This week’s sandwich was suggested by a member of the Bounded by Buns Patreon community. The suggestion came from none other than Chicago Back Alley Pizza Legend, John Carruthers. If you’re not familiar with John, he has authored or co-authored several cookbooks, the most recent of which is a cookbook about pizza called Pizza for Everyone. John is also the Proprietor of Crust Fund Pizza and he will not sell you a pizza. But he will gladly hand you a pizza in a shady alley deal if you follow the proper steps.
I’d like to personally thank John for suggesting the sandwich you’re about to read about and I would also like to thank him for all of the charitable goodness he’s sent out to the world from the comfort of his 500+ degree kitchen oven.
What is this sandwich?
The montadito de pringá is a sandwich of Spanish origin. Specifically, this sandwich is from an area called Andalusia, which is the southernmost autonomous community of Spain (an autonomous community is similar to a state or province). A montadito de pringá is the by-product of another traditional Spanish dish called cocido. Since I want to give the proper amount of respect to these traditional Spanish dishes, I will spend just a little bit of time laying out a few Spanish words and describing their meanings.
Learning time
Pringá is the short name for montadito de pringá, the sandwich we’re making today. More history on this below.
Montadito is a small sandwich, with an emphasis on small. On some menus, I have seen it referred to as “small bread.” The word montadito itself comes from the root verb of montar which means to mount or place on top. This translation makes a little bit of sense when you learn some of the montadito in Spain are served open-faced as tapas with the ingredients on top of the bread.
Cocido is a stew made from cooked or boiled meat. Cocido is a traditional comfort food and it’s said that every grandmother has her own special recipe. Many historians think that cocido has its origin with another dish known as adafina which is a stew with history going back further than the middle ages.
Montadito de Pringá is a small sandwich made from various types of meat that have been boiled to create a cocido. The meat is removed from the broth and then it is chopped and mashed together and served inside crusty or toasted rolls. The meats are typically a blend of lean cuts and fattier cuts. A percentage of fat is very important in this sandwich because it brings moisture and a pleasant mouthfeel to the meat in between the crusty bread.
Porky pringá history
There’s an interesting article about the sacrilegious history of pringá that John Carruthers shared with me when he selected this sandwich. A short recap of the article is that the origins of this sandwich were a very uncomfortable and scary time for people living in Spain who were not of Christian faith. Jews and Muslims were both decreed to be banished from Spain 15th and 17th centuries and their only options were to leave the country or convert to Catholicism.
Many of these Jewish or Muslim Spaniards continued to worship their chosen religion in private but outwardly presented the facade that they had converted and were now practicing Catholics. One publicly facing issue plagued both Muslims and Jews though and that was the consumption of pork—neither religion allowed it. So, these Jews and Muslims masquerading as Catholics started buying and eating pork to help solidify the appearance that they had converted to Catholicism.
This is how the Jewish Sephardic stew known as adafina, which usually contains lamb, started being made with pork and became what is now known as cocido.
First, as always, we need some crusty, small-ish bread rolls. And I chose to make ciabatta.
Ciabatta bread rolls
I wasn’t sure what sort of bread to bake for this sandwich. There are a few different options listed in the few articles and YouTube videos that I found with recipes for Pringá sandwiches. Many of them mentioned ciabatta and they also mentioned baguettes which led me to believe that this sandwich would be at home with any sort of crusty roll.
Since the sandwich is finished by searing in olive oil in a hot pan on both sides of the bread roll, it seemed that ciabatta would work best out of all the sorts of bread that I have recipes for. One of the main reasons I think these worked is how flat each ciabatta roll turns out which makes the sandwich much easier to press in a panini press or griddle in a hot skillet.
I typically roll the dough into a rough rectangle and then separate it into 6 or 8 pieces depending on how large I would like my ciabatta rolls. I probably should have gone for 8 since these are supposed to be montadito which are “small sandwiches” but chose the larger size instead.
Ciabatta sandwich rolls
Light and airy rolls with a wide interior surface area for lots of sandwich spreads, meats and cheeses. The outer crust is a bit crunchy, but these rolls have a good bite perfect for sandwiching.
Get RecipeCocido
In the Learning time section above we learned now that cocido is the name of a stew or soup from Spain that is typically made from a broth that was created with meat and possibly some beans. The meat is then removed and the broth is strained off to be used to create a soup or stew with vegetables and grains and possibly some of the meat added back. The word cocido itself comes from the Spanish word cocer which translates to “to cook” or “to boil.”
Garbanzo beans seem to be a very common ingredient in cocido recipes I found on the internet. So, we used some of those in the soup that I created as well. We had some extra potatoes and lima beans (not a traditional Spanish ingredient) and I used some extra sausages to help flavor the final dish.
Here’s the recipe I based my cocido on. Once you have the broth you can make a soup and turn the meat into pringá for sandwiching or additions to the soup.
Chickpeas and broth
The recipe that I followed starts with water and a whole lot of meat that is boiled for multiple hours to create a meaty broth. Chickpeas or garbanzo beans are also added and by the end of the boiling time everything is removed from the pot and the liquid is strained off to create a very flavorful broth. The garbanzo beans are fully cooked, and tender and can be served as they are as a side dish, or they can be added back to the broth when it is time to create the cocido or soup.
