Chef Isabel
Ajo Carretero de Soria
Ajo carretero is Soriano, from the pine country of Soria: lamb cooked in a plain garlicky broth, then served the old way, meat first and bread-soaked soup after.
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Sopas Cachorreñas Malagueñas
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Sopas Cachorreñas are Málaga's Andaluz bread soup, salt cod and potatoes in a garlic-pimentón broth, finished off the heat with bitter orange so the sour edge stays clean.
Soups & Stews
Spanish
Comfort Food
Budget Friendly
One Pot
25 min
Active Time
35 min cook•1 hr total
Yield4 servings
Sopas Cachorreñas are Málaga's Andaluz bread soup, and the sour cachorreña orange is what makes them theirs. Stale bread, potato, salt cod, garlic, pimentón, cumin, olive oil, and that bitter orange. It is cocina de cuchara, spoon food, from a lean larder: sharp, filling, and honest enough to show every shortcut. The orange is the signature, not decoration.
The method that decides it is simple: build the broth with the cod and potato, pound a majao, a garlic and bread paste, with pimentón and cumin, then add the orange juice only after the pot leaves the heat. Boil that juice and the clean sour edge turns flat and harsh. Keep the white pith out too, or it bullies the whole bowl. Do that much and the soup tastes of Málaga instead of any neighbour's bread soup.
If you can't get naranja cachorreña, use a Seville bitter orange in its winter season. Farther away, mix fresh sweet orange with lemon and a strip of orange peel with no pith; it will be softer and less bitter, but it points in the right direction. No hace falta haber pisado España. Buy decent salt cod, use bread with a real crust, and pésalo, no lo adivines. In the Margin beside this one I wrote only: add the orange off the fire. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.
Sopas Cachorreñas belong to Málaga, especially the inland and eastern kitchens of the province, where stale pan cateto, potatoes, salt cod, garlic, pimentón, and sour naranja cachorreña made a filling winter soup from pantry food. The bitter orange was not dessert fruit; it was a backyard and patio tree fruit used for its sharp juice and peel, the same sour family as the Seville orange. Salt cod carried the sea inland and made the soup useful on lean and Lenten tables, where a little fish and a lot of bread had to feed the pot.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
salt cod
Quantity
200g
desalted for 24 hours, skin and bones removed
waxy potatoes
Quantity
500g
peeled and cut into 2cm chunks
day-old rustic bread or pan cateto
Quantity
150g
40g for the majao, 110g sliced for serving
bitter orange (naranja cachorreña or Seville orange)
Quantity
1 large
one pith-free peel strip removed, then juiced to 60-70ml
garlic cloves
Quantity
3
peeled
extra virgin olive oil
Quantity
60ml, plus 1 tablespoon
for cooking and finishing
sweet pimentón
Quantity
1 teaspoon
cumin seeds
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
or 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
bay leaf
Quantity
1
water
Quantity
1.2L
salt
Quantity
to taste
only after tasting the cod broth
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| salt coddesalted for 24 hours, skin and bones removed | 200g |
| waxy potatoespeeled and cut into 2cm chunks | 500g |
| day-old rustic bread or pan cateto40g for the majao, 110g sliced for serving | 150g |
| bitter orange (naranja cachorreña or Seville orange)one pith-free peel strip removed, then juiced to 60-70ml | 1 large |
| garlic clovespeeled | 3 |
| extra virgin olive oilfor cooking and finishing | 60ml, plus 1 tablespoon |
| sweet pimentón | 1 teaspoon |
| cumin seedsor 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin | 1/2 teaspoon |
| bay leaf | 1 |
| water | 1.2L |
| saltonly after tasting the cod broth | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 3L pot or olla
- •Mortar and pestle
- •Vegetable peeler
- •Citrus juicer
Instructions
- 1
Bloom the pimentón
Warm the 60ml olive oil in a heavy pot over low heat. Add the garlic cloves and cook them gently until pale gold, not brown, then lift them into a mortar. Pull the pot off the heat, wait 20 seconds, stir in the pimentón and cumin for 10 seconds, then pour in the water at once to stop the spice cooking. Pimentón burns fast; if it goes black, start again. There is no saving scorched pimentón.
Keep the heat low for the garlic. You want it sweet and mellow for the majao, not bitter at the edges. - 2
Simmer cod and potatoes
Add the potatoes, bay leaf, pith-free orange peel strip, and desalted cod to the pot. Bring it to a gentle simmer and cook for 15 to 18 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the cod flakes. If the cod is ready before the potatoes, lift it out and keep it covered; don't punish good fish while the potato catches up. Remove the orange peel and bay leaf.
If your bacalao is still salted, rinse it well, soak it in cold water in the refrigerator for 24 hours, and change the water three times. Taste a tiny flake before cooking. - 3
Pound the majao
Tear 40g of the bread and soften it with two ladles of hot broth. Add it to the mortar with the fried garlic and two tender potato chunks from the pot. Pound to a rough paste. This is the majao, the thickening paste; it should look rustic and heavy, not smooth like a cream soup.
- 4
Thicken the soup
Stir the majao back into the pot and simmer gently for 5 to 7 minutes, moving the spoon along the bottom so the bread doesn't catch. The broth will turn rusty-gold from the pimentón and lightly thicken around the potatoes. Flake the cod into large pieces and return it to the pot. Taste before adding salt; the cod may have done the work already.
- 5
Add bitter orange
Take the pot off the heat. Squeeze the bitter orange and measure 60ml juice. Stir in 50ml first, taste, then add the rest if the broth wants more sharpness. It should taste cleanly sour and orange, not sharp enough to make you wince. Do not boil the soup after the juice goes in. That is the step that keeps the cachorreña character alive.
No bitter orange where you are? Use 50ml fresh sweet orange juice, 20ml fresh lemon juice, and a pith-free strip of orange peel. It will be softer and less bitter, but it will carry the dish honestly. - 6
Serve over bread
Divide the remaining 110g sliced stale bread among four deep bowls. Ladle the soup over the bread and let it sit for 2 minutes so the bread drinks the broth without disappearing. Finish each bowl with a thin thread of olive oil. Serve it hot enough to gloss the surface, with potato, cod, and soaked bread in every spoonful.
Chef Tips
- •Ask for naranja cachorreña or naranja agria in Málaga, and for Seville oranges elsewhere in winter. If you use the sweet orange and lemon substitute, know what changes: the soup loses a little bitter backbone and becomes rounder. Start with less juice and correct at the end.
- •Buy thick salt cod if you can, already desalted if your fishmonger does it well. Fresh cod works only as a compromise; it gives you flakes of fish, but not the deep larder taste that bacalao gives the broth.
- •Use day-old country bread with a real crust, pan cateto if you can get it. Soft sandwich bread turns gluey and sweet, and this soup wants bread that can drink broth while still leaving something under the spoon.
- •Don't boil the soup once the orange juice is in. Leftovers should be warmed gently below a simmer, then brightened with a fresh spoonful of orange or lemon at the table if the edge has gone quiet.
Advance Preparation
- •Desalt the cod 24 hours ahead in the refrigerator, changing the water three times. Keep it cold the whole time.
- •Slice the bread the night before and leave it loosely covered so it stales properly. Fresh bread turns soft too quickly in the bowl.
- •The soup base can be made up to the end of the thickening step a day ahead. Reheat it gently, then add the bitter-orange juice and serve over bread just before eating.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 415g)
Calories
405 calories
Total Fat
13 g
Saturated Fat
2 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
11 g
Cholesterol
25 mg
Sodium
600 mg
Total Carbohydrates
58 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
17 g
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