On the windswept plateau where Madrid is perched, it's too dry to raise cattle and most crops. So pork has long been a mainstay, from jamn ibrico and charcuterie tapas to stews of pigs' ears and entrails.
But when locals want a really special treat, they go for an entire piglet roasted whole — head, hooves and all — on an oak wood fire.
Cochinillo asado, or roast suckling pig, is part of a tradition of farm-to-table eating that's appeared in literature, from Cervantes to Hemingway, for centuries. The pigs have typically been raised on family farms in the Spanish provinces within about 100 miles from Madrid.
They're fed only their mothers' milk and slaughtered at 4 to 5 weeks before being transported to restaurants in the capital. In olden days, that was at least a day's ride on horseback. Now it takes a couple hours by truck.
"A baby piglet is very delicate. Any bacteria or parasite could hurt them," says Victor Manuel, whose family runs Carnicas Tejedor, a cochinillo distribution company outside of Madrid. "The newborns ... haven't built up any natural defenses, and drink only their mothers' milk — we don't give them any vitamins or artificial hormones."
The piglets are slaughtered when they still weigh less than 10 pounds. One cochinillo usually feeds four people.
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