The stately cuisine of Menorca, a fusion cuisine from the 18th century

Menorca still has a part of its cuisine that remains on the shelves as a recipe book in the noble houses, known by some and unknown by others who have not made an inventory of their libraries, which have also disappeared or sold in batches of various books.

We have a stately kitchen of nobles and knights, hunters and ladies who met at home to have coffee with milk or chocolate and exchanged recipes and some of them have come down to us and others still remain to be made known. to the Menorcans and especially to those chefs of the island to reinterpret them, give them life again and form part of our new Menorcan cuisine, which must be, along with our traditional cuisine, the home kitchen, the counter which Menorca must position itself, even more, as a unique gastronomic destination.

The recipe books of the stately gastronomy of the kitchen of the nobles and knights were a symbol of distinction, carrying out exchanges for their learning between cooks and housewives between different families and places outside the Island. The recipe books used in banquets and meals reflected the opulence and sophistication of the ingredients and recipes. The result draws powerful attention today: with these exchanges and trips, a unique mixture was produced – perhaps the beginnings of what is now called fusion cuisine – where typical dishes and preparations of Menorcan cuisine were combined – including techniques that clearly denoted the influence of English and French domination – with other more refined, exotic and haute cuisine.

The recipe book of the Salort of Ciutadella

I have been able to see, even publish, some of the recipes from noble houses of Ciutadella, such as the Salort Martorell, whose recipe book is mainly about pastries and pastries, but which also presents us with a few cooking dishes, but very interesting and Today they are more than attractive for the restaurant sector, for the haute cuisine that they were and that can be again as it is, for example, of this Salort recipe book, “Salmón a la Royale”, which after the publication of the book I was able to learn that canned salmon was tasted, possibly for the first time, by the Menorcan nobility at the dinner reception offered in Mahón to Queen Isabel II when she visited Menorca to see the works of the La Mola fortress. It is clear that this Nordic fish that arrived in large cans caught the attention of Mrs. Ignacia Martorell, who included it in her banquets, and that she even served it to her family at Christmas, as the recipe book of the first Salorts tells us. They settled in Ciutadella, on Sant Antoni street and when they joined the Martorells they would move to occupy their ancestral home on Major des Born street, while the heir of the Martorells married the heiress of Cas Duc and moved to live to the ducal palace on Calle del Santísimo.

From this recipe book from the 19th and 20th centuries we have dishes that are very current today, such as the soft cheese flans from Menorca; baked potatoes au gratin with Menorcan cheese; peaches stuffed with minced chicken or beef, apricot canapés grilled with butter and sugar that were served as an appetizer, pink eggs, pipiretas of Menorca cheese, old-fashioned pork loin, meat fimbres , the Royal salmon that we have mentioned and, the pastelones, a gastronomic preparation of the ancient stately cook, possibly from the 15th and 16th centuries, of which the nobility makes use of their banquets and are filled with fish such as mullet and pageles, and also meats such as capon suckling pig, turkey…

We also know that when an important date was celebrated in one of these stately homes, a name day, a wedding, a baptism, for example, three identical and at the same time different menus were prepared from the kitchen and served to different classes or groups of people. .

Take for example an almond cake. For the family and guests, a cake was made with all the ingredients, especially almonds, eggs and sugar, which also indicated the wealthy economic situation. Afterwards, other cakes were made where the chopped almonds were mixed with boiled potatoes, with fewer eggs and less sugar, which were intended for the servants and staff of the house and, finally, some cakes with more potato and breadcrumbs than almonds, molasses or rice instead of sugar or honey, and few eggs, which were served to the poor of the town, to people with few economic resources, those who went to look for the boba soup at the door of the noble house, so that they could also add to the celebration of the gentlemen.