Mallorca

"Something frequently eaten on Mallorca, particularly by farmhands and the less wealthy is called frit (“fried”). It consists of bits of mutton or lamb, onions and soft broad beans or red pepper fried in oil or, amongst the wealthier, in lard. At times, blood is added to the entrails or bits of meat when not added on its own. Especially appreciated is the pork frit, with fat, ribs from the same animal and thinly sliced toast. It is known as frit de porc. One of the most common variants found in middle-class homes is called frit de menudillos consisting of chicken and turkey giblets which are fried with lard, tomatoes, peppers and, at times, thinly sliced potatoes.

Another very favored dish is sobrasada amb suquet. The sausage is first cut into thin slices and cooked in its own fat in a frying pan (pella). Then, you add some water, vinegar and sugar, and it’s cooked until coming to a boil. Sobrasada is at times cooked over coals, removing its charred skin and breaking up the meat and putting it in an olleta (small pot). It is then cooked with honey, some meat broth or, if unavailable, simply water. Some also add vinegar. Depending on the ingredients, this dish is called sobrasada amb suquet or sobrasada amb mel, that is, with juice or honey, respectively.

An original Mallorcan stew is known by the name of escaldums, and it’s prepared as follows. A hen or capon’s wings, thighs, drumsticks, neck and head or the entire animal cut up without deboning are added to a pot and fried in lard. Some malmsey grapes are quickly added and, in a little while, as much beef broth as needed to cover the solid parts. It’s left to boil for some time and complemented with cut onion, a complete celery stalk, garlic, pine nuts, sobrasada sausage, chopped tomatoes, salt and some cinnamon or other spice.  After covering the pot with brown paper soaked in water and then a plate full of water, it’s left to cook some more. When it’s about half cooked, some walnuts, almonds and pine nuts are added after being ground in a mortar with some beef broth. Escaldums is scarce on wealthy people’s tables, but it is almost never absent on festive days in not so wealthy people’s homes or farmers with a certain level, a circumstance which illustrates the category given to this dish.

Another greixonera (casserole) is made with  caragols (“snails”, the generic name given to all animals in the species) after being carefully cleaned with salt and later soaked in water which is changed repeatedly. They’re left to cook some time in water and stirred on several occasions. When they are understood to be semi-done, different herbs are added to the pot such as vinagrella, marjoram, mint and lemon balm, along with small pieces of lettuce and spring onions, green beans, peas and, lastly, artichokes, butifarra sausage and fat cut into small pieces. A little before removing the pot from the heat, a bit of milk is added. The snails are then removed from their shells with a needle and soaked in a sauce called all-i-oli. To make the latter, you have to grind garlic in a mortar and, while continually stirring, add oil, two egg yolks, lemon juice and salt until obtaining a fairly consistent sauce.

A very popular dish amongst fishermen and not a little by people with more economic means is called caldera de peix (“fish stew”). In a pot, spring onions, parsley and crushed garlic are fried in a pot. Water is then added, and, when the water begins to boil, the fish is added. Once the desired broth has been obtained, it’s placed on a plate on top of bread slices, though the fish is served separate. Fishermen tend to use little oil and sofrit (lightly fried vegetables). A similar variant is sopa de peix (“fish soup”) for which pieces of onion are lightly fried with parsely, garlic, pine nuts, peppers, tomatoes and some marjoram. The fish is then added along with black pepper, salt and cold water."

Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria. Las Baleares por la palabra y el grabado. Majorca: General Part. Ed. Sa Nostra, Caja de Baleares. Palma de Mallorca. 1982.