Mountain Stew

Mountain Stew, or "cocido montañés", is a gastronomic gem from Cantabria, Spain. Perfect for cold days, this hearty dish is a combination of beans, blood sausage, chorizo, and other ingredients that give it its intense flavor. If you enjoy traditional stews, don't miss the mountain stew. On this website, we'll guide you through it step by step.

Mountain Stew History

This dish has been prepared in Cantabria for centuries in rural areas, but it lacked marketing: it wasn't called "mountain stew", but "cabbage soup". In the 60s, a tourism director from Santander named José Luís Herreros noticed that other regions had well-known dishes, like "Madrilene Stew" or "Fabada". He thought to look for a traditional Cantabrian recipe with legumes.

An international event was about to take place in the city (The Santander International Festival). It was a great occasion to offer a menu with local recipes, and he renamed the soup with meat, beans, and cabbage as "mountain stew". From then on, this traditional stew became so well-known that today, you can't mention stew recipes without mentioning the mountain stew.

How to make the recipe Mountain Stew

1. The beans need to be soaked in water with a tablespoon of baking soda, which helps soften them faster and also aids digestion. The soaking should be about 8 hours.
2. In the meantime, in the pressure cooker, add the ham bone, chorizo, ribs, and beans, reserving the more fragile blood sausage. Cover with water and a little salt. Set the pot for 40 minutes. Let it rest once the cooking time has passed.
3. While the meat is cooking, cut the cabbage into several pieces and soak it in a container with water and a little vinegar (which has a bactericidal effect). Then drain and cut into thin strips. Peel the potatoes and cut them into large wedges.
4. Open the pot and add the potatoes, and cabbage. Set the pot again for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cut the garlic into large pieces and fry in a pan with olive oil for 2 minutes. Add the blood sausage and brown, turn off the heat and sprinkle a little paprika.
5. When the pressure cooker's cooking time is up, and we can open it, add the fried garlic and blood sausage. As the pot will be very hot, just let it rest for about 10 minutes, and it's ready to serve.

Notes and Tips

As always, the better the ingredients, the better the flavor. Some people add pork fat to this stew, which undoubtedly gives it a more intense flavor, but also increases the calories. This recipe already has plenty of meat and bones, so there's no need to use pork fat, but if you like strong flavors, you can add this fat to the ingredients (about 80 grams). Did you like the recipe?