Written by Juan Llantada Sacramento.

To eat well in Morella is to travel back in time towards ancient flavours. It is to recognise the labour of cooks and farmers who wisely through the years have kept products, and to admire the savoir faire of the housewives with their stews and cooking traditions which are the heritage of a community. The cooking in this land is a reflection of the humbleness of its people and of the charm of the ground; it is a product of the richness of its landscapes and of the history of human beings, as well as a reflection of the slow motion of time and nature.

The Maestrat represents a unique historical land in Spain. An early ground which was dwelt by shepherds, farmers, knights and warriors who led their prints in caves and terraces, in palaces and castles, in legends and traditions and in the way the people of this land feed.

The footprints and fossils of dinosaurs, the prehistoric cave paintings catalogued by the UNESCO as "Human Heritage," as well as the stony engravings found in the area tell us about the age of this region. The land here is spattered with the remainings of the Iberian culture and its pottery, with the stony architecture of huts which raise on the bare soil made with the hands of shepherds and with old traditions. Romanic and Gothic architecture shapes villages. In the mountains, the farms are arranged by "Denes" which make up the landscape and the relations among people.

The present cooking in The Maestrat is the reflection of what happened in the past and as a consequence, it is arranged according to calendar because it is based on fresh products of first quality. The menus of this region will always be prepared with simple but experienced recipes, cooked with the respect which deserve the delicious raw ingredients, and adapted to the land after the pass of time. The dishes of the area are wisely combined by human beings in their daily routine and are based on the fighting for survival of our ancestors. All these factors have given birth to thorough recipes of great influence in the region.

People from Els Ports are demanding with flavours. Delicious stews made up with broths or hotpots with a strong country taste make us travel to ancient savours and help us to overcome the cold local winter. In our dishes, meat coming from hunting mingles with tender beef sometimes, and others the wide range of pork products, that since Iberian times are among us, are prepared with olive oil from The Maestrat. This oil was famous in the ancient Roman culture and it still keeps its importance nowadays.

The soil is good for the growing of many kinds of mushrooms during all the year, and they are represented in our cuisine by Sant Jordi mushrooms (tricholoma georgii), múrgola (morchella esculenta), carabassa (boletus edulis), rovelló (lactarius deliciosus), clavària (ramaria àuria) or gírgola (pleurotus eryngii) among other local varieties. Snails picked up in the mountains or in the orchards are a typical ingredient for stews or they can even be eaten as a "tapa." It is also very representative the variety of aromatic Mediterranean herbs, among which we could mention rosemary, thyme, basil, sage, lavender, camomile and others that are used in the preparation of stews and meats as well as in infusions as Shepherd's tea and herbs liquors which are very famous for its medicinal properties in this land.

But, without any doubt, truffles are the star product in the modern cuisine of the area, although they were already appreciated by Egyptian, Greeks, Romans and probably Iberians. Among the different varieties of truffles, the Black Truffle (Tuber Melanosporum) stands out against the rest, although we find other types with less gastronomic value such as tuber estivium or tuber nigrum. The production of truffles is commercialised in distinct areas of Spain arriving up to France and it is served in the most select restaurants. Cooks from Els Ports use truffles to enrich their dishes such as stuffed meats like rabbit or hen ones, scrambled eggs and mushrooms. The period for its harvest goes from November until March, although we can find them canned or in truffled oils during all the year. In local shops, it is easy to acquire these products. Find them and you will get surprised by their flavour!

A special attention should be paid to lamb meat and pork products due to its savour and character. The first one has a peculiar taste which is a result of the healthy and abundant pastures of the mountains. Crystalline water and aromatic herbs cover the valleys and hills where lambs roam freely through historical paths, so we can perceive this context as much in a dish of plain lamb chops as in a more sophisticated stew. Two examples of elaborated dishes are truffled beef or "tombet" which is prepared patiently in a simple clay pot with lamb, rabbit, country chicken, garlic and olive oil.

