Vitoria (EFE).- Paella is Valencian, not Basque, says the Basque writer Ana Vega, National Gastronomy Award for the best journalistic work.
Vega believes that it is very clear that the origin of the paella is Valencian, and the Basques “perhaps at most we help them with the utensil”.
The controversy over the supposed Basque origin of paella has arisen after some statements on television by the hotelier Alberto Fernández Bombín.
Ana Vega -who writes under the pseudonym Biscayenne- and is a specialist in historical documentation of the kitchen, has explained to EFE the origin of the controversy.
It is the utensil in which paella is made, which gives its name to the dish itself, “what in Valencia they call paella and in almost the rest of the world we call paellera”.
The paella is Valencian, the Basques perhaps provide the container
Vega, who has spoken today with Alberto Fernández, has opined that he wanted to say that the Basques provide the paella, the container.
But at the moment she has not found documentation that proves it among the catalogs of manufacturers of pots and pans of the time, in which she has not found any paella for sale.
“It is true that the manufacture of utensils became cheaper after the third Carlist war (1874-1875), with the improvement of the steel industry and blast furnaces, but I have not found any specific manufacturer,” he detailed.
Before that date, the use of the term paella is already documented.
The first written recipe for paella, thus called, appeared in 1857 in a book published in Madrid that explained how to prepare it under the title “Valencian Skillet (Paella)”.
In 1859, in a book entitled “The Valencians painted by themselves”, the trade of paellero is described, a “professional” dedicated to preparing it.
“It was then a bit like the friend whose chop turns out well and we always order it for him.”
Large paellas were very scarce
Then large paellas, for fifteen or twenty people, were very rare, because you had to take care of them.
Only the aforementioned paelleros or people who had a shack and on Sundays served as picnic areas had them.
There they rented the container or made the paella themselves in exchange for money or being invited to eat.
In normal houses, containers were used that were neither so flat nor so big, more similar to a normal frying pan but taller.
It can be seen in numerous photographs of the time, Vega has detailed.
A cook prepares a dish in a paella during the Mediterranean Gourmet Fair EFE/Kai Försterling
Back then the dish was made with loose rice, not like now that very thin layer and socarrat rice is in fashion.
The Basques prepared rice with chorizo
Years later, at the end of the 19th century, the Basques prepared rice.
But “in our own way, with chorizo, what the Valencians hate” -which caused another controversy a few years ago-.
And it is that at that time the use of rice in the kitchen became popular even in places where it was not cultivated.
For example, rice pudding is identified with Asturias, when it is barely cultivated there.
So in the Basque Country, at the end of the 19th century, rice was prepared “with things”, as Ana Vega humorously says.
It was even served at weddings.
Ana Vega’s conclusion is that “perhaps”, since it is not documented, the Basques could have contributed to the Valencians “the pans or the steel that allowed access to the large canonical paella; we help them with the utensil, but not with the plate”. EFE