First, most likely my English is worse than your Spanish, so I start apologising; hope it will be at least understandable! And second, I'm afraid I won't help you very much with the "olla podrida-etymology" issue. My edition of the article was only a reversion: somebody wrote that the "olla podrida" was la madre de todos los cocidos ("the mother of all the meat stews"), a rather POV statement, and also a misleading one, for it is widely known that the jew meat-stews cooked for the Shabbat (The Adafina of Sefarad, the Cholent of Ashkenazis) are closer to be regarded as "the mother of all..." (at least in Spain). The etymology edition was after mine, and written by an IP-anonymous contributor. In fact, I used to be a blind believer of the theory of "olla poderida = olla poderosa, fuerte", just because it is proposed once and again in cook books and press articles. Intrigued about the issue, I have searched a little, finding this footnote to the always-quoted reference in El Quijote. As you can see (your Spanish is very good), according to the editors of this Quijote (Royal Academy members), who themselves refer to the Covarrubias dictionary (a really authoritative source), "podrida" is used with its normal meaning, rotten or corrupt, and the reason is that the olla podrida se cuece muy despacio, que casi lo que tiene dentro viene a deshacerse y quedar como la fruta que se madura demasiado (everything inside the pot is cooked so slowly that it tends to go to very small pieces, to dissolve, just like the rotten fruit). Vivero (talk) 17:12, 5 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the note at my page, X. Reverted? Yes, that's the wikiway! For better or (very often) for worse. Well done, anyway.

– Noetica^♬♩ Talk 02:01, 6 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sooo sorry! Maybe I was wrong when dismissing the etymology "podrido=poderido=poderoso". If you consult old RAE dictionaries, you will find that this etymology is proposed at least since 1737. Covarrubias Tesoro de la Lengua Castellana is quoted as a source (so I was completely wrong), but the final reference is Andreas Bacio, a Roman physician who travelled through and wrote about Spain. This book, in English (Travels through Spain by John Talbot Dillon, 1781, page 455), is also a very old reference. So, could be a fake etymology, but it is a very old one, with good refs! Vivero (talk) 19:55, 12 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]