The gastronomy of the natural Park LOS ALCORNOCALES

The gastronomy of this zone of Cadiz and Malaga is of great wealth.The kitchen of the region has clear montanos dyes, with little dependency of the fish and much of products of the mount.

Despite she appears healthy and balanced as few to the being a mixture and combination of wisdom, as it demonstrates his perpetuación through the centuries.

In this case there are great secrets nor no stellar plates that give fame to the region outside their contours. But a sober popular wisdom exists that knows to select raw materials, to combine products, to decorate suitably and to fit each type of food to the time of the most propitious year.

As in other places of Andalusia it is let feel the great influence of the olive oil, in this case clarified by other many products of the field. The different cultures that have followed one another in the Park have left an evident track in their gastronomy.

This track is today difficult to rake, on the one hand by the enormous amount of cultures and towns that have happened through this zone near the Straits of Gibraltar and, by another one, the evident creativity of the gaditanos and malagueños which they have adapted in each case the elaborated forms more of sustenance to his agricultural tasks, its task of hunters, its work between the cork oaks, etc.

The olive oil, the salt meats, the grapes, the higos and other many products last from the Roman presence by these earth. The settlers arrived from North Africa, contributed many other forms of feeding but on all she he emphasizes in the zone the cheese elaboration and, mainly the obtaining of the honey.

This product needs for its formation mount, abundant flora and variety of plants that provide nectar during many months. And all these conditions occur in the Park, so that their mounts provide quality honey, although, unfortunately does not receive the care that had, because all the industrial attention monopolizes to the cork oak and the cork to it. With honey the exquisite candies of the zone are elaborated.

The cereal has to come from outside. But one take refuges with taste to prepare gachas and migas, since all the others that take these plates are in the region. The traditional kitchen is tie to exquisite products of the field like the tagarninas, sawhorses, snails, fungi, asparagus, etc. 

Separate mention deserves the hunting. In these mounts montería was traditional from the most remote centuries and in their diverse forms.

The meat of deer, wild boar and other mammals is ideal base of good roasted and plates that by the own quality of the raw material do not need much elaboration. In any case the dressing with the aromatic plants that grow of spontaneous form in all the zone like the laurel, oregano, penny royal, etc. 

The rabbit finds in the rice - arrived from the Seville neighbor its ideal companion to make those plates "caldosos" that constitute small works of art of the serranos furnaces. 

Volatinerías, with the perdiz at the top, writes another equally important page of this kitchen. Natural products of the near zones also are used with care. The pinions that arrive from the pine groves from Barbate, Doñana and others, the quinces to make the candy, from neighboring valleys of Cordova and Malaga, you happen from Malaga, the vegetables from ample fertile valleys of the rivers and the fish from
the coast. 

The derived slaughter of the pig and its products are also reseñables. Although the acorn of the cork oak is not as sweet as the one of the oak, also it fattens well to piaras during the montanera and the slaughter by end of year becomes a provision of variadísima gastronomical matter for all the year there.

The Iberian pig of this zone does not have the fame of others, but not always they go united fame truthfully. The chacinas are elaborated by artisan methods, with small modern details in spices and the packaging. They continue being of great quality although little known outside the province. Jamón, as all natural matter is influenced by thousands of conditioners and sometimes these are allied to congeniar perniles and slices of matchless flavor.

The wine that is unquestionable protagonist of low earth, there by the countrysides of Sherry and Port of Santa Maria, does not find arrangement solemn nor frequents in the kitchen of the Mountain range.
In any case it is used like companion of the food or to add to some products of repostería.

The modern kitchen does not have displaced to the traditional kitchen in this zone, but nevertheless, yes they have appeared answers to the demand of natural and biological products. In localities near the Park
other ecological products are forming cooperative that specialize in the elaboration of jams, eggs and that are having very good welcome in the market.

I could not either be forgotten the presence repostería with Arab roots, inheritance of the Muslim occupation. Thus we found in Medina sweet Sidonia and Jimena like the alfajores or butter cakes or piñonates.

These products have been made with same the measurement and ingredients for centuries, reason why they are considered, in addition to gastronomical plates characteristic of the zone, true works of crafts.

As a information the review of two simple prescriptions of local gastronomy goes there that can be in numerous restaurants of the zone.

*Lomo de cerdo ibérico. (Back of Iberico).-Producto pig of the so frequent slaughter in this zone. The meat is macerated until softening it properly and it is ripened with garlic, I comine, oregano, pepper, vinegar and salt. Next
it is buried in butter "will colorá" and one uses in hot accompanied as a trimming as potatoes the poble.

*Gazpacho caliente. ((Hot Gazpacho). - As a homemade soup, a cooked broth is spilled just on bread divided in tiny amounts. This broth is obtained from a refrito of tomatos, peppers, garlic and onions and once watered and wrapped by potatoes during brief minutes, use on dornillo of noble wood.