When one savors the ‘Sobrasada de Mallorca’ it evokes the primary sensations that have helped us survive in the course of tens of thousands of years of biological evolution. The red secret that the paprika brings to the bite is already beginning to captivate us with the sole promise of combining the tactile sensations in the mouth, with the constellation of stimuli that takes us back to scenes of celestial nights, a pinch of what the star of Mallorcan gastronomic tradition generates.
The technique of preserving pork, minced and seasoned with sea salt and spices, arrived in Majorca with the Roman Empire, and spread throughout the Mediterranean, but the first written document dates back to 1403, in a letter from King Martin I of Aragon (including the kingdom of Mallorca) to the Sicilian court with an order for meats that included the envelopes. The etymological origin is found in the sopressata, which in turn comes from the word sopressa, indicator of bite.
However, sobrasada acquires its gastronomic grandeur, beyond a preservation system, by incorporating paprika, brought from America. Since the beginning of the 17th century, the references found in island gastronomy have been nurtured, as a component of our Mediterranean diet, impregnated with knowledge, traditions and symbols related to agriculture, animal husbandry, and the way to preserve, transform, cook, share and consume food.
About its energy and nutritional value, the 580 kilocalories of 100 grams of sobrasada are mainly due to a fat in which, interestingly, unsaturated fatty acids predominate (more than 60%) which are healthier and represent almost double than saturated ones, and are associated with good nutrition in pig breeding.
It also highlights the contribution of proteins of high biological value (around 13%) and, above all, the essential nutrients that, at least in the ‘sobrasada de Mallorca’, are present in quantities considered significant by the European Food Safety Authority ( EFSA). We refer to minerals that participate in the healthy maintenance of the immune system (Selenium), cognitive development (Iron), or normal bone development (Phosphorus); and to the most important vitamins in the healthy functioning of the nervous system and normal psychological function (B3, B6 and B12) or defense against oxidative damage (vitamins E and A), for highlighting some of their functions in the body and without entering in the complexity generated with traditional curing.
It is already excellent just by complementing it with the benefits of other foods that are a source of fiber and slow-digesting carbohydrates, spread on a slice of wholemeal bread, like traditional Mallorcan bread, which does not have added sodium salt. Or with various sources of potassium (fruits and vegetables, including legumes and greens). With everything, keeping an eye on the energy content, but also everything else that the “Sobrasada de Mallorca” hides, the only one that we dare to consider, we can let ourselves be carried away by culinary imagination and molecular gastronomy among a plethora of exquisite and healthy possibilities.
By: Andreu Palou. Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and President of the Sobrasada de Mallorca Council.
Sobrasada de Mallorca. Photo: GOIB.
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