Does the food also evolve..?
By Ana Isabel González Verdejo.
I am happy to write this article and to say you how the great change of the gastronomy was
in the year 1812, since I am one of the chefs who are experiencing that change. In the
nineteenth century there is a strong French influence in Spanish cuisine due to many factors,
starting with the ruling dynasty, the Bourbons, who decides what is cooked and not cooked
in the kitchen of the Court. There is a notable difference between the style of the French
upper class and the Spanish popular cuisine that could be found in hostels, inns,, taverns and
bars. The gastronomy of the lower class is buried in centuries of traditions and the influence
of French cuisine. We noticed this type of cuisine was not the taste of the people who
traveled, although there were also places where the upper class could eat.
· “Can you tell us how you do some of those basic dishes?” a reporter asks.
Well, I'm going to review some of the recipes we use: fish, for example, we cook it in short
broths in which we mix a little water, milk, aromatic herbs and white wine or vinegar, in other
red wine and parsley. We often cut them with fish, we cover them with bread crumbs and
Parmesan cheese and we rub them with cow butter (the oil isn’t used by good chefs) and we
serve with tomato sauce..
The preparations we make for the meat dishes aren’t too much lighter. The cycle of
marinating them with aromatic herbs, lemon and vinegar is repeated, then we cook them
and bathe them with bread crumbs and present them once fried, for example in slices of
bacon.
Also popular at that time are the "entremeses", such as the "cartujas", which are dishes made
from vegetables such as beets, turnips and asparagus, to which are added "quenefas" stuffed
with truffles, mushrooms and chicken fillets and then painted with clear of strike and cook
and serve them with a semi-glazed sauce.
And if anyone doubted that we have an extraordinary stomach, we can still eat desserts like
a "Bavarian" made of pasta, tied with abundant eggs, fine butter, flour and raisins of Corinth
and Smyrna, with which we put rum, and then add cognac and glaze with jam and apricot.