The universal calculator for authentic Cordoban salmorejo
Quick amount
Style
The traditional ratio: thick, creamy and balanced.
Your salmorejo for 1 kg
Ingredients
🍅Ripe tomato1 kg
🍞Day-old white bread200 g
🫒Extra virgin olive oil100 g
🧂Salt10 g
🧄Garlic1 small clove
Tip: start with little garlic. You can always add more; correcting too much usually means making more salmorejo.
🍽️Approximate servings: 4 starters or 3 generous mains.
✨Expected texture: creamy, thick and glossy.
🥚Classic garnish: chopped hard-boiled egg and Iberian ham.
Salmorejo Proportion Chart
Classic mode · For other styles, use the calculator above.
🍅 Ripe tomato
🍞 Day-old white bread
🫒 Extra virgin olive oil
🧂 Salt
🧄 Garlic
500 g
100 g
50 g
5 g
½ clove
750 g
150 g
75 g
7.5 g
1 small clove
1 kg
200 g
100 g
10 g
1 small clove
1.5 kg
300 g
150 g
15 g
1 large clove
2 kg
400 g
200 g
20 g
2 cloves
3 kg
600 g
300 g
30 g
About 1 clove per kg, adding little by little and tasting.
Bread: 20% of tomato · Olive oil: 10% · Salt: 1% · Garlic by amount
How to choose tomato, bread, olive oil, garlic and salt
Our calculator uses the traditional Cordoban recipe ratios: 1 kg of usable tomato, 200 g of bread, 100 g of EVOO, 10 g of salt, and a clove of garlic.
Which tomatoes to use
Use very ripe, fleshy tomatoes with real flavour; plum/Roma tomatoes or good vine-ripened tomatoes are the closest equivalents outside Spain. The weight means usable tomato: if the recipe says 1 kg, you need 1 kg left after trimming the core, skins and seeds.
How much bread
Use 20% of the tomato weight as the baseline. For a thicker bowl, increase gradually up to 23%.
How much olive oil
A balanced base uses 10% extra virgin olive oil. Add it in a thin stream so the cream turns glossy and emulsified.
How much garlic
Fresh garlic has real presence. For 1 kg, start with 1 small clove; if it is very strong, start with half and adjust at the end.
How much salt
A practical rule is 1% of the tomato weight. For 1 kg, use 10 g; for 500 g, use 5 g. Always taste before adding more.
Step-by-step Cordoban salmorejo recipe
Remove the core and blend the very ripe tomato on its own using a semi-coarse pass — just enough to release the juice without breaking the skins and seeds into small fragments. For a finer texture (worth it), strain at this point, before adding anything else: the skins and seeds come out nearly whole. Then add the day-old white bread, garlic and salt, and blend until smooth and creamy.
Add extra virgin olive oil gradually while blending to emulsify.
Chill and serve with chopped hard-boiled egg and ham as an optional classic garnish.
Fix my salmorejo
Select what's wrong and I'll tell you how to fix it.
Add bread a little at a time: about 10 g per 500 g of tomato used. Blend again and wait 5 minutes before adjusting again.
Add blended tomato or a little very cold water, one tablespoon at a time. Don't add too much liquid at once.
Bread neutralises tomato acidity well: add 10–15 g, blend and taste. If still acidic, add a drizzle of olive oil and a tiny pinch of salt. Repeat in small increments. Avoid sugar: it masks the problem without solving it and changes the flavour. Next time, use riper tomatoes.
Leave it to rest in the fridge for 1–2 hours. If still strong, correct by adding more tomato, bread and oil in proportion. Don't just add tomato, as it will break the texture.
Add salt in small increments: 1 g per 500 g of tomato. Blend and taste before adjusting again.
Add natural tomato juice or very cold water little by little while blending: 2–3 tablespoons at a time. Taste and adjust salt after each addition. Avoid adding too much liquid at once to keep the emulsion intact.
The emulsion has broken, probably because the oil was added too fast or the salmorejo was warm. Blend again adding the oil in a very thin stream with the blender running. If it doesn't come together, add a little bread and blend everything together from cold.
The culprit is usually the tomato: not ripe enough or too much white flesh inside. Add another very red, ripe tomato and blend again. A small amount of natural tomato paste (without added sugar) can boost the colour without changing the flavour much.
Frequently asked questions
Look for very ripe, fleshy tomatoes that are not too watery. In Spain, pear or vine tomatoes work especially well; elsewhere, use ripe Roma/plum tomatoes or good vine-ripened tomatoes.
For maximum precision, after. The calculator uses usable tomato: no core, and no skins or seeds if you strain it. If you need 1 kg, you should have 1 kg of clean tomato ready to blend.
Cordoban salmorejo is a thick emulsion of tomato, bread, garlic, olive oil and salt, served with a spoon and garnished with hard-boiled egg and ham. Gazpacho is a liquid cold soup containing cucumber, bell pepper and vinegar, which can be drunk from a glass and typically does not contain bread or emulsify as much oil.
3–4 days well covered and refrigerated. The garlic intensifies over time: if you're sensitive to it, reduce the amount slightly for batches you'll consume the next day.
Not in the base. The traditional recipe contains tomato, bread, olive oil, garlic and salt. The chopped hard-boiled egg is a classic garnish, not an ingredient of the cream itself.
Yes, though it loses some texture when thawed: the olive oil emulsion can separate. Thaw in the fridge and blend briefly again. Best consumed fresh.
Technically yes, but it wouldn't be salmorejo: bread is what gives the characteristic dense, creamy texture. Without it, the result is closer to a thick gazpacho.
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