Slow cooking has been centuries in the making. In fact, as long as there has been fire, people have been slowly roasting, simmering and smoking.

Many national dishes find their roots in slow cooking, which makes sense, given it was the only way to cook for many decades. The Polish bigos (hunters stew); Egyptian ful medames (slow-simmered fava beans) and Brazilian feijoada (bean-and-pork stew), all adopt a “low and slow” routine.

In Frank Camorra’s original Spanish cookbook, MoVida, the urban legend behind patatas a lo pobre – poor man’s potatoes – illustrates Spain’s affinity with slow cooking. “It is said that patatas a lo pobre take as long to cook as the time it takes for a farm wife to put the pot on the stove, walk the kilometre or so to the fields to tell the men that dinner is ready, and walk back. Based on peasant cooking, patatas a la pobre has a rich flavour with the earthiness of the potatoes, freshened with the capsicums and the fruitiness of olive oil.”

"Spanish food is based on a slower style of cooking, with rustic origins,” says the MoVida chef. "Everyone thinks the Spanish national dish is paella. It's not. It's actually cocido, and everyone from the south to the north cooks their own version.” The chickpea-based stew simmers away all day, barely bubbling, with jamón, pork belly and beef. “Many people cook cocido in a pressure cooker, so when you travel from town to town, at lunch time you can hear all the pressure cookers sizzling away.” The caldo is served first – a clear, rich stock; followed by the chickpeas, carrots and potatoes; finished with the meats.

Another defining characteristic of Spanish cuisine is soffrito, a base for many traditional dishes. “Generally, a soffrito is made with onions, garlic and bay leaves, as well as some new world flavours, such as tomatoes and capsicums, along with ham or sausage,” says Camorra. “But the one thing that ties them all together is the cooking method – low and slow, or low heat and slow cooking.”

“It’s an intuitive way of cooking,” insists Camorra. “They're the type of dishes which are hard to teach people; it's about knowing textures and flavours. It comes back to the basics of cooking. Give it a little bit of love and you end up with beautiful flavours.”

Food of peasants

The same rule applies across the border in French cuisine. Slow cooking “stems from the days of cooking with copper pots by open fires, using ingredients which are close to hand and, therefore, regional,” says Nick Creswick, chef and co-owner of Libertine in Melbourne.

“Slow cooking certainly has roots as peasant food – that’s where you get your regionality from,” says Creswick. “We might cook a cassoulet traditional to Toulouse, with duck and sausage, but in other places there’s lamb, even chicken.” And with 22 provincial regions shaping France, it’s no surprise that some national dishes have multiple adaptations. “I’ve always been a great believer that cooking is completely subjective. Who’s to say one way is wrong or right? As long as you don’t mess with the produce until the flavours are unrecognisable.”

But when a cassoulet requires some ingredients to be prepped and left overnight and others left in the oven for four hours, why bother? “We don’t really pay homage to much tradition, so these types of dishes are a way to keep in touch with what’s gone before us,” believes Creswick.

According to French chef Raymond Blanc, “the quintessence of French family cuisine” is pot au feu. “It is the most celebrated dish in France. It honours the tables of the rich and poor alike.” Translating to ‘pot on the fire’, “a traditional pot au feu uses three different cuts of beef, cooked for over eight hours and served three different ways,” says Creswick. Firstly, “we serve the bone marrow on toast, followed by a soup and then the meat with vegetables as a main course.”

If you went around the world in search of national or traditional dishes, the common theme of slowly cooking meat (or protein) is hard to ignore. A hearty tagine served with couscous is traditional in Morocco, a slow-cooked osso bucco is popular in Italy, and a spicy stew is the national dish of Ethiopia. But, in our fast-paced society, many of these dishes are passed over in favour of quick, easy meals, which makes slow cooking key to keeping some of our national dishes alive.

Recipe

• Cassoulet