The one dish that gets my entire family seated around the table is cocido Madrileño, or simply cocido — boiled, in English. Cocido is a traditional dish from Madrid, Spain. It’s just a simple stew made with simple ingredients, but to me, and I’m sure to many Madrileños too, it is comfort food packed with memories.

Cocido preparation for many friends. Photo: Fernando García.

Cocido is prepared with a variety of meats: Beef shank, chorizo, lard, pork belly, Spanish blood sausage, jamón serrano and chicken. There are chickpeas and vegetables: Carrots, potatoes, cabbage, turnips and sometimes; green beans and cardoon. It is served in three courses, called vuelcos: The first one is the intense and succulent broth, with noodles; when I don’t feel well my body craves cocido soup, and once I have it, I instantly start to feel better. The second course is chickpeas and vegetables mixed together and dressed with extra virgin olive oil, and Jerez vinegar. Third is the meat, a representation of the flavors of Spain in one plate.

My first memories of cocido go back to when I was a little girl. I used to spend the weekends in the village my parents were from, 75 miles south of Madrid. My grandmother used to welcome my three brothers, my parents, and me every Friday with a cocido that had been cooking slowly since early in the morning. I could smell it from the car. I loved to go to the village – the aroma meant that I had the whole weekend ahead of me.

Cocido ready to serve. Photo: Diego Calatrava

The recipe has changed over the years, and as a person who loves stories, I listened carefully as my grandmother explained what the dish was like when she was a kid. The years after the Spanish civil war, which ended in 1939, were a period of austerity: there wasn’t much money and food was scarce. Cocido was initially consumed by poor people, using less meat than nowadays; just some chicken or pigeon, a small piece of beef, and lard. My grandmother said that a man used to offer a jamón serrano—ham— bone door-to-door to flavor people’s stew, in return for some coins, reusing it until the flavor disappeared. And there were fewer vegetables, usually just cabbage and potatoes.

Cocido was also a common meal for peasants working long hours in the field, as it was low cost and rich in energy.  They would put all the ingredients in a pot next to the heat of the fireplace, and let it cook for hours until they came back from work.

Saturday is cocido day at my parents’ and it’s the time of the week when we all sit together and catch up. They cook it the night before because the stew tastes better if it rests for some hours. Still living at their house, I treasured cold winter days when I came back home from a night out and I found the stew resting in the kitchen. A bowl of soup before going to bed was my favorite hangover remedy.

If you ask any non-Spaniard about traditional Spanish food, you’ll surely hear about paella and tapas but never cocido, even though for us the three of them are equally popular. The reason could be that authentic cocido is difficult to reproduce outside of Spain. I tried to cook it for my friends in New York, but some of the ingredients are extremely hard to find and others are insanely expensive. The only way to know how a traditional cocido tastes is to go to Madrid, which is why I just eat cocido when I go back home at Christmas time. Every time I land in Madrid I’m certain of two things: My favorite people will be waiting for me at the airport, and my favorite food will be on the family dining table.

Gema Flores