Olla podrida

Olla podrida is a Spanish stew made from pork and beans and an inconsistent, wide variety of other meats and vegetables, often including chickpeas, depending on the recipe used. The meal is traditionally prepared in a clay pot over several hours. It is eaten as a main course, sometimes as a single dish, and sometimes with ingredients separated (i.e., meats from the rest, or liquids from solids). Is a specialty of the town of Burgos.

History

Olla podrida is a popular dish. The name, as currently written, translates literally to "rotten pot". This etymology is sustained by a footnote to a 1849 edition of Don Quixote signed by "Arr[ieta]" (credited as numerary member of the Real Academia in the front page) stating:

"[...] it makes a stock as full of substance as aromatic, and maybe because of that it was ironically called 'olla podrida'. It could be named so, Covarrubias says, as long as it is so slowly cooked that what is inside almost melts and results like fruit after too much ripening."^[1]

Another etymology, generally accepted, is that the name of the dish comes from olla poderida, referred to the "powerfulness" of the ingredients. The e was eventually dropped in the evolution of the language. The dictionary of the Spanish Real Academia Autoridades of 1737 supports this theory, in page 34, column 2:

"Covarr[ubias] gives its etymology and, citing Andreas Bacio, says that 'podrida' is the same as 'poderida' or 'poderosa'. Lat[in] 'Ollaris farrago' [...]".^[2]

In Don Quixote (Part II published in 1615), Cervantes has the simple-minded and exceedingly droll Sancho Panza, who is said to be neither a glutton nor a drunkard, say these words:

"This plate that is steaming in front of me appears to me to be olla podrida, because of the diversity of ingredients that there are in some ollas podridas, I won't be able to stop running into some that is to me of taste and benefit..."^{[citation needed]}

On 5 April 1669, English diarist Samuel Pepys wrote about having dined an olio or olla podrida, which he apparently enjoyed a lot:

To the Mulberry garden, where Sheres is to treat us with a Spanish Olio by a cook of his acquaintance that is there, that was with my Lord in Spain: and without any other company, he did do it, and mighty nobly; and the Olio was indeed a noble dish, such as I never saw better, or any more of^[3]

The dish was even popular enough in 17th century England to appear in Robert May's Accomplish't Cook, published in 1660.^[3]

See also

• Olla
• Mulligan stew
• Sancocho

References

1. ^ [...] hace un caldo tan sustancioso, como aromático; quizá por esto se la llamó irónicamente olla podrida. Pudo decirse así, dice Covarruvias [sic], en cuanto se cuece muy despacio, que casi lo que tiene dentro viene á deshacerse, y quedar como la fruta que se madura demasiado. Miguel de Cervantes. El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha. 4th edition, 1849. Digitized by Google.
2. ^ Covarr. le dá ſu etymología, y citando à Andreas Bacio dice, que podrida es lo miſmo que poderida ò poderoſa. Lat. Ollaris farrago.
   It can be read online at the Nuevo Tesoro Lexicográfico de la Lengua Española, keyword "olla", criterium: "Diccionarios, 1737 Academia Autoridades (O-R).
3. ^ ^{a b} http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2007/04/spanish-stew.html