No. 349

Spanish Oilla

Oilla a l'Espagnole

Put to soak in tepid water for twelve hours, half a pound of chick peas (Garbanzos). Set in an earthen pot, or any other kind, six pounds of lean breast of beef, three pounds of leg of mutton cut near the knee bone, half a pound of unsmoked salt pork, cut in one piece and then blanched, and half a pound of smoked ham, well pared and blanched. Cover with water, add the garbonzos boil and skim, maintaining a slow ebullition. Two hours after, put in the broth, one fowl, two partridges, a piece of squash weighing one pound, half a pound of carrots, half a pound of onions, a bunch of parsley with a bay leaf, and clove of garlic, and one pound of chorissos sausages (garlic sausage). Blanch twelve lettuce heads, also two cabbages cut in four. After removing the cores (the hard part), take out the meats as soon as they are severally done, cool them partially, and then cut them into half inch squares. Strain the broth through a napkin, pour it in a soup tureen with rice cooked in fat broth, and if the meats should not be added to the soup, serve them separately as a garnishing, by cutting them up in slices, and arranging them in a circle on a dish. The chicken in the center, a partridge on each side, the lettuces on one side, the chick peas on the other, the cabbages on the ends, and the sausages cut into slices and laid on top of the cabbage. A tomato sauce served separately, also a green sauce a l'espagnole (No. 473).

← No. 348 Spaghetti with Cream Soups & Broths No. 350 Terrapin, Clear, Thick or White →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a banquet-scale cocido written for a hotel kitchen: roughly ten pounds of meat plus two birds and sausage, enough for twenty or more as a two-course service of broth then boiled meats. Everything hinges on keeping the pot at a bare tremble and pulling each meat the moment it is tender rather than cooking it all to the same clock.

Slow ebullitionRanhofer means a surface that barely shivers, not a rolling boil. A hard boil clouds the broth and shreds the beef breast, and the whole point of straining through a napkin at the end is a clear liquid.
BlanchingBlanching here means a preliminary boil, then draining and rinsing. For the salt pork and ham it draws out excess salt; for the lettuce and cabbage it takes off rank notes so they can be finished in the broth without spoiling it.
Staggered donenessThe instruction to take out the meats "as soon as they are severally done" is the working method. Partridges are done in about 40 minutes, a fowl in 1 to 1.5 hours, mutton in about 2, the beef breast in 3 or more. Left in together, the birds disintegrate.
GarbanzosTwelve hours in tepid water is longer than needed for modern dried chickpeas; 8 hours cold is plenty. Note that they go in with the meats at the start and cook the full time, which is right for dried peas but would turn canned ones to paste.
ChorizoSpanish cured chorizo, firm and dry, is what is wanted here; it holds its shape and reddens the broth. Fresh Mexican chorizo will break apart and leave a greasy slick. Add it with the birds two hours in, as directed, not at the start.
Fowl and partridgesA "fowl" is a mature stewing hen, tougher and far more flavourful than a broiler; a 5 to 6 lb roasting chicken is the closest supermarket stand-in and will need less time. Farmed partridge is sold by game dealers, or use two quail or a small guinea fowl.
SquashA pound of dense winter squash, peeled and left in one or two large pieces so it does not dissolve. Calabaza or kabocha is closer to the period intent than a watery summer squash.
Straining and the riceA napkin is a doubled square of clean cotton or a double layer of cheesecloth in a sieve. The rice is cooked separately in fat broth and added to the tureen, so it never clouds the soup; the recipe gives no quantity.
The accompanying saucesThe green sauce at No. 473 is a separate recipe elsewhere in the book. A parsley-and-oil salsa verde and a plain tomato sauce serve the same purpose: sharp, cool relish against a great deal of boiled meat.

A Little History

An olla is simply the earthenware pot, and by extension what comes out of it — the ancestor of the Spanish cocido and olla podrida, a single vessel of meats, sausage, chickpeas and greens whose broth is drunk first and whose solids are served after as a second course. Charles Ranhofer, who ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894, files it among his soups because that is how it reached the table: the strained liquid with rice in a tureen, then the meats arranged in a circle on a platter. His insistence on garbanzos, chorizo and a green sauce shows he knew the dish as Spanish rather than as a generic boiled dinner, though the scale and the ring-of-meats presentation are pure nineteenth-century hotel service. He glosses both Spanish terms in parentheses — "Garbanzos" and "garlic sausage" — which suggests he expected the names to be unfamiliar to his readers.