Spanish food in Literature

Spanish food has long played a central role in literature.
It is not just in modern times that Spanish food has become fashionable.

In books written in past centuries, authors have waxed lyrical about the food of Spain.
In fact and fiction. And rightly so.

There is much to praise, and people love to read about the culture and food of the country.

In a forthcoming series of articles, I shall look back at what those who have written about Spanish food had to say. In past times, and more recently.

One of my favourite books about real life in Spain was written as long ago as 1846.
Richard Ford was a wit before his time. A man who travelled Spain extensively in the 19th century and who, with his book ‘Gatherings from Spain’, wrote a superb account of life in what was then a very different Spain.

So many Spanish meals date back centuries.
Ford writes of Olla Podrida, a sumptuous stew readily associated with the grand location of Burgos in northern Spain.

The language employed to write about Spanish food alters more over the years than the food itself. While podrida may today translate as "rotten"; in Richard Ford's day it meant "powerful."
And, in the words of Richard Ford, the meal packs a punch.

He says: “The ancient time honoured olla podrida, or pot pourri, is difficult to be made. A tolerable one is never eaten out of Spain, since it requires many Spanish things to concoct it, and much care: the cook must throw his whole soul into the pan, or rather pot. It may be made in one, but two are better.

Ford continues raving about this meal. The use of the English language, including grammar, was different then. But his message is clear.
He says: “They (the pots) must be made of earthenware; for, like the French pot au feu, the dish is good for nothing when made in an iron or copper vessel: that therefore two, and put them on their separate stoves with water.

“Place into number one, Garbanzos, which have been placed to soak overnight. Add a good piece of beef, a chicken, a large piece of bacon. Let it boil once and quickly, then let it simmer. It requires four or five hours to be well done.

“Meanwhile, place into number two (pot), with water, whatever vegetables are to be had. Lettuces, cabbage, a slice of gourd, carrots, beans, celery, endive, onion, long peppers and garlic. These must be previously well washed and cut, and is they were designed to make a salad. Then add red sausages or chorizos, half a salted pig’s face, which should have been soaked overnight.

“When all is sufficiently boiled, strain off the water, and throw it away. Remember constantly to skim the scum of both saucepans. When all this is sufficiently dressed, take a large dish, lay in the bottom of the vegetables, the beef in the centre, flanked by the bacon, chicken and pig’s face.
“The sausages should be arranged… pour over some of the soup of number one (pot) and serve hot.”

Richard Ford sums up what he saw even back then to be a signature dish of Spain.
“He says: “No violets come up to the perfume which a coming olla casts before it: the mouth watering bystanders sigh, as they see and smell the rich freight steaming away from them.
“This is the olla en grande, such as Don Quixote says was eaten only by canons and presidents of colleges.

"It is so rich and satisfactory that it is a dinner of itself.”

You see.
Long before British cooks such as Keith Floyd, Nigella Lawson and Rick Stein were singing the praises of Spanish food, other scribes were expressing with words their love of Spanish food.

Including Englishman Richard Ford. More from him soon. And from others who have ensured that the glory of Spanish food will live on in literature.