Okay, breading a couple of fillets with ham and cheese inside doesn't sound very original. But in Asturias, they've turned it into slow food, into a pleasure, into something renowned and with its own unique character. That's why it has imitators and detractors alike. Envy, you ask… It's true that size used to be more important, with cachopos the size of bedsheets that weighed several kilos. And although there are still big ones (what a massive cachopo!), in Asturias they've specialized and refined them, exploring all the possibilities of a product that still has a long way to go.
Few words are needed to describe it: "How rich he is", "the best in the world". If we have to define it without passion, we already use a few more words: «it has beef steak, serrano ham, cheese, rallao bread, potatoes and a pepper, it is chewed well».
It's said to have become popular worldwide because it's a budget-friendly option, a hearty and economical dish . But we shouldn't dismiss it as mere food. Nothing could be further from the truth. A good cachopo is a feast for the senses and, in some cases, a haute cuisine dish. It's also a great conversation starter, almost a way of life for some. Cachopo is about friendship. People love to talk about who ate it here or there . Fans of the dish, and there are many, travel around Asturias eating cachopos, comparing versions, and writing their impressions on food blogs. They return to their favorites and claim that some even get better with time.
A cachopo is a cachopo
Making a proper cachopo isn't easy, even if it seems that way . Several mistakes can go wrong, such as frying it in oil at a low temperature and ending up floating in greasy liquid, or it turning out as hard as a rock. It might not taste like meat, or ham, or cheese. Or one ingredient might be too strong, overpowering the others. Finding the right balance, the perfect proportions , is what expert cachopo makers strive for, and it's a skill that's also useful for those new to the dish.
The Asturian cachopo and its variants
So far we've seen the typical cachopo, the classic, the most popular one, the one you can find throughout Asturias, with varying degrees of success. But cachopo can be made with different ingredients and side dishes , some even more traditional and flavorful than those included in the standard cachopo we've seen. Valid side dishes include mushrooms and peas . And if we want to respect the dish's historical character, instead of potatoes, nothing beats boiled or fried turnips . It can also be served with a sauce made from chicken and rabbit broth. The important thing is to keep it moist.
And what about the cheese? In Asturias, there are about fifty varieties, and simply changing the cheese gives you a completely different cachopo. Almost all cheeses will do : Cabrales, Gamoneu, Afuega'l pitu, cheeses from the two Peñamellera valleys, Varé, Oscos, Casín, Porrúa, Vidiago, Pría, La Peral, La Arquera, and so on. The important thing is that it melts and flows well and isn't cloying. Cheeses from outside Asturias are also fine, of course. Tetilla, Manchego, Provolone… In Extremadura, for example, a truly magnificent cachopo would be made with Montánchez ham and Torta del Casar cheese.
Cachopos recipe book
You could almost say that no two cachopos are alike, and their breaded coating, which holds the filling well, allows us to make them with beef , sirloin, horse meat, chosco de Tineo (a type of sausage), chicken, fish, or even wild boar . And vegetarians? Well, they can be topped with mushrooms, eggplant, or even zucchini.
The fillings can include asparagus, peppers, cured beef, mushrooms, blood sausage, apple… There are cachopos filled with crepes, octopus, chorizo, and even minced meat. There are cachopos with bacon and barbecue sauce. Italian-style cachopos are filled with York ham, mozzarella, fresh tomato, and oregano. And there are even more original ones… although there are also some truly bizarre ones, the kind that don't catch on because they're pretentious or simply badly prepared. It seems the only limit is imagination and culinary skill.
Cachopón, cachopo, cachopín
Size does matter. It depends on how many of us are eating . There are still giant ones, which come pre-cut to make sharing easier. You need a lot of friends to tackle them head-on.
The quality-price-size ratio is usually quite reasonable in all cases . Sometimes the price might seem high for a cachopo, but we don't take into account that ten people have eaten and that the waiter/waitress spent a while thinking about where to put the platter. It's possible the table was too small, of course. There's also a legend that some people in mining regions can eat such a monster and still be hungry. But those are rare cases.
In general there are three types of cachopo: small, medium or large. Sometimes the medium is requested and immediately we see that we have screwed up. Better would have been the great one. Sometimes the bigger one is asked for and the better it would have been the medium one, even the small one was enough. Normally, cahopines fit in the palm of your hand. It depends on the windlass or the restaurant. The cachopos are resistant to being standardized, it is their nature.
The important thing has already been said: that it cuts well with the knife, that it crunches a little, that the cheese bleeds, that it is so juicy that it hardly needs to be chewed and, above all, that it should be shared with other people to start a conversation and, incidentally, to be able to finish it.
Text: © Ramón Molleda for asturias.com
