Salmorejo is, along with gazpacho, the king of cold tomato soups or creams. Born in Cordoba, it differs from its ‘relative’ more in preparation than in ingredients, although there are some elements that make the difference.
Among them, the most notable is the bread, the touch of distinction that makes the salmorejo more consistent and solid, taking it to the field of creams. In this example, its peculiarity is more closely related to the third tomato recipe in discord of Andalusian lands: the porra antequerana.
In essence, Gazpacho and salmorejo share ingredients in a more or less generic way. Tomato, of course; Garlic; olive oil; vinegar; salt and bread In the case of gazpacho, things change and let cucumber, pepper and even cumin or onion enter the equation.
Puritanism aside, the reality is that Salmorejo is a recipe that can be eaten with a spoon and beyond the hottest days of summer, while gazpacho raises little debate about packaging (plate or glass) and is even more defined in time.
The big difference, as we claim, is the presence of bread. But, as in so many recipes with bread, such as migas, zurrutukunas or Castilian garlic soups, the type of bread matters.
What is the best bread to make salmorejo?
Few voices are more authoritative to talk about Cordovan salmorejo than that of the Chef Juanjo Ruizchef at La Casa de Manolete Bistró and promoter of The Salmoretecaboth together row Romero, being in this second the place where he has come to create more than 600 different salmorejos.
Now his ceiling is set on the creation of the first probiotic salmorejo, in collaboration with the CSIC, which has added a natural ferment such as Lactiplantibacillus pentosus. Refrigerated and unpasteurized, this salmorejo marketed by La Salmoreteca (at the moment, present in the Carrefour of Andalusia) will provide probiotics to all kinds of people, especially those who usually consume it through dairy products —fattier— or for those following a low-cholesterol diet.
“Good bread is a white blackbird, but now we have the luck of not having to eat stale bread or bread from the day before“, he comments. However, he endorses that we do not necessarily use a very hard bread for the salmorejo. “When you crush hard bread, it is like granites, almost like dust, because the bread crystallizes, loses water and then it is more difficult to break those crystals” , Explain.
Of course, he clarifies, that “with the temperature and mixing speed of a Thermomix or a food processor” this no longer becomes a problem. In any case, Ruiz endorses that the perfect type of bread for salmorejo is “one compact crumb and with a crust that is neither too thick nor too crisp**”.
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Thus, he discards “bread that gives too much flavor” because he considers that “salmorejo should taste like a good tomato, good oil and good Garlic from Montalbán, but not like bread”. For this reason, he advocates “a bread that what it does is give consistency and be emulsion stabilizer“.
For this reason, its salmorejo is made as it was traditionally done: with cordovan telera bread because “it is a bread where the crust is dry, but the interior has a dense crumb, with a pinch of moisture, in a bread of the day that is spongy and compact”, he clarifies.
Thus, we leave aside very toasted breads, very dry crusts, too dehydrated breads or very honeycombed breads, endorsing that we trust “rinds that have a flesh color, don’t go brown”.
Images | The House of Manolete Bistro / La Salmoreteca
In DAP | Traditional Cordovan salmorejo recipe
In DAP | Gazpacho, in a glass or on a plate? The debate that confronts, even, the Andalusians