Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-01-08
WHAT SPANIARDS EAT.

|
ing Spanish cookery. Foreigners about
ing to be poisoned, and they shudder al
the bare thought of Spanish oil and ga,
lie.
Ii, however, they ventured to give the
subject moments sober reflection they
would at once be struck with the thought
that In hotels all over the peninsula the
cooking must be French and not Spanish
at all. To know what Spaniards eat and
how they eat is possible only to those who
have lived In the country and frequented
them for years, unless the traveller
from the outset stray beyond all beaten
tracks.
1t is among the well-to-do middle-class
Spanish homes. writes a correspondent of
the Sun, that all the real old customs and
dishes are to be found These house,
generally employ female cook. who il
assisted in her work by one or more wo-
men. These helps attend her to market
and carry her well-fled basket whenever
the co-cinera is too proud to do so herself.
Early every morning in the Madrid horse
cars these cooks may be seen with their
baskets. They look merry and are neat
and clean in their dark jackets, large
aprons and well-made dresses. Their hair,
which Is deliberately done up, is frequent
ly the work of the coiffeur, who comes
around every morning to arrange their
head dress. The clattef of their tongues
and the running fire of the jokes they keep
up with the street-car conductors makes a
lively scene of native catering, as few
families run up bills at the grocer ard
baker, and the amount of loaSes that is
daily consumed In Spanish household is
wonderful IS nnlU
brought to the house twice and sometimes
three times day, as Spaniards never eat
stale bread. Madame, the cook, hands in
her account every evening to the family.
Though, as rule, Spaniards are not
early risers, they begin the day with the
desayuno, as they call the meal. This
usually consists in a large cup of milk and
coffee or small cup of thick chocolate,
with a kind of cake called ensaimada.
Chocolate is made with milk, never with
water, except in the poorest families.
Between | and 2 p. m. old-fashioned
Spanish folks have their dinner. The
table is very simply laid with a clean
cloth and several plates of sweets and
fruit, flowers seldom appear; salt-cellar,
pepper box and mustard pot never. A
spoon, fork and knife Jumped together, a
tumbler for water and small wine glass
are set at each place. A Spaniard never
commits the he1esy of mixing wine and
water; he says it is ''spoiling two good
things" A goodly sized loaf of bread
TANKS each plate. The man servant, if
there he such a parsonage, waits at table,
otherwise the maid, with a neat, white
apron, performs that office
The soup tureen is first handed round,
and if its contents are triae greasy moth
I'M no =.
pounded Of all The good things that 60
to make up the classical cocido or puchero.
The substantial portion with which the
soup is made is placed in three separate
dishes and served up Immediately after
ward. On one dish figure large, thick
slices of boiled beef and pieces of fowl
with slices of bacon on another appear
the garbanzos or chick peas and on the
third are the vegetables, with slices of
chorizo or sausage. The cocido is usually
eaten as it is, in some houses with tomato
sauce.
The puchero or cocido takes its name
from the pewter pot in which it is slowly
boiled. In every well-reguated home
throughout Spain the cocido is made once
a day, and right good thing it is, as at
any hour you may chance to need cup Of
broth you can be supplied with it. It is
prepared after the following manner:
The pewter is filed with cold water A
piece of beef is then well washed to take
out the blood and put into the puchero
with some ham or bacon, half fowl and
a good-sized cupful of garbanzos These
chick-p peas must have been stepped in wa
ter over night. Several hours later the
are put to boil in another pot
with the sausage or chorizo. Some add
the vegetables and chorizo to the purch-
ero for few minutes before the latter Is
taken out in order to favor the broth
The broth is served up with rice, mac
caroni or some other paste The contents
of the puchero are separated and carved
by the cook before being put out On the
table.
The next dish is the frito. Frito means
a fry, and the dish usually consists of
fried brains, fried sweetbreads, croquetes
of fowl, etc. In no country are things
fried better than In Spain, because good
olive oil is used to fry them in, and oil
makes those deIicacies more crispy. That
Spanish oil may be turned to good account
for anything in cooking will no doubt
cause unbounded surprise. There is no
denying the fact, however. Food i'll pre-
pared with oil is no doubt trying case
in so far as the palate and noStrils are
bat good Spanish cook knows
well how TO disguise the taste Of the oil
in many ways. The simplest and perhap
the best advice is to let the oil come to the
boiling point and to throw in a piece of
bread, which is taken out as soon as it be-
comes brown and thrown away. This
takes off any bad taste the oil may have;
the pan is then carried to an open window
and the steam blown away, process
which effectuaIy clears it Of any unsavory
smell.
All roasted meats at Spanish
dinner are served before the fish. Wheth-
er fowl, veal, joints or vension, the meat
is always done well-niqh to a cinder, and
most Spaniards would not think of touch
ing out-of- thc-way meat. Blrring
potatoes, Spaniards seldom indulge in
vegetables other than those furnished by
he pdc1erO.
FORTUNE IN PEARLS.