The oils harmonize the vegetables of its multiple pipirrana -local salad-: tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, potatoes, green beans, broad beans, asparagus and collejas, since it must be known that the pipirrana is like the truth, that each one has the hers and defends and spreads it as best he can. Or the jewel of all its mushrooms: The níscalo, which its people here call "guízcano", and which in the rainy season gives flavor and presence to traditional stews such as rags -also called calandrajos, noodles, guiñapos or rags-, or popular dishes such as garlic: hachero garlic, strong food with which the pine cutters of this land, which was a maritime province, used to eat in other times and with whose trees the fleets of ships of the caliphs of Córdoba were built, and more later that of the discoverers of America or the Invincible Armada. In these mountains and villages the word garlic does not always refer to the popular seasoning of the liliaceae plant family, but also has the meaning of crushed and crushed food.

This is how we see it forming part of the name of a multitude of traditional dishes in the area such as ajoharina, so present in places like Villacarrillo to the point of identifying its inhabitants, this stew that is made with potatoes, flour, dried pepper, tomatoes , garlic, salt, pepper, Matalahúva and olive oil, and which has distant reminiscences of the Roman “pultes”, the “sajina” and the Arab “asida”. Ajiche, ajoatao, ajohachero, ajomulero, garlic of cod, or the very popular ajopringue that is prepared during the slaughters as a treat to those present, wisely combining in it the two fats present in our diet: that of the liver of the pig, and that of the olive oil.

Traditional dish where they exist is that of mountain crumbs - a meal of concord that is mentioned in the popular proverb when to express that two who do not get along tell us that "they do not make good crumbs" -, whether they are made of bread or flour, which heads the list of farinaceous stews of the region, although it finds its replica in another typical of the mountain cuisine called gachamiga, which is called `` rollers '' to express the movement with which they are kneaded as a tortilla of flour and potatoes, and that serves as a companion to any type of dressing or trick, which they call here.

They are the meats of the pig slaughter that are produced in the area in the form of blood sausages, sausages, salami, hams and loins in adobo, which here are called orza because of the container in which they are kept so that they last all the year, one of its greatest culinary attractions, along with dishes such as fritao, which in its modesty of workmanship keep the immense flavors of any meat that is on hand in the kitchen, fried in olive oil and dressed with tomato also fried.

The miniature gastronomy that tapas represents deserves a separate comment, since in all the bars in the area you can taste traditional cuisine in the small portions that represent tapas as appetizers. Cook to be talked about first and foremost.

It is worth finishing meals here with any of the mistelas, ratafías and liqueurs that are prepared with wild herbs, which, in addition to lightening the digestions of the body, soothe the digestions of the soul in the course of the after-meals. They usually accompany or finish succulent desserts of the so-called home-made, which is how the non-industrial confectionery is called that is made by hand according to the old recipes of the place. Cakes, pestiños, anise rolls, Easter flowers, mantecados, make up the wide variety of so-called Serrano frying pan fruits.

A natural gastronomy that reveals one of its greatest secrets and the most appreciated of its values: The taste of the authentic in the landscape of a unique nature.

In this chapter we make a small sample of the Serrano cookbook, incorporating traditional dishes and new versions of old recipes that preserve the essence and quality of local products.