What to eat in Córdoba: typical dishes, wines and local produce

Salmorejo and mazamorra, the cold soups

Salmorejo is a cold purée of tomato, garlic, bread, olive oil and salt. It is thicker than gazpacho, thick enough to eat with a spoon or scoop up with bread, and it comes with a garnish on top, nearly always chopped hard-boiled egg and cured ham. The provincial tourist board presents it as the traditional dish of the province.

People eat it all year, though it is most welcome in summer. Try it in several places and you will notice how much it varies. It depends on the bread, the tomato and above all the oil.

Mazamorra is its white relative, a cold almond soup with no tomato. It appears on fewer menus, and when it does it is worth ordering.

Flamenquín and rabo de toro

A flamenquín is a roll of pork loin filled with serrano ham, breadcrumbed and fried. The recipe in the province's food guide opens the fillet like a book, fills it, rolls it up, coats it in egg and breadcrumbs and fries it in olive oil. It comes with chips and is usually large, so one is enough to share.

Rabo de toro is a slow oxtail stew. The tail is cut at the joints and cooked with plenty of onion, tomato, garlic, pepper, saffron and wine from Montilla or Moriles. The meat should fall off the bone by itself. It is a winter dish, and one to eat sitting down.

What comes over the bar in a tavern

Fried aubergines with cane honey ('berenjenas con miel') are another dish the tourist board lists as a local reference. The aubergine is fried and finished with a thread of dark cane syrup, and the contrast of salty and sweet is the point of the dish.

Japuta en adobo is marinated fish, an old tavern recipe that the tourist board lists alongside anchovies in vinegar and 'alcachofas a la montillana', artichokes stewed with the local wine.

The taverns cluster around Plaza de la Corredera, in the Ajerquía quarter, near Plaza de las Tendillas and in the Judería, the old Jewish quarter. The usual thing is to order half portions ('medias raciones') so you can try more.

Naranjas picás and the perol

Naranja picada, or 'naranjas picás' in local speech, is chopped orange with salt cod. The provincial guide records it as a traditional dish of Montilla, Moriles and La Rambla, three towns in the south of the province.

A perol is something else: a soupy rice cooked outdoors that gives its name to the whole gathering. The big day is 24 October, the feast of San Rafael, when thousands of locals head up to the hills, above all to Los Villares park, to eat perol with Montilla-Moriles wine. It is countryside food, cooked among friends.

Pastel cordobés

This is a round puff-pastry pie filled with 'cabello de ángel', a sweet pumpkin jam, and dusted with sugar and cinnamon. The most classic version also has serrano ham inside, and the mix of sweet and salty works better than it sounds.

The food guide credits the Andalusi past for the local taste for sweet-and-sour dishes and almond sweets such as alfajores.

Montilla-Moriles wines

The Montilla-Moriles designation of origin was recognised in 1932 and covers seventeen municipalities in the south of the province. The Pedro Ximénez grape accounts for more than 95% of the vineyard, according to the regulatory council.

Fino is the everyday wine in Córdoba. It is white and dry, aged under a layer of yeast called 'velo de flor' in a system of stacked barrels known as criaderas and solera. It is drunk cold.

The other styles start from there. Amontillado begins as a fino aged for at least five years and then spends three or more ageing in contact with air. Oloroso is aged only in contact with air. Pedro Ximénez is the sweet one, made from grapes dried in the sun. There is also 'vino de tinaja', young and unaged.

Olive oil and ham with a designation of origin

The province has four protected designations of origin for extra virgin olive oil: Baena, Priego de Córdoba, Montoro-Adamuz and Aceite de Lucena. Baena has operated since 1981, uses picuda as its main olive and covers Albendín, Baena, Cabra, Castro del Río, Doña Mencía, Luque, Nueva Carteya and Zuheros. Priego oils are made in the Subbética hills. Montoro-Adamuz oils are fruity and full-bodied, with a marked bitterness. In Lucena the hojiblanca olive leads.

Ham from the Los Pedroches designation comes from 100% Iberian pigs raised on the oak pastures in the north of the province. A black label and seal mark 'bellota' ham, from animals fattened at the end on acorns and grass. Green ones mark 'cebo de campo', from free-range pigs that also eat cereal feed.

Meal times and markets

Córdoba eats late. Lunch starts at about two and dinner no earlier than nine. Many kitchens close in the afternoon between services, and in summer everything shifts later still because of the heat.

To see the raw produce, go to the municipal market of La Corredera, in the square of the same name. It has eighteen stalls, including greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers, pickles and spices. It opens Monday to Thursday from 8:00 to 15:00 and on Friday and Saturday from 8:00 to 15:30. On the Paseo de la Victoria there is also a food-hall market with stalls serving dishes to eat on the spot.