Mayonnaise, the Minorcan sauce that the French have said for years that they had invented

Mayonnaise, the sauce resulting from emulsifying olive oil with egg yolk, salt, and a squeeze of lemon, is of Menorcan origin, not French. Research, driven by chef and doctor Pep Pelfort since 2022, suggests that the Duke of Richelieu, when he conquered the island of Menorca in 1756, knew it and popularized it in his country many years later. Since until now, no document existed on the island that recorded the sauce described step by step before the French had described it, the authorship was attributed to France. Furthermore, in France, when it had been written down, the recipe had been passed down as mayonnaise and mayonnaise, a fact that researchers argue is a typographical error: the backwards y is an h, which was the letter that the population of Mahón had in ancient times. For years, it was useless to formulate hypotheses about the name of the sauce, which clearly referred to the population of Mahón. Written documentation was the most important, and on the island there was none that described its preparation. Everything changed when, in a private library on the island, researcher Pep Pelfort found the Manuscript by Joana Caules, dating from 1750, in which the recipe is described in detail under the title "to make a raw fish sauce." What's new now is that the book has just been published in the 7 Puertas collection of historical Catalan cookbooks, and has become the 10th volume of the enormous work begun by the great Barcelona restaurant located on Passeig de Isabel II.

"Pep Pelfort called me to explain that he had found the manuscript in the library of a resident of the island," explains Paco Solé Parellada in the establishment located on Amigó Street in Barcelona, The 7 Portes Bar, and which is now the third to successfully replicate the renowned cuisine of the 7 Portes restaurant. "I was immediately interested because, together with Editorial Barcino, I promote the publication of old recipe books of our cuisine, which certify that we have one of the oldest cuisines in Europe," explains Solé, who bought Joana Caules' manuscript and set himself the goal of publishing it. "I acquired it without thinking twice because the volume is essential to our cuisine." And it is because the volume, which compiles the recipes of Menorcan Joana Caules and her mother-in-law, Rita Seguí, puts an end to the back-and-forth dispute between France and Catalonia over the authorship of the sauce. The Duke of Richelieu arrived in Menorca in 1756, which is when he discovered the sauce, and introduced it to France years later. But in Menorca, the islanders had been preparing and eating it for years, especially in summer, when they savored it cold and to accompany fish dishes.

About the dance of the spellings, mayonnaise either mayonnaise (in French), first of all it should be said that the capital of the island, Mahón, was then known outside Menorca by the Castilian name of Mahón. That is to say, with a h interspersed. When the sauce arrived in France and was to be recorded in written form, in the old printing presses it was h It was turned around incorrectly at some point during the edition, so a h in reverse it became a and. And that's why in France the sauce became known as mayonnaiseFrom French it passed into many other languages with the and. "But the etymology is mayonnaise", says researcher Pep Pelfort. Currently, in its industrial version, the sauce "is the most consumed in the world" for several reasons, such as the fact that the German Hellmann's first popularized it in New York.

During the years of back-and-forth over the sauce's authorship, Menorcan researchers had sought arguments to support the idea that France could not possibly be the creator of mayonnaise. One of their arguments was based on the book Art of cooking, written by Brother Roger, the cook of the Ciutadella Franciscans (a volume published this year by Barcino Publishing), in which he referred to the sauce. However, the cook Brother Roger did not explain the steps involved. In fact, the book referred to it as "all i oli bono," but scholar Pep Pelfort noted that Brother Roger's recipes, made with garlic and oil, "weren't good," and, on the other hand, they did acquire a better flavor with mayonnaise. It was a theory that Pep Pelfort spread in 2015, in which he also provided a document from 1719 found in the Library of Catalonia in which it was described as a medicinal ointment by the doctor Figuerola de Torelló, which Pelfort had concluded was Menorcan. Years later he found the definitive proof: the Manuscript by Joana Caules, in which the recipe, titled "for making a raw fish sauce," is described exactly as it has survived to this day for making mayonnaise. It wasn't easy, and one could almost say it was detective work, because Pelfort had information that the manuscript must be in the private library of a resident of Menorca, but whenever she contacted him, he told her no, that no volume like the one she was describing existed. Finally, after much insistence, the book appeared.

The original recipe contains four simple ingredients: olive oil, egg yolk, salt, and a dash of lemon or vinegar. Currently on the market under the name mayonnaise either mayonnaise (in memory of the h return of typography from the printing presses) there are recipes that include the whole egg, including the white, or even mustard (an ingredient that the French chef Marie-Antoine Carême added to the sauce, as researcher Pep Pelfort claims). Be that as it may, mayonnaise was invented in Menorca: at least, that's the case until another written reference appears before 1750 that proves the contrary. The mayonnaise that has so shocked the world has returned to El Born.

The recipe

Chef Pep Pelfort explains how to make it, just as it was originally invented in Menorca.

Ingredients

• 1 very fresh egg yolk
• 150 ml of extra virgin olive oil (preferably Arbequina variety)
• Fine sea salt
• Lemon juice

Preparation

1. In a mortar, place the egg yolk and salt. Add the lemon juice.
2. Mix it by gently stirring constantly and adding the extra virgin olive oil drop by drop. You'll notice the sound change as you stir, as the sauce thickens. Then, the sauce will absorb the desired amount of oil until it reaches the desired thickness and texture.

Grades

Whether you make it on a plate or in a casserole dish, keep in mind that the process is the same. Do it with a fork if you want to make a small amount or with a whisk if you want to make a lot. This is the procedure that many grandmothers in Menorca continue to use, who also add the lemon at the end to whiten it, stabilize it and protect it, with its acidity, from salmonella.

Please note that the color depends on the speed of the beating: manually it tends to yellow and with the use of machinery it whitens.

In the original Menorcan text, the Caulas Manuscript, it is said that you should put egg yolks in a large saucepan and beat them well with a large spoon, often adding a splash of oil and stirring quickly so that they do not curdle.