libro del Arte de Cozina, published in 1607
as translated by Dan Gillespie and published in the Madrone Culinary Guild’s pamphlet on Spanish Food, is as follows:
How to Make Olla Podrida
To make olla podrida, cast lamb, beef, bacon, pigs feet, head, port sausages, tongue, doves, wild duck, hare, beef tongue, garbanzo beans, garlic and turnips, if it is their time, and the meant the each one wishes; mix it all in the clay pot, and cook it a lot; add your spices and after it is well cooked, make plates of it, with mustard or some other and on top of the plates, cast parsley, because it looks nice and it is very good.
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Spain 1611
By the time Martínez Montiño publishes his cookbook, the olla podrida is already firmly established in the culinary culture of Spain as evidenced by its appearance in the works of numerous fiction writers[ix]. Martínez Montiño puts his own signature on this classic recipe when he includes, “Una olla podrida en pastel” [A hodgepodge stew in a pie] as part of his collected recipes. Like Scappi and Granado, Martínez Montiño includes a wide variety of pork, beef, fowl, legumes and vegetables. He cooks them separately and produces an excellent broth in which he stews vegetables.
[Cook the ingredients for a hodgepodge stew including hen, beef, mutton, a piece of lean lard, all other fowl like pigeons, partridges, and thrushes, pork loin, hare, cooked sausage, cured sausage, and blood sausage. All of this should first be roasted then put on to boil. In another pot, cook cured beef, beef and pork tongue, pig feet, ears, and sausage. Fill another pot with stock from the first two and in that cook vegetables like collard greens, turnips, parsley, spearmint, garlic and onions which should first be roasted.] (100v)
His unique approach is that he then uses these many and varied ingredients as a filling for a pie. Once the ingredients are cooked he explains how to assemble and bake the pie:
[Put all the ingredients in bowls, each one separate from the other, and the vegetables in another bowl, and don’t let anything fall apart. Let them cool. Make a big, thick crust with rye or whole wheat dough. Place it on a baking sheet and fill the pie with all the cooked ingredients. Season with all spices and caraway. Add in all the vegetables, no more, no less. When the pie is full, seal it and place it in the bread oven because no copper oven would be able to hold it. Place it on a copper baking sheet and don’t remove it from the sheet until it’s done baking. When the crust is half baked, stick a needle in the top and fill with stock and let it continue baking in the oven for an hour.] (100v-101r)
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Dutch 1612
Gastronomica, Feb 2001, Vol. 1, No. 1 pg 22-24“The Olla” by Alicia Ros
In 1612, Antonius Magirus did a dutch translation of Scappi’s Opera “He is also the first to publish a recipe in Dutch for the famous Spanish Baroque festive dish olla podrida. In a short introduction he calls this dish “the best he has ever eaten”. With the exception of this introduction he gives a fairly literal translation of Scappi’s original recipe. But as so often in the rest of his book he makes small, but significant changes. He omits Scappi’s explanation of what an “oglia potrida” precisely is. He simplifies some ingredients: just “good lard” in stead of “gola di porco salata, vergellata”; dry instead of fresh peas. Sometimes he omits ingredients all together, such as “rognonatica di vitella” and “tre cotorne”. He adds “ten blackbirds” (xx Merels) that are not found in Scappi’s original. Instead of “servasi calda con spetierie dolci sopra”, he calls for the dish to be flavoured with sweet spices ánd “sugar”. He also mentions explicitly how important it is to use enough salt. The biggest difference between the two recipes is in the manner of serving. Magirus’ olla is served in the manner of a hotchpotch, with much more broth than in Scappi’s version
PPC #74
A Dutch Translation of Bartolomeo Scappi’s Opera
By Jozef Schildermans and Hilde Sels
“Magirus was also the first writer to include a recipe in Dutch for the famous Spanish Baroque festive dish olla podrida. In a short introduction, he calls this dish “the best he has ever eater”. Introduction aside, he gives a fairly literal translation of Scappi’s original but, as so often in the rest of his book, he makes small but significant changes. He omits Scappi’s explanation of what an oglia potrida precisely is. He simplifies some ingredients; just “good lard” instead of “gola di porco salats, vergellata”; dry instead of fresh peas. Sometimes, he omits ingredients altogether, such as “rognonatica di vitelli” and “tre cotorne”; or he adds “ten blackbirds” that are not found in Scappi’s original. Instead of “servasi calda con spetiereie dolci sopra” he calls for the dish to be flavoured with sweet spices and sugar. He also mentions explicityly how important it is to use enough salt. The biggest difference between the two recipes, however, is in the manner of serving. Magirus’ olla is presented as if it were a hotchpotch, with much more broth than in Scappi’s version
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England 1615
Gervase Markham The English Housewife
