Is it better to prepare paella with water from Valencia?
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According to legend, when a Valencian wants to successfully replicate the paella recipe outside the region, he takes a bottle of tap water from Valencia with him, as it is said that the hardness of the water from Valencia favours the texture and tenderness of the rice. However, there is little truth in this claim.
It is also true that trying to replicate the way a paella is cooked in any town outside the Valencian Community is doomed to failure. But the reason for this is not because it can only be cooked with water from Valencia, but because it will be necessary to adapt the cooking time to the conditions of the new location.
The perfect combination between the amount of water, the amount of rice and the cooking time for each variety of rice is the most important thing, bearing in mind that, at the end of cooking, the rice must be completely dry.
However, factors such as the height above sea level or the hardness of the water have a direct influence on the cooking times. In fact, these factors, and especially the height above sea level or the pressure, influence the boiling temperature of the water.
Therefore, the higher the altitude above sea level, the lower the atmospheric pressure, and this means that the boiling point of the water will consequently decrease, which will require a longer cooking time and a proportion of water and rice adapted to this variation in order to leave the grain at the right temperature.
The paella masters control the point of the rice, and therefore, the amount of broth and cooking time needed, very measured in their land. However, in other places it will be necessary to resort to the trial and error method to reach the same point of the rice. In conclusion, it is not true that a good paella must be cooked with water from Valencia. It will simply be necessary to adapt the cooking times and the ratio of water and rice to the new conditions.
In PaellandCo you will not have to worry about the type of water, because we offer you prepared broths to be able to cook this delicious recipe as an authentic Valencian paella to the point as the great paelleros do.
