Few culinary pleasures – within everyone’s reach – are on par with some good churros, whether they come or not. accompanied by a French chocolate very hot. I’m sorry, but I think that the neighbors, in this, have overtaken us on the right, since They were Spanish conquerors those who brought cocoa to Europe back in 1524.
At that time, Hernán Cortes did not know that – several centuries later – hot chocolate would end up becoming the national drink and that, many years later, he would find his best allies in churros and porras. It is what leads countless Spaniards to consume in bars and terraces these delicacies that are currently in danger of extinction.
It is the case of the Madrid churreria Don Pichi (C/ Lope de Rueda, 41), run by three brothers who – for more than three decades – have been determined to value that artisanal preparation of fried doughs which is increasingly difficult to enjoy in many of the cafes that we find throughout the country.
Professionals like them are aware that supermarkets can find pre-fried churros and porras that are in the deep-frozen section, but they are as clear as we are that we are talking about very different products with very different results.
Not to mention that one spray churros dough which they launched on the market 10 years ago and which would soon disappear from the shelves. In less than it takes to fry a churro (a real one) there was no longer a trace of that NewFoodSpray invention (they also launched tempura or pancake batters).
Nobody makes a churro bitter
That churro is a recipe that seduces all kinds of people It is something indisputable and, furthermore, it can be easily verified. You just have to look at the type of public that goes to the churrerías, that orders them through Glovo-type apps or who consumes them in cafeterias.
People of all ages who have not been able to resist – since time immemorial – churro fever. “They say that even are exported to the United States, but I haven’t tried them. There must be vending machines from a company in Zamora that is dedicated to this, but I don’t think that product looks similar to the one that is made daily in Spanish churrerías like ours.”
He tells us Alfonso de Larathe oldest of the three brothers in charge of Don Pichi, who the only thing he knows about frozen churros is that “they are usually about ten centimeters and thicker than normal“They make them that way so that they have more consistency and don’t fall apart.” Something totally understandable because what he works with daily is with the pieces that they make by hand (using sourdough in the case of the porras) and sell to both cafes and individuals.
“I have clients who take them home, freeze them and say they are perfect when, once thawed, they put them in the toaster for a few seconds.” Another solution that can work well, according to Alfonso, is the salamander roaster at a low temperaturebut he warns us that there is nothing like a freshly made churro or porra: “It’s not worth all the hassle with the price they have.”
We assume that customers who use these solutions They do it because they have no choice.. That is, they cannot go to a churrería due to some health problem or, directly, they do not have a churrería to which they can go.
Difference between churro and porra doughs
Although both formats can be regenerated without problem following the instructions we have left above, it is important to be clear that we talk about different masses when referring to churros and porras. We mention it in case there is a brave person in the room who, knowing that the result will never be ten, wants to encourage himself with his own mass.
If you want to prepare churros, you will only need water, flour and salt. The one with the batons, on the other hand, It also has baking soda and sourdough, which is nothing more than a piece of the dough from the previous day properly conditioned (it will provide fermentation). Something that you don’t think is so common: “It has always been used in bakeries, but It is not usually done in a churrería. Or, at least, it is not usually said.”
Another important fact is that churros need strong flour, while batons require one that is halfway between bakery and strong. We leave you a small guide about the strength of the flour (which is nothing more than the protein it contains), in case you want to delve a little deeper into this matter.
When frying, it is important both the type of oil and the temperature it has to reach so that they are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. “We have always used olive oil, which in our country has exceptional quality, but sometimes we have had to resort to the sunflower one because the price of a liter of olive oil has skyrocketed uncontrollably.”
As a curiosity, Alfonso tells us that, When the war broke out in Ukraine, “the price of sunflower oil, coincidentally, was double that of olive oil.” That is to say, there was a time when –at an industrial level- It was cheaper to use olive oil compared to sunflower.
Regarding the temperature of that oil, we are talking about 200-220 degrees, something that you will hardly be able to achieve using the pans or appliances that we all usually have at home. And precisely this is what leads us to ask ourselves another question that reinforces the idea that It is much better to buy them freshly made. than making or regenerating them at home.
How are the machines?
More than how they are, we are interested in what types of artifacts are the ones that, today, are capable of producing us so much happiness in such a short space of time. So we sneaked into the operating room of this churrería near El Retiro Park to see How do these churro masters manage?. And we found a machine!
And Alfonso launches with the explanation: “The first automatic We started selling them in Madridwhich were from a manufacturer in Valladolid.” And despite its dimensions, what the system is, could not be simpler. It is “a tamper that pushes the dough through the canwhich is the same one that has been used all our lives.” The difference, as you may have guessed, is that “previously we had to do it manually.”
We also discovered that There are still old machines, which are not automatic, in Madrid. And that, in these cases, the churros have to use one hand to push the dough and the other to cut the churros. Something much more tedious although it has its funWe are not going to deny it.
‘Blessed industrial revolution’, the professionals of this trade would think when these automatic machines arrived to their businesses, a more than necessary tool for those who, like Don Pichi, They ship between 1,000 and 1,500 churros daily. And little more to add…
Since we are good people and we know that They get up very early every day (Alfonso enters at one thirty in the morning), we say goodbye to the three brothers (also Carmen and Alberto), but not before asking them may they continue there for many more years. At least another 30!
Images | Don Pichi/Miguel Angel Flores/Cavan Images/Jose Ignacio Martin Del Barco
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