The area of the one hundred kitchens.
Gastronomy shows a people's culture as it is on the table. What is on the table is the reflection of a territory's food and agricultural potential, only to end up as restaurant cuisine, having remained the same as ever for centuries as part of the eating habits of its people.
The year 2002 for the cuisine of Castilla y León shows an even distribution between traditional recipes where original dishes and ingredients are preserved and nouvelle cuisine which is predominant in most European restaurants. The plentiful and extremely varied range of everyday recipes is due, in part, to geographical factors and significantly to the region's orographical and cultural diversity.
For two or three generations each region has kept its tradition of gastronomic singularities.
It is worth noting that, in the villages of the region you can normally find cakes and pastries and festive dishes whose presentation and ingredients have remained the same for over 300 years. This is one feature of the invigorating cuisine of Castilla y León.
This phenomenon, however, has not stopped the arrival on the scene of new types of cuisine which cater for more modern eating habits, have a milder taste, offer smaller quantities and create a new form of cooking and presentation while sticking to the traditional ingredients as the base but creating new more modern flavours.
Discussing the subject of gastronomy in the region of Castilla y León means venturing into the epicentre of asados de lechazo (roast baby lamb) cochinillo (roast suckling pig) and cabrito (roast kid).
It means moving from one region to another, savouring potajes and guisos (soups and stews) which range from migas pastoriles to ollas podridas and from the tasty cocidos to the botillos bercianos. It means discovering the widely popular bacalao (cod) and trucha (trout) in recipes. We are a major producer of the latter thanks to the wealth of our rivers and aquacultural development. It also means mentioning fresh beef, bearing in mind that the pastures in Castilla y León are used to rear the largest herd of cattle in Spain, whose autochthonous breed is still largely in existence.
Regional cuisine means discovering the widest range of chacinas (cured pork) and embutidos (cold sausage) in the Peninsula and revelling in a wine-producing area of long-standing tradition which today produces top of the range wines nurtured along the río Duero (Duero river) and crushed from the finest varieties of grapes predominated by the uva tempranillo, verdejo, mencía, and prieto picudo.
Los quesos de oveja (cheese made from sheep's milk) take the gastronomic centre stage, not forgetting those made from cow's milk (leche de vaca) and goat's milk (leche de cabra) which constitute the wide variety of cheeses available. Fruit and vegetable growing plays a major part in the variety of seasonal fruits offered including preserved fruits.
Large areas of forest and the many possibilities for hunting in this region make the cuisine one that is rich in game and fowl to which can be added duck and ostrich by-products which, over the last decade, have found their place in the meat sector.
A major part of regional cuisine is attributed to the wide variety of hongos (fungi) which range from trufas negras (black truffles), one of the most highly recognized truffle plantations in Europe being found in and around the area of Soria, to mushrooms whose over 100 varieties are picked every Autumn and Spring.
Oddities such as frogs legs, snails, dried beef, horsemeat and goats meat, also make up the recipe list along with a large variety of pulse vegetables which play an active role in the region's eating habits and give this region a separate identity.
Three main areas are the basis of our cuisine: raw materials, origins, and territory
RAW MATERIALSFirstly, it is based on raw materials belonging to the food and agricultural sector. These materials cater for absolutely all kinds of traditional cuisine, offering a wide range of fresh, raw and cured foodstuff, pulse vegetables and cereals, freshwater fish, big and small game, garden and fruit produce, dairy produce and meat which are a staple for asados (roasts) potajes (stews) dulces (sweets) and of the countless lists of recipes which make up the regional cuisine.
ORIGINSSecondly, our cultural uniqueness must be pointed out. At the root of our regional cuisine in Castilla y León is the influence from Arabic, Jewish and Christian cultures, which having evolved and having had to adapt to climate and orography, has formed its own wide range of traditional recipes. With the result that the cuisine of the region of Castilla y León has come about due to the degeneration of various fusions into an array of individually characterised recipes with the guarantee of regional tradition.
TERRITORYThirdly, diversity is a major factor in our regional cuisine. A mixture based on ethnographic factors, be it a cereal-producing, market gardening, mountain agriculture or grazing area. In addition to this, the favourable geographical location of our autonomous region which, due to its inland location is influenced by and at the same time is influence for the cuisine of the bordering territory. Therefore the regional gastronomy contains raw materials , resembling tastes and traces of Portugal, Galicia, Asturias, Aragón, Rioja, Cantabria and Extremadura.