We use every piece of pork to make delicious products as our cold meats, among which we highlight the tasty hams and loins cured thanks to the cold winds of the area. "Frito" is also very popular. This is a dish that is prepared with fried pork pieces like chops, sausages and loin which are finally kept canned in olive oil. The "cecina" (cured beef) and spiced sausages as "xoriços" and "salsitxons" are also derived products which are known thanks to their peculiar flavour and taste.

The "olla de pastor" (shepherd's pot) is a delicious stew coming from the living history of the shepherds who even nowadays dwell in the country houses of the area, many of them rural tourist houses. This stew is a kind of broth or soup with legumes which in its different versions takes also meats and vegetables of the country. Once it is made and the broth has been separated, we elaborate the delicious Morellan croquettes with the meat coming from the broth, truffles, foie grass, and finally we shape them with wafers.

Another of the pillars of the Mediterranean diet is olive oil. Maestrazgo's olive oil is appreciated among these juices from The Comunitat Valenciana because it comes from thousand-year-old trees adapted to the soil. Farmers take care of olive trees and its fruits while they become members of the cooperatives of the area. This effort gives as a result first-quality virgin olive oils of soft flavour. These olive oils belong to the group of sweet oils without bitterness or itch with a remaining taste of almonds, another of the trees that gets mixed up in territory with olive trees. They are fluid, sweet oils which become very pleasant in the mouth with flavours that remember the smell of different varieties of olive trees such as farga, arbequina, blanqueta, empeltre and royal.

We would also like to mention the gastronomic products coming from this fruit as pâtés, made up with black olives of the area, as well as with anchovy flavoured olives, Aragon's ones, etc.You can find these products in the shops and in the stands selling olives during the "mercat del diumenge" (Sunday Street Market.) Olive tree and box woods are also used to make handicrafts as cooking spoons or forks. Dairy products coming from cows, goats and sheep milks are of high quality. Morellan cheeses are produced in a traditional way, using medieval moulds which provide them a peculiar shape that makes them recognizable in the local markets. Gastronomic tourists can also find other dairy products as cured and semi-cured cheeses, curdled milk or curd cheese. Goat and sheep cheeses are very famous too. This last one, sheep cheese, was already praised by our distinguished writer Cervantes in his worldly known book Don Quixote. Every kind of cheese has a different taste, texture and flavour in itself that makes it unique among the cheeses of the country.

Another dairy product of prestige among gourmets is "collà"; that is sheep milk curdled by pistils taken from artichoke flowers. According to an old tradition of the Mediterranean shepherds, "collà" should be curled with vegetable rennet, differently from the northern custom of using animal curdling products; this fact provides an exceptional taste to "collà." "Brull" (curd cheese) is also important, and together with almonds are the main ingredients of the "Flaó de Morella." "Flaó" is a kind of sweet pie stuffed with curd cheese, almonds and sugar which along with truffles has become the gastronomic icon of the city. Almond trees are of ancient tradition in this land since they appear in some prehistoric paintings as well as another product of high importance in the area, honey. Almond and honey are the base for local pastries which mix these ingredients with the philosophy and cooking traditions of Jews, Christians and Arabs. Flaons, carquinyols, pinyonades, coquetes, mantecats, coc amb mel and panoli are only some of the pastries that are prepared in the bakeries having ovens which cook using wood as it was the tradition of ancient recipes.

Finally we would like to talk about bread, since loaves of bread reflect the skill of bakers in our land. At dawn, bakers start to prepare bread with quality flour and yeast, letting the dough stand and baking it with rough holm oak. In that way the followers of the Mediterranean Diet can eat crusty hot bread quite early in the morning. Many kinds of bread such as fogasses, rosques or coques are typical in the area and you should take them home together with the olive oil and cold meats of this land. You will not be disappointed and you will remember old flavours too. We recommend you to visit the medieval bakery oven in Forcall dating from the 12th centrury and still working!