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Recipe · 3 min read

Olla de Benicarló (con Arroz)

Olla de Benicarló amb Arròs

Caldoso · brothy Cooked in Olla Castelló

⚠️ Source-confidence note: documented in the Revista Española de Nutrición Comunitaria's 2022 survey of forgotten dishes of the Valencian Community (photo credited to Eduardo Boix López). It is an olla (bean pot) finished with rice rather than a rice dish proper. It is included because the rice is cooked in the pot and it is the northern cousin of arròs amb fesols i naps. Town variations beyond the RENC version are not documented.

01Geographic & Texture Profile

  • Primary Geographic Zone: El Baix Maestrat (Benicarló).
  • Liquid & Texture Profile: Caldoso (soupy).
  • Traditional Cooking Vessel & Fuel: A tall olla on the hearth or stove.

02Historical & Cultural Context

Castellón's iconic winter dish is the olla de la Plana, a bean-and-vegetable stew. Benicarló's version adds cured ham, salt pork and onion blood-sausage to white beans, cardoon and potato, and finishes with a modest amount of rice cooked directly in the pot. It is a one-pot meal of the cold months, when cardoon is in season and the pig-slaughter cured meats are ready.

Culinary science: cured ham and tocino release salt and glutamates into the bean water, so it becomes a stock without any bones. Cardoon, a relative of the artichoke, adds a gentle bitterness and needs about 30 min to soften. The rice is added last and in small proportion (≈ 40 g per person), so it thickens the broth slightly rather than dominating.

03Local Town-by-Town Variations

  • The Benicarló Style (RENC): White beans, ham, tocino magro, 2 morcillas de cebolla, cardoon, potato, tomato, pimentón, saffron, Valencia rice.
  • The Olla de la Plana (Castelló, Vila-real): Usually without rice. Adds carrot, cabbage, turnip, green beans and chard.
  • Other Baix Maestrat towns: ⚠️ Not documented.

04The Master Recipe (4-Person Batch Blueprint)

*Variant represented: RENC 2022 (Benicarló).*

The Flavor Base (El Fondo)

Ingredient Quantity
Dried white beans, soaked overnight without salt 468 g
Serrano ham 100 g
Tocino magro (streaky salt pork) 250 g
Morcillas de cebolla 2
Ripe tomato, chopped 1 medium
Cardoon, peeled, in pieces 1 bunch
Potatoes, diced 3 medium
Pimentón 1 tbsp
Water to cover generously (≈ 3 L)

Assembly Ratios

Element Quantity
Arroz de Valencia 160 g
Olive oil 1 tbsp
Saffron 7–8 threads

Step-by-Step Cooking Blueprint

  1. Beans: Put the beans in water. When it starts to boil, add the tocino, ham, morcillas and tomato.
  2. Simmer: Cook until the meat is very tender (≈ 45 min).
  3. Vegetables: Add the potato, cardoon and pimentón.
  4. Rice: After 10 min, add the oil, rice and saffron. Cook 20 min.
  5. Finish: Taste for salt (the ham is salty) and serve soupy.

Winter pot & matanza rices: Olla-style pots of legumes, pork and offal with the rice cooked in.