Cocido madrileño served in three courses

The day before, rinse the chickpeas and cover generously with cold water in a large container. Soak for about 12 h in the refrigerator, then discard the soaking water and drain thoroughly.

Peel the carrots, onion and turnip. Check the sawn bones for fragments and rinse them. Put beef, hen, pork belly, ham and marrow bones in a large stockpot and add all the measured water. Use an approximately ten-litre pot. Bring slowly to the boil and skim, allowing about 20 min. Add the drained chickpeas and 5 g salt. Once boiling resumes, add carrots, onion and turnip whole or in large pieces.

Simmer very gently with the lid ajar for about 200 min until chickpeas and meats are tender. Extend if necessary. Watch the level to avoid heavy evaporation. If vegetables soften before the meats, lift them out and keep covered with a little of the broth. Peel the potatoes and halve them. Add them about 20 min before the end. Complete the next two steps during the last hour of this simmering time.

Remove damaged leaves and the cabbage core and wash it. Shred it. Peel the garlic and chop it. Cook for about 30 min in a saucepan of simmering water, then drain. Sauté for about 5 min in 20 ml oil with 4 g chopped garlic and 2 g salt. In another saucepan, cover the raw chorizo and already cooked morcilla with water and simmer for about 30 min. Check the sausages reach 75 °C at the centre for 30 s and extend if necessary. Drain. Neither of these baths joins the main broth.

Crack the eggs into a bowl, beat them and weigh the stated amount without shells. Wash, dry and chop the parsley. Mix beaten egg, breadcrumbs, chopped parsley, 8 g chopped garlic and 1 g salt. Use two spoons to shape small flattened dumplings about 1 cm thick. Heat the remaining 60 ml oil in a small skillet suited to the number of pieces. Fry for about 3 min per side until golden and set in the centre, in batches if necessary. Drain on absorbent paper. Do not pour residual frying oil into the soup.

When meats, chickpeas and potatoes are tender, lift them out with the vegetables. Bone the hen and check carefully for small bones. Cut the meats and remove bones after retrieving their marrow. Strain the broth through a fine sieve, retaining all the liquid in the pot. Simmer the rellenos in it for about 3 min, then move them to the chickpeas and vegetables. Keep each group covered and hot with broth taken from this same pot.

Transfer about a quarter of the resulting broth to a saucepan and cook the vermicelli in it for about 5 min, or according to the packet, without draining. Serve this soup first. Next present chickpeas, potatoes, carrots, turnip, cabbage and rellenos with some reserved broth. Finally serve the meats, ham, sliced chorizo and morcilla and recovered marrow, accompanied by the remaining hot broth. Divide the cooked onion among the vegetables rather than discard it.