To make an excellent Olepotrige, which is the onely principall dish of boild meate which is esteemed in all Spalne, you shall take a very large vessell, pot or kettell, and filling it with water, you shall set it on the fire, and first put in good thicke gobbets of well fed Beefe, and being ready to boyle, skumme your pot; when the Beefe is halfe boyled, you shall put in Potato-rootes, Turneps, and Skirrets: also like gobbers of the best Mutton, and the best Porke; after they haue boy∣led a while, you shall put in the like gobbets of Ve∣nison, red, and Fallow, if you haue them; then the like gobbets, of Veale, Kidde, and Lambe; a little space after these, the foreparts of a fat Pigge, and a crambd Puller; then put in Spinage, Endiue, Succory, Mari∣gold leaues and flowers, Lettice, Violet leaues, Straw∣berry leaues, Buglosse and Scallions, all whole and vnchopt; then when they haue boyled a while, put in a Partridge and a Chicken chopt in peeces, with Quailes, Railes, Blackbirds, Larkes, Sparrowes and o∣ther small birds, all being well and tenderly boiled, sea∣son vp the broth with good store of Sugar, Cloues, Mace, Cinamon, Ginger and Nutmegge mixt toge∣ther in a good quantity of Veriuyce and salt, and so stir•e vp the pot well from the bottome, then dish it v• vp∣on great Chargers, or long Spanish dishes made in the fashion of our English wooden trayes, with good store of sippets in the bottome; then couer the meate all ouer with P•unes, Raisins, Currants, and blaunch't Almonds, boyled in a thing by themselues; then co∣uer the fruit and the whole boiled hearbs and the herbs with slices of Orenges and Lemmons, and lay the rootes round about the sides of the dish, and strew good store of Sugar ouer all, and so serue it foorth
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Italy 1623
Returning to Italy, the German-born Mattia Giegher (Mathias Jäger), published a 1623 treatise on serving, Lo scalco [The steward], in which he illustrates how to serve an oglia podrida. For these instructions he includes a table map with the oglia podrida as the centerpiece surrounded by different meat dishes (see below). Giegher organizes dishes to be served seasonly and places the oglia podrida as a third course among those served in winter. He writes: “è una vivanda alla Spangnuola, nella qual’ entran diverse cose, como Quaglie, Tordi, Pippioni, Pernici, Capponi, Pollastri, Carne de Vitella, de Castrato, e di Porco salvatico, Salsiccie, Salsiccioni, Prosciutto, Lingue, Peducci, e Grugni di Porco, Cavoli, Rape, Finocchi, Fave, Specierie, ed altri ingredienti” [(It) is a Spanish-style dish, in which various things are included, such as quail, thrush, squab, partridge, capon, chicken, veal, ox, and boar, regular sausages, big sausages, ham, tongue, pig’s feet and face, cabbage, turnips, fennel, broad beans, spices, and other ingredients] (49).
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England 1660
The Accomplisht Cook by Robert May
To make an Olio Podrida
Take a pipkin or pot of some three gallons, gill it with fair water, and set it over a fire of charcoals, and put in first your hardest meats a rump of beef bologna sausages, neats tongues two dry and two green, boiled and larded, about two hours after the pot is boiled and scummed but put in more presently after your beef is scummed mutton, venison, pork, bacon all the aforesaid in small pieces, as big as a duck egg, in equal pieces, put in also carrots, turnips, onions, cabbages, in good big pieces, as big as your meat a faggot of sweet herbs, well bound up, and some whole spinach, sorrel, borage, endive, marigolds and other good pot herbs a little chopped; and sometimes French barley or lupins green or dry.
Then a little before you dish out your Olio, put to your pot cloves, mace, saffron, etc.
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England 1669
The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened by Kenelm Digby
A PLAIN BUT GOOD SPANISH OGLIA
Take a Rump of Beef, or some of Brisket or Buttock cut into pieces, a loin of Mutton, with the superfluous fat taken off, and a fleshy piece of the Leg of Veal or a Knuckle, a piece of enterlarded Bacon, three or 4 Onions (or some Garlike) and if you will, a Capon or two, or three great tame Pigeons. First, put into the water the Beef and the Bacon; After a while, the Mutton and Veal and Onions. But not the Capon or Pigeons till only so much time remain, as will serve barely to boil them enough. If you have Garavanzas, put them in at the first, after they have been soaked with Ashes all night in heat, and well washed with warm water, after they are taken out; or if you will have Cabbage, or Roots, or Leeks, or whole Onions, put them in time enough to be sufficiently boiled. You may at first put in some Crusts of Bread, or Venison Pye crust. It must boil in all five or six hours gently, like stewing after it is well boiled. A quarter or half an hour before you intend to take it off, take out a porrenger full of broth, and put to it some Pepper and five or six Cloves and a Nutmeg, and some Saffran, and mingle them well in it. Then put that into the pot, and let it boil or stew with the rest a while. You may put in a bundle of Sweet-herbs. Salt must be put in as soon as the water is skimmed.
[i] On the origins and history of the olla podrida, see Gómez Laguna (1993, 13) and Rodríguez Marín (1947, 424-29).
[ii] On the origins and history of the olla podrida, see Gómez Laguna (1993, 13) and Rodríguez Marín (1947, 424-29).
[iii] My thanks to Nawal Nasrallah for pointing out this connection. For more information, see al-Tujībī.
[iv] For Scappi’s complete recipe, see Appendix 2.
[v] Of the 755 recipes that make up Granado’s Libro del arte de cozina 556 are from Scappi (almost 75%).
[vi] For more on the appearance of the olla podrida in literature, see Suárez Granda (2006, 205-07) and Chamorro (2002, 125).
[vii] My thanks to Sebastiaan Faber for his help in translating this title. He also notes that hutspot is still today a traditional Dutch dish which consists of mashed potatoes, chopped carrots and onions cooked with bacon and typically served with smoked sausage.
[viii] Sippets are pieces of bread used to sop up the juices of a dish.
[ix] For more on the appearance of the olla podrida in literature, see Suárez Granda (2006, 205-07) and Chamorro (2002, 125).
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