Garbanzo beans can also be baked on a sheet pan in a 425 F oven for 20 to 30 minutes to create a crunchy snack if you don’t want to waste any.
A stack of meats
I bought almost 12 inches of meat for this sandwich. Typically, you do not measure the amount of meat for a meal in inches, but it just worked out this week that this was one of the metrics that I used. The stack of five different meat selections was roughly 36 or 37 bucks before tax.
I don’t think there’s a reason to spend a lot of money on a more expensive cut of beef or pork for this recipe. The whole goal is to boil it until it falls off the bone creating tender meat. My suggestion is to buy meat that has some nice marbling of lean meat and fat but do not go looking for the expensive cuts of meat.
If you think buying five different types of meat for less than 40 bucks sounds like I got a pretty good deal, it’s because I was paying attention to the specials going on in my store. This cocido/pringá is a traditional soup that is boiled for a long time, and it should work with lots of different meat options. I bet the Spanish grandmothers who hold the secrets to the family codido recipes are also checking out the deals at their market and buying what works at the moment.
All of the meats
You may have heard of Arby’s Meat Mountain, but they’ve got nothing on the cocido and pringá recipe that was suggested to me to try. I have photos here of each of the six different meat options that I purchased with the prices visible (except the blood sausage which was around 5 or 6 bucks).
For the pork and the beef, the main thing I considered was the marbling of fat to lean meat. You do want some fat in the blends of meat that you are using for this recipe because, without it, the resulting sandwich will be full of meat that is a bit too dry.
Sausages
The recipe I was following called for both fresh chorizo and fresh blood sausage. If you’re not familiar with buying sausage, the term fresh doesn’t have anything to do with the date that the sausage was formed or sold, it has to do with whether the sausage has been smoked or cured.
A fresh sausage is raw or uncured and a non-fresh or dried sausage has been cured and you can consume it without cooking—but people and recipes do call for cooking cured sausage.
When you look at the list of meat and ingredients used in this cocido/pringá you’ll notice that there’s not a whole lot of seasoning. These two sausages will bring a lot of flavors to the final sandwich because they are already seasoned meat stuffed into casings. The sausages are added near the end of the boiling process which means they get fully cooked without being overcooked and when they are removed from their casings and chopped up into the meat mixture they contribute interesting flavors to the final dish.
If you’re reading this and you’re worried about what blood sausage might taste like, stop fretting. It’s honestly just another savory sausage. There is a slight metallicness in the aftertaste if you isolate a piece of blood sausage and eat it by itself, but when blended in with the other meats in this sandwich it’s just a contributing factor to the overall seasoning and savoriness of the meat.
What does this combo of meat taste like?
I’m not sure about you, but it’s not very often that I eat pork, beef, and chicken all at the same time. This could be a first for me. The combination of meat, plus the fatty salt pork come together in a very flavorful blend. To me, the meat tastes a bit like chopped or pulled pork that you might find in the South (shout out North Carolina!).
The pork roast and salt pork become prominent flavors and textures in the sandwich. The presence of blood sausage and chorizo comes through in taste as well and the seasonings from the sausages seem to overwhelm the chicken and beef. Many of the written accounts I found about trying traditional pringá would lead you to believe that most of the meat in the sandwich is pork which seems to line up with my experience of the pork flavor being at the forefront.
Cooking and sandwich assembly
Once the meat is all boiled and removed from the broth, you remove the meat from the bones and chop it up a little. Now you have a bunch of meat but no sandwich. What are the next steps?
- Slice the bread.
- Drizzle a little bit of olive oil on the bottom piece of bread.
- Grab a cup or so of the meat mixture (depending on the size of your bread—but scoop out more than you think you need) and place it in a hot skillet.
- Cook the meat for 5 to 7 minutes or until the meat gets hot and starts to crisp up a little.
- Add the pile of meat on top of the olive oil in the bottom bun. (Optional and not traditional: add cheese) Top the meat with the top of the roll, closing the sandwich.
- Wipe out your pan and add a couple of teaspoons of olive oil to the pan. Top the olive oil with the completed sandwich and cook on both sides of the sandwich for about 3 minutes per side.
- Serve the pringá.
The sandwich
I was a little hesitant to write a full recipe for this sandwich. I felt that since it’s so traditional and because I’ve only made a batch of cocido and pringá once, I didn’t necessarily feel that I was the person who should be sharing it. But by the time I completed this dish and made 5+ versions of the sandwich I felt I had made enough changes to the instructions with tips that it was worth it to document the updates and tips I made in a recipe that is down below.
One of the main reasons I wanted to share my recipe is that there aren’t that many English-language recipes for this sandwich. Or at least I couldn’t find very many.
With cheese?
Since this sandwich is traditional, I hesitated to add anything that might alter the flavors or change the sandwich into something different. But since I’m an American sandwich blogger I figured I would have to try to add some cheese to at least one sandwich—or maybe two.
I did choose a traditional Spanish cheese and I added some sliced Manchego. Don’t tell anyone that this traditional Spanish cheese was made in America though. It’ll be our little secret!
