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The Olla Podrida of the Spaniards

A hearty Spanish stew of assorted meats, chickpeas, vegetables, and spices simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and beef match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

The Olla Podrida of the Spaniards

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. In a large pot, combine the meats and cover with water.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for several hours.

  3. Add chickpeas and chopped vegetables to the pot.

  4. Season with spices and coarse sea salt.

  5. Continue to simmer until all ingredients are tender.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, ensuring a mix of meats and vegetables in each bowl.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pork + beeftop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  2. Pork + chickentop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Beef + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Potato + green beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Meats
Provide savory flavor and richness as they simmer into the broth.
Chickpeas
Add body and a firm, starchy texture that holds up during long simmering.
Potatoes
Thicken the broth slightly as their starch releases and soften fully.
Saffron
Adds a distinctive aroma and golden color to the broth.
Paprika
Contributes smoky, sweet warmth and color to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until all ingredients are tender. A rolling boil toughens meat fibers and can break up vegetables. Gentle simmering lets collagen slowly soften into gelatin, so the meats turn tender and the broth gains body.

Swap the green beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pork, beef, chicken, chickpea, carrot, potato):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Green beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pork, beef, chicken, chickpea, carrot, potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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