Hornazo () is a Spanish

meat pie A meat pie is a pie with a filling of meat and often with other savory ingredients. They are found in cuisines worldwide. Meat pies are usually baked, fried, or deep fried to brown them and develop the flavour through the Maillard reaction. M ...

eaten in the provinces of

Salamanca Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Herit ...

and

Ávila Ávila (, , ) is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Ávila. It lies on the right bank of the Adaja river. Located more than 1,130 m ab ...

. It is made with flour and yeast and stuffed with

pork loin File:British Pork Cuts.svg, 250px, British cuts of pork poly 187 219 187 194 173 196 Trotters poly 372 226 373 207 361 204 359 216 Trotters poly 171 141 166 104 287 117 294 152 Belly poly 167 102 178 27 315 23 274 102 Loin poly 361 201 371 18 ...

, spicy

chorizo Chorizo (, from Spanish ; similar to but distinct from Portuguese ) is a type of pork cured meat originating from the Iberian Peninsula. In Europe, chorizo is a fermented, cured, smoked meat, which may be sliced and eaten without cooking, ...

, and hard-boiled eggs. In Salamanca, it is traditionally eaten in the field during the "Monday of the Waters" ('' Lunes de aguas'') festival. The name of this unique festival supposedly comes from a twisting of the word '' enagua'' ("

petticoat A petticoat or underskirt is an article of clothing, a type of undergarment worn under a skirt or a dress. Its precise meaning varies over centuries and between countries. According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', in current British En ...

"), which the prostitutes of the town used to wear under their dresses. According to tradition, during

Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Jesus, temptation by Satan, according ...

the prostitutes were sent to the other side of the Tormes River so that the men of the town were not distracted during the religious observances. On

Easter Monday Easter Monday refers to the day after Easter Sunday in either the Eastern or Western Christian traditions. It is a public holiday in some countries. It is the second day of Eastertide. In Western Christianity, it marks the second day of the ...

, the students of the town threw a party on the banks of the river to celebrate the return of the women, and ate hornazo as part of the celebration.

Hornazo in other parts of Spain

In other places in the country there are dishes similar to hornazo that contain hard-boiled

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

as a primary ingredient. In some parts of Spain a ''bollo de hornazo'' is a sweet and dry bread which is decorated with hard-boiled eggs. These dishes are also traditionally consumed in and around

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samue ...

. This may be because long ago, eggs were considered a sort of meat, and were therefore prohibited during Lent, a fact that did not stop the chickens from laying eggs. The eggs were preserved by hard-boiling them, and then used for cooking in dishes like hornazo. From this tradition it is probable that Easter eggs came into being, but their exact origins are unknown.

References

This is a translation from an article at the Spanish Wikipedia Hornazo at Wikipedia-es {{Commons category Castilian-Leonese cuisine Savoury pies Easter bread Spanish breads

Hornazo in other parts of Spain

See also

References