These days, on the streets of many Spanish-speaking cities, the linguistic landscape (that is, the “set of material realizations of the language that we see in writing in signs displayed in a given public environment” in the words of philologist Lola Pons) displays signage, especially located in pastry shops and cafes, that encourages the purchase or preparation and tasting of traditional sweets such as fried milk, hornazos, fried flowers and roscos, pestiños and the classic torrijas.
Precisely, we focus here on the terms pestiño (from the Latin PISTUS, ‘mashed, beaten’) and torrija (to roast), whose variants prestiño and torreja have been documented since the late 19th century. On the one hand, prestiño is already included by Elio Antonio de Nebrija in his Latin-Spanish Dictionary (1492) –“Zurunda, æ, for prestiño de masa”–. On the other hand, the torreja form is recorded in the Cancionero (1496) by Juan del Encina, when alluding, in a pastoral song, to the importance of this food in the recovery of parturients:
In new songs
enjoy your ears,
honey and many eggs
to make torrejas:
although without pain
The Redeemer gave birth.
We will have to wait a century to find the word torrija in lexicographic coding, specifically in the bilingual dictionary – the first to be published with the Spanish-English address – contained in the Bibliotheca hispánica (1591) by Richard Percyvall. In the case of pestiño, this variant was not documented until the beginning of the 19th century in the Dictionary of the Castilian Language published in 1803 by the Royal Spanish Academy.
These delicious preparations have been the subject of printed recipe books since the Golden Age. For example, in the Libro del arte de cozina (1607), by Domingo Hernández de Maceras, it is indicated:
“And then take and make the torrija, and have your dough kneaded with butter, and eggs, and white wine and sugar, and the dough must be very fine.”
The Art of Cooking (1611) by Martínez Montiño, cook of Philip III and Philip IV, stands out, which served to illustrate the culinary terms included in the first academic repertoire, the Dictionary of Authorities (1726-39):
“PRESTINOS. s. m. A certain type of pan-fried fruit, which is made from dough of flour, eggs and cinnamon, from which rolls made of pine nuts are formed, which are fried in butter or oil, and then highly foamed honey is added, and set very carefully, and little piles are formed in the shape of pine cones or other things. Latin. Tragemmata. MOUNTAIN. Cooking Art. F. 97. Throw the prestigos into it, and turn them around.”
In addition, torrija and prestiño are documented in samples of golden literature (from the 16th and 17th centuries) such as in La Lozana andaluza (1528):
“I knew how to make (…) prestiños, alfaxor doughnuts.”
And in La Pícara Justina (1605):
“Ask mom if she wants me to saddle her with honey and eggs, some French toast, and do the other midwifery duties for her. But how did her mother not scream when she gave birth to such a big daughter?
In the 18th century, both the famous compendium Art of pastry (1747) by Juan de la Mata, chief pastry chef of Kings Philip V and Ferdinand VI, highly influenced by the French and Italian gastronomic schools, and the New art of cooking ( 1758) by Juan de Altamiras, a Franciscan friar, cook of an Aragonese convent who prioritized the most traditional and austere preparations aimed at the popular classes.
Curiously, neither of the two recipe books, of such different nature, address the sweets that we study here. But they are usually recorded in the lexicographic repertoires published throughout this century, both monolingual and bilingual, among which we highlight the New Dictionary of the Spanish and French Languages ??(1705) by Francisco Sobrino, for the definition it provides of torreja, where its restorative nature after childbirth is alluded to again:
“Torreja. f. Rebanada of pan frita and with honey that dan a las mujeres paridas en España. _Slice of bread fried in a pan and then dipped in honey that we give in Spain to women who are giving birth.”_
Already in the 19th century, pestiño and torrija continued to be codified in the lexicographic tradition of Spanish and, in addition, were included in a key specialty repertoire in the history of gastronomy, the Diccionario de cocina (1892) by Ángel Muro, a renowned gastronome and director of one of the first cooking schools created in Barcelona.
Pestiño. A certain frying pan fruit that is made up of very fine flour, kneaded with eggs and cut into small pieces. It is fried with oil, and after it is well toasted, it is bathed with clarified honey and risen.
Torrija. Slice of bread soaked in melted butter, milk, wine or other liquor, coated with beaten eggs and fried in butter or oil. It is also made with other ingredients and takes its name from the main one.
Likewise, these terms proliferate in the nineteenth-century press, especially during Holy Week, as witnessed, for example, in the sales section of the Diario de Madrid (March 10, 1839):
“On Hortaleza Street num. 1st, Astrearena’s house, a fried dough office has been established in the style of Andalusia, and they are the following: roses, pestiños for having chocolate, and large and small Polvorón cakes; Slices of fried fish with batter or called cod are also served in this establishment. Andalusian pickle. The people who like to come to honor him will be served as they deserve.”
In addition to the variants prestiño – now out of use – and torreja – documented in the Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Aragón, Navarra and Rioja (1980), specifically in Vizcaya, Logroño and Navarra, as well as in the Dictionary of Americanisms of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language with different meanings similar to those of torrija –, the word pristiño is recorded: “in Ecuador, a fried dessert of flour and eggs that is served with honey.”
Let us, therefore, delight our palates with these tasty sweets in the coming days, without falling into other dangers to which the words studied point, namely, sharing a table and tablecloth with a “heavy, annoying or boring person” – colloquial meaning of pestiño – or that, after ingesting them, we feel “drowsy or lazy” or a certain “drunkenness”, if we accompany them with some liquor – documented meanings of torrija, especially in Andalusia–.
