Olla podrida is a Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 stew

Stew

A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables , meat, especially tougher meats suitable for slow-cooking, such as beef. Poultry, sausages, and seafood are also used...

 made from pork and beans

Pork and beans

Pork and beans is a culinary dish that uses pork and beans as its main ingredients. Numerous variations exist from Fabada Asturiana to Olla podrida to American canned pork and beans.-American canned pork and beans:...

 and an inconsistent, wide variety of other meats and vegetables, often including chickpeas, depending on the recipe used. The meal is traditionally prepared in a clay pot over several hours. It is eaten as a main course, sometimes as a single dish, and sometimes with ingredients separated (i.e., meats from the rest, or liquids from solids). Is a specialty of the town of Burgos

Burgos

Burgos is a city of northern Spain, historic capital of Castile. It is situated at the edge of the central plateau, with about 178,966 inhabitants in the city proper and another 20,000 in its suburbs. It is the capital of the province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León...

.

History

Olla podrida is a popular dish. The name, as currently written, translates literally to "rotten pot". This etymology is sustained by a footnote to a 1849 edition of Don Quixote signed by "Arr[ieta]" (credited as numerary member of the Real Academia

Real Academia Española

The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...

 in the front page) stating:

"[...] it makes a stock as full of substance as aromatic, and maybe because of that it was ironically called 'olla podrida'. It could be named so, Covarrubias

Sebastián de Covarrubias

Sebastián de Covarrubias was a Spanish lexicographer, cryptographer, chaplain and writer. He wrote Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española....

 says, as long as it is so slowly cooked that what is inside almost melts and results like fruit after too much ripening."

Another etymology, generally accepted, is that the name of the dish comes from olla poderida, referred to the "powerfulness" of the ingredients. The e was eventually dropped in the evolution of the language. The dictionary of the Spanish Real Academia Autoridades of 1737 supports this theory, in page 34, column 2:

"Covarr[ubias] gives its etymology and, citing Andreas Bacio, says that 'podrida' is the same as 'poderida' or 'poderosa'. Lat[in] 'Ollaris farrago' [...]".

In Don Quixote (Part II published in 1615), Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...

 has the simple-minded and exceedingly droll Sancho Panza

Sancho Panza

Sancho Panza is a fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote, and provides comments throughout the novel, known as sanchismos, that are a combination of broad humour, ironic Spanish proverbs,...

, who is said to be neither a glutton nor a drunkard, say these words:

"This plate that is steaming in front of me appears to me to be olla podrida, because of the diversity of ingredients that there are in some ollas podridas, I won't be able to stop running into some that is to me of taste and benefit..."

On 5 April 1669, English diarist Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...

 wrote about having dined an olio or olla podrida, which he apparently enjoyed a lot:

To the Mulberry garden, where Sheres is to treat us with a Spanish Olio by a cook of his acquaintance that is there, that was with my Lord in Spain: and without any other company, he did do it, and mighty nobly; and the Olio was indeed a noble dish, such as I never saw better, or any more of

The dish was even popular enough in 17th century England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

to appear in Robert May's Accomplish't Cook, published in 1660.