Lilaus and gombolet

PalmWhen the cold weather set in, my godmother would toast sweet potatoes in the oven. The aroma of caramelizing sugars would drift out, filling the kitchen with their sweetness. When they were cooked, she would pick one up, peel a piece, and dip it in the sugar bowl before giving it to her. I remember the sound of the sugar crystals breaking in my mouth, melting into the still-warm sweet potato paste. What wonderful whims memory has, how a simple tuber can bring us back to a place, a moment, a presence.

The sweet potato (also known as potato or sweet potato) arrived in the Balearic Islands relatively late compared to other American products. Although native to Central and South America, it was brought to Europe by the Castilians in the 16th century, but it didn't spread widely. 18th-century agricultural sources describing popular crops and foods don't mention it much, indicating that it wasn't yet a common crop. In the cookbooks of this century, we find it called the Málaga potato because the first sweet potatoes cultivated on the island came from plants and cuttings imported from the Andalusian coast, especially from Málaga and Motril, which were the main production centers of this tuber on the Peninsula.

First references

When they arrived at the markets of the Balearic Islands by sea, people called them according to their origin, and thus their name spread. The term "moniato", of Catalan and Valencian origin, would not become widespread until later, well into the 20th century. One of the first references to sweet potatoes is found in the Caulas Recipe Book (Menorca 18th century) This is a description of a sweet potato stuffing from Málaga that is cooked with roasted sweet potatoes, chopped and mixed with sugar, cinnamon, butter and spices. The manual indicates that it is a suitable stuffing to put inside the gabacho of roast turkeys and that, if made well, it is like a jam. Pedro Ballester (Mahón, 1923) dedicates a page of I would receive to talk about the virtues of Minorcan sweet potatoes. According to the author, they had not yet been introduced to the island for a century (the dating of the Caulas Recipe Book denies it) and differentiates between Menorcan sweet potatoes and potatoes from Malaga, which are imported. As an ingredient in savory dishes, he recommends frying it in lard, cut into thick slices, or to accompany fried pork. Due to its sweetness, it can also be used in pastries, as a filling, or as an alternative to potatoes. This is the case of Menorcan crespells filled with sweet potatoes from De re Cibaria or the sweet potato cake collected in 19th century cookbooks where we find thirty recipes written by Bárbara Soler y Siquier and her daughter Bárbara Oliver y Soler.

As far as Mallorca is concerned, the first witnesses date back to the 19th century. In Memoirs of the Mallorcan Economic Society of Friends of the Country (1856) refers to the potato as a recently introduced garden crop recommended as food and fodder. In the Llabrés recipe book, it is used to make jam, a recipe that will have some significance and will survive until the publications of the first half of the 20th century. Sweet potatoes will also be used as an ingredient in fritters, or simply toasted. Miguel de Binifar, in Hermits' Kitchen, states that young people don't know what it's like to go hungry and that this tuber helped more than one person fill their bellies in the 1940s. The hermits enjoyed a good harvest, which they divided into categories according to size: the small ones they gave to the pigs, the medium-sized ones they ate, and the large ones they sold. In Ibiza, roasted sweet potatoes were a favorite snack for seafaring families on winter afternoons. These snacks were known as Lilaus and gombolet, a humorous name whose origin is unknown.