After almost two weeks in which the magic of Christmas has taken hold of us, the most special holidays of the year are coming to an end; and they do it with a flourish like few others, the arrival of their majesties the wise men Eastern. And with them, a delicacy like roscón, which has become a tradition established in a large part of Spanish households, which mainly on January 5 and 6 eat, have breakfast and even dinner (sometimes) this delicious sweet that makes us start the year with a very good flavor of mouth.
A gastronomic pleasure in the shape of a torus that has always accompanied us and that every time it has more variants. Without filling or with cream, truffle, chocolate, cream or even nougat, with or without candied fruit, with that unmistakable touch of anise … a piece of roscón, a hot chocolate and good company. You can’t ask for more at the end of Christmas.
But,Do you know what the origin of the roscón is or what were the ingredients of this delicious bun at its origin?
This sweet that we inevitably associate with Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar has its origin in a pagan festival, like many of the religious celebrations that it has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus or the arrival of their majesties in Bethlehem. It is necessary to go into history, until the second century BC, in which in the middle of the In the month of December, “the Saturnalia” were celebrated, festivals in which the Romans paid homage to Saturn. – god of agriculture and crops – and celebrated the end of the agrarian season.
For this celebration a honey-based cake was prepared, with figs, dates and dried fruitsThe making of this cake was carried out year after year, until it became the most popular sweet of “the slave festival”, as this celebration was colloquially called. Later the bean would be added, as a symbol of fertility and good fortune for the one who will find it in his portion.
With the imposition of Christianity in the Roman Empire, the pagan festivals began to disappear. Those that managed to last, such as the cake with the bean, were transformed and evolved, acquiring the shape of the current roscón de reyes.
From here you jump to the eighteenth century, in which a cook who sought to please the little King Louis XV, introduced a gold coin. The currency from this moment was popularized above the bean. In Spain, it was Felipe V who brought the fashion of inserting a coin into the roscón, which over the years would become a ceramic figure, and would give a negative connotation to the bean.
The original recipe did not contain frosted fruit.a, it was a dry bun dusted with sugar. The use of cream in roscón became popular in the 60s. Now it is the favorite in Spain, at least 80% of the roscones consumed at this time are of this variety, more than 28 million a year.
The Spanish exported the roscón de reyes to the Ibero-American countries, being especially popular in Mexico and Colombia. There are also versions of this dessert in other European countries, which are eaten on similar dates.
www.informacion.es
Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.