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Olla Podrida, or Spanish National Soup

A hearty Spanish stew made with ham, beef, roasted hen, vegetables, spices, pork sausages, and savaloys simmered in broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Olla Podrida, or Spanish National Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Build the pot

  1. Place slices of raw ham at the bottom of a stockpot.

  2. Add sliced gravy beef and the roasted hen.

  3. Garnish with vegetables, cloves, and mace.

  4. Moisten the stockpot with 1 quart of broth.

  5. Set the stockpot on the fire.

  6. Reduce the broth to a glaze.

  7. Fill the pot with water once it boils.

  8. Skim the broth.

Simmer

  1. Let the broth boil gently by the side of the stove.

  2. After 2 hours, add a large fowl, 2 trussed partridges, pork sausages, and savaloys.

  3. Monitor the cooking to prevent overcooking.

  4. Remove the soup when done.

Cut and serve

  1. Cool the meat.

  2. Cut the fowl and partridges into small pieces.

  3. Cut the sausages and savaloys into small round balls.

  4. Combine all meats in a soup pot with boiled carrots, turnips, celery, and leeks.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Gravy beef
Becomes tender over long simmering, releasing flavor and gelatin into the broth.
Roasted hen
Adds rich meat flavor and body to the broth as it cooks slowly.
Raw ham
Lays a salty, savory base that seasons the broth and the pot's contents.
Pork sausages
Add fat and savory pork flavor that enriches the broth and the finished dish.

The step that matters

Skimming and gentle simmering. Boiling hard emulsifies fat and clouds the broth, and rough boiling toughens meat. Skimming foam and keeping a gentle simmer keeps the broth clear and the meats tender.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, beef, carrot, turnip, celery, leek, clove):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, beef, carrot, turnip, celery, leek, clove. 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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