What can happen when you’re in a beating mood

I am a great lover of mayonnaise! Although I don’t eat it that much anymore, but when I do I like it. I mean I love it.

Here’s what I’ve just read somewhere about mayonnaise and gave me a really good chuckle. It’s 1756, and the French and the English are fighting. Duc de Richelieu captures Port Mahon, Minorca (Spain) that was up to that point held by the English. Victorious, the Duc gets off his ship and starts yelling: “Someone get me some food! ” (I’m paraphrasing here.) But for some reason no one gets him a meal. (Well, actually it’s pretty obvious why no one gets him a meal: everyone is either dead or wounded.) So the Duc goes looking for food, but all he finds is pepper, salt, oil, vinegar, the yolk of egg, and he beats it up together (he must have been really hungry). And that is how MAHONNAISE was born, the original form of mayonnaise. Derived from Port Mahon where on a certain day in 1756 there was no one around, or no one willing, or no one able, to cook.

Clearly, on that day Duc de Richelieu was in a beating mood. Imagine that if he hadn’t beaten the English, he might have never come up with the recipe for mayonnaise, and then what would sandwiches be today? Very dry. A victory for France turned out to be a victory for the taste buds. And also, mayonnaise lovers should be grateful to the English, too. They ate all the food in Port Mahon and left only the spices, which are absolutely essential if you like tasty foods.

I have a question though: what did the Duc eat the mahonnaise with? With a spoon, by itself? That’s disgusting.

See you,

Misty