Turns out that the cheese doesn’t add a ton to the sandwich. It’s sort of a mild cheese, with a dry and sharp finish which does cut some of the fattiness of the meat but flavorwise it gets a little lost.
Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the melty Manchego versions of this pringá sandwich, I just don’t think it was needed necessarily, but if you wanted to add some, it works great and the cheese gets melty during the sandwich searing/panini-ing process.
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Montadito de pringá
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This cocido and pringá sandwich recipe is based on this montadito de pringá recipe from TASTE. The recipe creates a very flavorful meat broth, tender seasoned garbanzo beans, and a big pile of savory meat that can be used to build a delicious sandwich. See the recipe notes for how to use the broth and beans.
Ingredients:
Cocido broth- 1 pound dried garbanzo beans
- 2 pounds pork roast or pork shoulder
- 1 pound beef shank or beef roast
- 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- 3⁄4 pound salt pork or pork belly
- water to cover all the meat in a large pot
- 6 ounces fresh blood sausage or morcilla
- 6 ounces fresh chorizo sausage
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 1 ciabatta roll, sliced
- 3⁄4 to 1 cup pringá meat (from above)
- 1 to 2 slices of Manchego cheese (optional - provolone or muenster cheese will work as well)
Directions:
Soak garbanzo beans in a bowl full of water overnight or at least 8 hours.
Add the pork roast, beef, chicken thighs, and salt pork to a large pot over medium-high heat. Cover all the meat with water so that everything is just submerged. Bring everything to a boil.
During the first few minutes of boiling, using a spoon, skim off as much foam on the surface as you can. This will help with the clarity and color of your broth.
After 5 or 10 minutes of boiling and skimming, add 1 pound of garbanzo beans and 2 tablespoons of salt. Reduce the heat under the pot to a little bit above medium and place a lid on the pot but leave the lid slightly ajar so that some steam can be released.
Allow the meat and liquid to boil for 1.5 hours with the lid slightly cracked.
After 1.5 hours remove the pot lid and check the level of the water. If it is below the top of the meat, you can add a cup or two of water to make sure that everything stays submerged. If you add water, allow the liquid to start boiling again, and then add the blood sausage and fresh chorizo.
Boil for another 30 minutes with the lid slightly cracked open.
At this point, 2 hours should have elapsed, and the meat should be very tender. Take the pot off the heat and turn off the burner. Remove all the meat to 1 bowl to cool and remove the garbanzo beans to a second bowl. The garbanzo beans can be used with the broth later to create a soup. They will not be used in the making of the sandwich, but they can also be served on their own as a delicious side dish.
The bowl full of meat is the pringá and it will be used in the sandwich. You can save some of the meat to put back in the broth for soup if desired.
Once the meat has cooled enough that you can manipulate it with your hands, start removing the meat from the bones and cartilage. Be fairly thorough making sure you do not miss any small bones.
When the meat has been fully deboned, shred the chicken, beef, and pork roast into small pieces. Chop up the salt pork, remove the casings from the sausages, and chop the sausage meat if it's not falling apart already. Run your knife through all the meat to get it into small pieces.
Sandwich assembly: in a medium-sized skillet over medium heat add around 3/4 to 1 cup of meat mixture and cook it until the meat gets hot and starts to crisp up. Remove the meat to a small plate and wipe out the pan to use in the next step.
Slice your roll and add a teaspoon or so of olive oil to the bottom of the roll. Top the olive oil with a big pile of warm pringá meat.
Add slices of cheese if using and then close the top on the sandwich.
Add a teaspoon of olive oil to the still-hot pan and add the completed sandwich on top of the oil. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes and then flip the sandwich over, toasting the top of the roll for another 2 to 3 minutes or until the roll has browned and crisped up.
Serve the pringá while the roll and meat are hot.
Notes:
Once you have fully boiled the meat you will have three things: the broth, cooked garbanzo beans, and a lot of meat.
Broth: You use the broth or cocido to create a soup. This is a very loose instruction on how to make a soup from the cocido. When it's 20 or 30 minutes before you want soup, put 1.5 to 2 cups per person you are serving in a pot on the stove. Bring the broth to a boil and then you can add vegetables like bite-sized pieces of potato or carrot. Boil these in with the broth for 15 to 20 minutes. Check the potatoes for tenderness with a knife to make sure they are soft. Once they are soft the soup is almost ready. Add about a 1/4 cup of cooked garbanzo beans per person and a small handful of meat per person. Cook for another 4 or 5 minutes until everything is warmed through and serve.
Garbanzo beans: the traditional use is in the soup described above. But you can serve these beans as a side dish, or you can place them on a sheet pan in a 425 F oven for 20 to 30 minutes until they become golden brown and crispy to serve as a snack.
Meat: You can reserve some of the meat (before chopping it all together), cut it into bite-sized pieces, and reserve it for garnish in the soup. You can also freeze this meat in zip-top freezer bags for up to 3 months. Just allow it to thaw and warm the meat up in a skillet for another future sandwich.
See you next week!
Next week we might be getting cheesy. But we’ll definitely be getting sandwichy.
