Borona

The borona or borono is the name by which millet was called since ancient times, later corn and, by extension, bread made with flour from any of these cereals. It is a traditional food from the Spanish regions where these grasses are produced, where it has been part of the elemental diet until the middle of the 20th century. . It is usually baked in the oven wrapped in collard or chestnut leaves and often has sausages inside (in this case it is usually said that it is pregnant).

History

Before corn arrived to the Iberian Peninsula from America, a type of mixed bread, made with barley and rye, was already called borona. The Calf of the behetrías de Castilla from the XIV century, refers to this cereal when detailing the tax obligations of the vassals: < i>They give more to the king than a bushel of bread, the meitat escandia and the meitat borona. References to the borona occur throughout history, as reflected in the Diplomatic Collection of Santa Catalina from Monte Corbán and after the arrival of the Spanish to the New World in 1492, the breads made with millet or panizo that the authors of the time attribute to the Basques continue to be called borona., although they must have been consumed in more places on the Peninsula.

The term borona appears again in the year 1619 in the municipality of Oseja de Sajambre, located in the Picos de Europa, in a context that seems to indicate that it is already corn bread, so this would be the oldest historical mention, known to date, of the borona as we understand it today.

In 1794 Jovellanos speaks of the "borona or corn bread" that was eaten in the Principality of Asturias in his Report of the Economic Society of Madrid.

Features

The mixture of wheat flour (spelt wheat flour) and corn (2/3 corn flour and the rest wheat flour) makes the interior color of the boron pale yellow. The dough is usually put in a mold, it can be rectangular although nowadays it usually has a toroidal shape. In the traditional recipe, some slices of chorizo and various meats, including ribs ('costiella'), are included in the dough. The dough is placed, along with the mold, in an oven and cooked at relatively low temperatures overnight.

The pregnant boroña has chorizo, bacon and sabadiego. After five hours of cooking, the collard greens that surround it acquire a slightly sour aroma that is the perfect counterpoint to the sweetness of the corn; The power and substance of the sausages do the rest.

Serve

To serve, the borona is opened in half and the meat content inside is poured out to be eaten together with the cooked bread dough.