In Mikoleta, when looking for information about gastronomy for Kukubat, we researched the origin of the tortilla (omelet with potatoes).

 

It is usually said that in the outskirts of Bilbao, while the general Zumalakarregi besieged the city during the first Carlist War, he was served a tortilla made out of eggs and potatoes in a “baserri” in Begoña. The general thought it was a good, cheap and nutritious dish, and therefore he decided to serve it to his troops. That is how the dish was spread afterwards.

 

However, the researcher Juan Inazio Hartsuaga has investigated more on this topic and he found out that the first documented mention of a tortilla made out of eggs and potatoes was made in Navarre in the so called “Memorial de Ratonera” of 1817. This document was a recompilation of the letters that the people from all over Navarre used to send to the Court of the Reign, so that the issues that concerned them could be discussed in the Court.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This document was well known in specialized circles, but it was set aside with the appearance of another older document, in Extremadura in 1798, which made reference to an omelet with potatoes (Semanario de agricultura y artes dirigido a los párrocos (16/8/1798, n.º 85, página 15).

 

Nonetheless, even if the researcher seemed to be trustworthy, the truth is that what is described in the document has little or nothing to do with an omelet with potatoes, but it described a bread of potatoes. This fact is now widely accepted. 

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Therefore, the first documented reference to the omelet with potatoes is again from Navarre. This document, as well as the one mentioning the bread of potatoes, is attached below.

 

The letter of the “Memorial de Ratonera” that mentions the tortilla was a letter in which the peasants protested against their bad living conditions, and they describe what they used to eat to prove so. The letter can be translated as follows:

 

“… two or three eggs in an omelet for five or six, because our wives know how to cook it big and thick with few eggs, mixing potatoes, bread crumbs or other things.”

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Furthermore there is also a document from 1767 in which “tortilla” is mentioned. According to it the potatoes were used in tortillas and stews. However the word “tortilla” did not have the meaning it has today (omelet with potatoes) but it was used to name a kind of flat bread, as the one that refers to the tortillas of the Mexican tacos nowadays.

 

There is also another reference in Lieja, Belgium, in 1604, of what it could be predecessor of the omelet with potatoes.

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Lancelot de Casteau, Ouverture de Cuisine, Liège 1604

 

In this text, “tartoufle” is named, but it does not refer to potatoes. The document describes a dish that is also named in another document of 1557, when the potatoes did not arrived to Belgium yet. From this it can be concluded that the “tartoufle” was used to refer to truffles instead of potatoes. Actually the same name was still used to refer to both while the potatoes were still relatively new)

 

Proof of the bread of potato in Badajoz

• Year: 1798

• Publication: Weekly paper on agriculture and art for priests. (16/8/1798, numb. 85, page 15)

• http://hemerotecadigital.bne.es/issue.vm?id=0003326103&search=&lang=eu

 

Proof of the omelet with potatoes (tortilla of Navarre)

• Year: 1817.

• Publication: El Procurador de los labradores y pedimento de los mismos, presentado a los tres Estados del Reino de Navarra junto en Cortes por Mayo de 1817

• ttp://www.navarra.es/appsext/bnd/GN_Ficheros_PDF_Binadi.as  px?Fichero=RPVIANAnro-0065-pagina0473