Today I am going to deal with the noble art of gastronomy looking for the origin of three recipes as simple as they are succulent:the French omelette , the potato or Spanish omelette and the potato omelette without potatoes or egg . Before starting, I would like to point out that establishing the exact origin of a recipe is very difficult. So what I'm going to do is come up with a theory that may not be completely true, but it's plausible.
The origin of the French omelette has to do with France but it was not created in France, but in Spain. In the course of a war -in this case accompanied by an invasion-, it is normal for food to be scarce and for some of them to be dispensed with or replaced by others. We are talking about the War of Independence (1808-1814), when Napoleon wanted to set up his summer residence in Spain. At that time, the tortilla de patatas or Spanish omelette -eggs with potatoes, the onion being optional- was already one of the favorite dishes of the town. Several years of bad harvests and the control that the French troops had over resources made it very difficult for some foods, such as potatoes, to reach Spanish kitchens. So, making a virtue of necessity, they decided to dispense with the precious tuber and make tortillas without potatoes. This simple recipe continued to be elaborated years later and, without its own name, began to be called «omelette from when the French ” which led to “French omelette «.
"Hunger in Madrid" by José Aparicio Inglada
There are different theories about the origin of the Spanish or potato omelette. Continuing with the theory of the French omelette, we will discard the one that attributes the authorship of the potato omelette to Tomás de Zumalacárregui during the Carlist Wars to be fought these years after the War of Independence when we have already said that the Spanish omelette was already tasted. The theory of the CSIC scientist Javier López Linaje places the origin of the Spanish omelette in the Extremaduran town of Villanueva de la Serena in the 18th century. In his book « La patata en España. History and Agroecology of the Andean Tuber »He refers to documents that speak of the potato omelette in this town in 1798, and attributes its invention to Joseph de Tena Godoy and the Marquis of Robledo.
In the difficult years of the Spanish post-war, of famine and ration cards, the saying «hunger sharpens ingenuity » became too popular. The ration cards, in force until 1952, were of three classes depending on purchasing power. Although its content could vary, with these cards you were entitled to 125 grams of meat, 1/4 liter of oil, 250 grams of black bread, 100 grams of rice, 100 grams of lentils or chickpeas, a piece of soap and an egg. . Logically the amount of food was insufficient and people had to fend for themselves. Cats were tasted for hares (“give a cat for a hare ”), the poor potatoes, the Airplane potatoes (boiled potatoes with bay leaves and a touch of “el Avión brand food coloring. ”), watery milk, chestnut and acorn stews, chicory for coffee… But the most curious of the new recipes was the potato omelette without potatoes or eggs. This is how it was made…
The white part of the oranges between the peel and the segments (albedo) was removed and soaked like cut potatoes. The eggs were replaced by a mixture made up of four tablespoons of flour, ten of water, one of baking soda, ground pepper, oil, salt and coloring to give it the color of the yolk.
Image:fotoMadrid