The gastronomic calendar of January

Bep Al·lès / Ciutadella – We have started a new gastronomic year and we will take a short tour of our cuisine, our seasonal produce and the dishes that were and are part of these special days.

As for the calendar, January is one of the best months, if not the best, for dairy production in Menorca, and therefore for cheese making. It is when we will find the best buttery cheeses, the semi-cured ones that retain all the flavour of the fresh grass of the pastures and also of the saltpeter that the north wind has left on the fields and that with the rains filters in and provides mineral salts to the fields that make the Menorcan product unique in flavour.

It is also a month of little agricultural activity, since according to the farmers the land is still asleep, and the work is mainly about pruning the wild olive trees and the olive trees; cutting the canes with which the fabiols will be made. These canes, according to the parenóstic of the peasantry, must be cut during the new moon, but if we want them to make the reeds that will support the tomatoes, we must cut them during the waning moon.

It is also an ideal month for grafting trees such as almond trees, peach trees and plum trees, as well as the vines for the vineyards. Tradition dictates that on St. Paul's Day, January 25, and with a waxing moon, is when we should prune the vines.

If we look at the tanks, we will see the furrows left by the tractors, because it is an ideal month for hoeing, which means giving the first crop to the fields.

First day of January or New Year's Day

It is one of the main festivals of the Christian calendar on our island. The main dishes were, according to the houses, stuffed squid in the Menorcan style, cooked in the oven with potatoes or sweet potato or with almond or minced meat sauces.

In Menorca, squid is stuffed with its wings, legs and tentacles, along with a sofrito, although there are homes that, in addition to squid meat, mix minced pork and beef. Other ingredients that usually form part of the filling are a couple of raw eggs, breadcrumbs and a little sobrasada paste.

When cooking them, there are those who opt for a baking dish, where they will make a bed of sliced potatoes or sweet potatoes; there are also those who make one part of potato and another of sweet potato, and others choose to bake it with a sauce with the leftover meat from the filling, milk or cream, and chopped almonds.

As for pastries, people usually eat what is left over from the Christmas and New Year's Eve festivities: nougat, bitters, pastry rolls, marzipan, jam, guirlache nougat, couscous and other sweets such as tocinillos de cielo, dates filled with egg yolk, sponge cake sweets with jam and royal icing, as well as almond cakes and pastissets.

In the 60s and 70s it became fashionable to end meals by eating a tropical pineapple, a custom that many still maintain.

January 6th, Three Kings' Day

From Three Kings' Day, what we have left in the gastronomic section are the cocas de los reyes or cocas de peladillas, which according to tradition are left on the night of the 5th, for the kings to have dinner with.

The cocas de peladillas are made with ensaimada or coca bamba paste, and are shaped like a half orange. They are usually topped with five coloured sugared almonds and are typically eaten for breakfast with hot chocolate.

These cocas, at least because of their half orange shape, as is still done in Mallorca with Christmas cocas and anise cakes, were the precursor to the cocas that were consumed at the main festivals of each of the island's towns, but without sugared almonds, and which had the name of the festival, such as the cocas of the San Juan festivals or the cocas of the Virgen de Gracia.

In the past, in addition to the cocas de los reyes, they also made cuartos, which were also eaten dipped in hot chocolate.

Another sweet that we have that day, although more typical of the little ones in the house, is sweet coal, which is made with the same formula and preparation as the sugar cubes of San Juan, but with black food colouring, although we cannot say that it is a preparation typical of our gastronomy, since we will find it in the rest of the State, such as the custom of giving or throwing sweets at the cavalcades of the kings of the East.