There is a dish on the coast of Cadiz that people eat with their fingers out of a paper cone, and its recipe is older than the refrigerator. In fact, the recipe exists precisely because the refrigerator did not. The vinegar, the salt and the spices were not flavour - they were how the fish survived until the next day.

The dish is marinated dogfish, a member of the shark family, cut into cubes, left in vinegar with garlic, cumin, oregano and paprika, then floured and fried. Locally they call it by a name that says everything: „bienmesabe” - literally, „it tastes good to me”.

Why vinegar, and not spices for flavour

Its origins trace back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in coastal Andalusia. Without refrigeration, fish was kept in vinegar and salt. Andalusian cooking added the cumin and oregano, and paprika arrived from the Americas. It is a recipe assembled out of necessity rather than an idea - and that is exactly why it still works today.

Dogfish has white, firm flesh and almost no bones, which makes it ideal for cutting into cubes. Its flavour is mild and slightly iodine-like, meaning it absorbs the intense marinade well without disappearing under it. Nutritionally it offers high-value protein, B vitamins, phosphorus and selenium, with a moderate fat content.

Where most people go wrong

There is one step everyone skips and one everyone gets wrong.

The skipped one: the marinade does not get rinsed off. Before flouring, the fish is drained - not washed. Rinse it and ten hours of marinating stay in the sink.

The wrong one: after frying, the fish goes on a rack, not on kitchen paper. Paper traps the steam under the piece and what was crisp turns soft in two minutes. A rack lets the steam fall away.

A recipe for four

You need: 300 g cleaned dogfish fillets, a teaspoon of ground garlic, a teaspoon of sweet paprika, a teaspoon of cumin seeds, a teaspoon of oregano, 50 ml white vinegar, two bay leaves, salt, 200 ml water, 250 g frying flour and about half a litre of mild olive oil.

The fish is cut into cubes of about two by two centimetres so it cooks evenly. In a bowl, mix the paprika, garlic, oregano, vinegar, crumbled bay leaves, a little salt and the water. Add the fish pieces, add water if needed so they are covered, and leave covered in the fridge for eight to ten hours.

Then the pieces are lifted out, drained and floured one by one. Shake them well over a sieve so the excess flour falls off - otherwise it forms lumps. Heat the oil well, to around 170 to 180 degrees, and fry the fish in small batches so the temperature does not drop. Once golden on all sides, lift it out and onto a rack. Serve hot, with mayonnaise or a garlic sauce.

Eight to twelve hours means the night before

The only real requirement of this dish is not skill, it is planning. The fish sits in the marinade for eight to twelve hours - which means the decision about lunch is made the previous evening. That is exactly the logic by which the things worth eating get made around here: nobody asks at eleven what will be eaten at one.