NATIONAL SOUPS AND COMPOUND DISHES 21 1 greatly differs from what in Spain is called soup — sopa. It is usual in more northern lands to call, from hearsay, this dish olid potricld, and to combine with the name a con- fused idea of a mixture of over-ripe eatable things. But we have in Spain itself never met with the dish except under the simple name of olid; the adjective i^tridd, a residue, perhaps, of former times, when it passed into de- scriptions of travels, survived in books, while it has been lost in Spain ; potricld comes from podrir, to simmer, a metaphorical verb, like that ‘ to sweat,’ meaning to suffer slight frying. The olla is a very compound dish, and the result of gradual evolution out of a simpler form, the ptccliero. Puchero,* though also a compound dish, is an organized unity, a reasonable assemblage of materials necessary for a nutritious, tasty meal. It consists of vegetable and animal matters in suitable proportions, stewed in one vessel, until the juices have completely penetrated the ingredients, while the solids preserve much of their shape and appearance. The puchero is also free from bones, and they take no share in its production. The animal ingredient is mostly mutton {cdrnero), the best and most easily obtained butcher’s meat in Spain. An alterna- tive or adjunct is flesh from the heifer or ox (vdcd)\. The vegetables, which are added later, are white cabbage, kohlrabi, broccoli, carrots, and particularly cjdrhcmqos, the great yellow peas called chick-peds in English, kicher-erhsen in German, and pois-chiches in Erench, favourites of the Spaniards. The cooks of the lower classes add tomatoes, leeks, and onions, and those of the well-to-do add the small saveloys or sausages called chorizos,X made in Estremadura, of pork and veal * Of. a fragment by Ernst Krlisch, in the appendix to Konig’s ‘'Geist der Kochkimst,’ ed. by Baron Rumohr, p. 191. Kriisch was, about 1830, host of the Bear Inn at Aranjuez, near Madrid. t In Spain, ox-beef goes by the name of vaca ; as Dumas says : ‘ In Spain, the moment the ox is killed, it becomes coiu.’ X Of. D.D., 48.0, 769. 212 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY mixed (falsely alleged to be made of mule’s flesh), and sold throughout Spain ; their flavour is good, but they are very hard and tough. Others add a piece of bacon {tocino) or of ham {j avion), which introduces a sufficiency of the fatty element besides flavour. This stew, for service at the table, is placed in a large dish, and sometimes garnished with fried or poached eggs. The gravy, concentrated and tasty, is eaten with sippets of white bread.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

greatly differs from what in Spain is called soup — sopa. It is usual in more northern lands to call, from hearsay, this dish olla podrida, and to combine with the name a confused idea of a mixture of over-ripe eatable things. But we have in Spain itself never met with the dish except under the simple name of olla; the adjective podrida, a residue, perhaps, of former times, when it passed into descriptions of travels, survived in books, while it has been lost in Spain ; podrida comes from podrir, to simmer, a metaphorical verb, like that ‘ to sweat,’ meaning to suffer slight frying. The olla is a very compound dish, and the result of gradual evolution out of a simpler form, the puchero. Puchero,* though also a compound dish, is an organized unity, a reasonable assemblage of materials necessary for a nutritious, tasty meal. It consists of vegetable and animal matters in suitable proportions, stewed in one vessel, until the juices have completely penetrated the ingredients, while the solids preserve much of their shape and appearance. The puchero is also free from bones, and they take no share in its production. The animal ingredient is mostly mutton {cdrnero), the best and most easily obtained butcher’s meat in Spain. An alternative or adjunct is flesh from the heifer or ox (vdcd)\. The vegetables, which are added later, are white cabbage, kohlrabi, broccoli, carrots, and particularly garbanzos, the great yellow peas called chick-peds in English, kicher-erhsen in German, and pois-chiches in Erench, favourites of the Spaniards. The cooks of the lower classes add tomatoes, leeks, and onions, and those of the well-to-do add the small saveloys or sausages called chorizos,X made in Estremadura, of pork and veal * Of. a fragment by Ernst Krlisch, in the appendix to Konig’s ‘'Geist der Kochkimst,’ ed. by Baron Rumohr, p. 191. Kriisch was, about 1830, host of the Bear Inn at Aranjuez, near Madrid. t In Spain, ox-beef goes by the name of vaca ; as Dumas says : ‘ In Spain, the moment the ox is killed, it becomes coiu.’ X Of. D.D., 48.0, 769. mixed (falsely alleged to be made of mule’s flesh), and sold throughout Spain ; their flavour is good, but they are very hard and tough. Others add a piece of bacon {tocino) or of ham {j avion), which introduces a sufficiency of the fatty element besides flavour. This stew, for service at the table, is placed in a large dish, and sometimes garnished with fried or poached eggs. The gravy, concentrated and tasty, is eaten with sippets of white bread.

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