Proverbs, like all oral traditions, have always been a good way to preserve ancient customs and ways of doing things — including in the kitchen. That’s why today’s cooks still know, for example, that “a good hulled corn must be well porked.” In other words, the dish should be accompanied by plenty of pork: snout, ear, tail, ham, bacon, lard... Blat de moro escairat (hulled corn) is one of the most typical agricultural products of the Berguedà region. It began to be cultivated there about three hundred years ago, and to this day, it remains one of the key ingredients in escudella, a traditional stew made in many homes and restaurants. It is also used in soups, as a substitute for pasta or rice, and in tasty salads. The corn’s characteristic white color and its popular name come from the escairat milling process, during which the husk is removed. It is a unique variety, preserved through special cultivation methods that ensure its continuity.

If that corn is white, then dark is the legume used in another local dish: black peas with bacon, a simple yet highly flavorful and aromatic recipe. Grown almost exclusively in the region and sold in grain warehouses and specialty shops, this legume — also known as mountain pea — takes on its characteristic dark brown color once dried.

Also from the heights are the “patates emmascarades” (“masked potatoes”), made with a tuber cultivated in the Gósol and Saldes area, near the Pedraforca mountain. The potatoes are darkened, or “masked,” by mixing them with cooked blood or botifarra negra (black pudding), the other key ingredients of the dish.

Still on the subject of the delicious tubers that grow in the highlands, we must highlight the highly prized Peguera potato, also known as the Estatut potato — a name with patriotic overtones that pairs perfectly with a symbolic Catalan landmark located nearby: the Pi de les Tres Branques (Three-Branched Pine) in Castellar del Riu.

Deeply rooted in Berguedà — like a tree, or like the Catalan guarans (traditional peasants) — is a culinary specialty made from mashed potatoes mixed with cabbage and pork cracklings: trinxat. A local saying from Alt Berguedà gives the dish three different names depending on the town: “Trumfus i col a Bagà, trinxat a la Pobla i cànem i llana a Castellar” (“Potatoes and cabbage in Bagà, trinxat in la Pobla, and hemp and wool in Castellar”). And since these are mushroom-rich lands, some people even replace the cabbage with wild mushrooms — a delicious variation, to say the least.