Where does Mole Come From? From the Mediterranean or from Mexico?
I write this in large part in response to Colman Andrew’s interesting comment on my post on a recipe using Catalan picada. In it he concedes that mole has pre-hispanic origins but suggests some kind of interaction between Catalonia and the convents of Puebla where by legend the nuns invented the archetypal mole, mole poblano.
I am not at all sure that Colman Andrews needs to concede the Mexican origins of mole poblano. As I suggest in my articles on “The Mexican Kitchen’s Islamic Connection” and my booklet on Puebla in the Global Gastronomic Geography (both on my food history page), it seems likely that mole had Mediterranean origins.
How do we trace the origins of dishes? One way is by looking at the basic techniques used to make them. Techniques are hard to invent and do not transfer easily from one culture to another.
The primary technique in mole poblano is of thickening and aromatizing a sauce with bread, nuts, and spices. This technique, perhaps going back to Roman times or beyond, was common in medieval Islam and in medieval Europe. It, and the spices such as cumin, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper and the like, went to Mexico with the Spanish.
There is a secondary technique in mole poblano. The use of rehydrated and ground dried chiles to color, aromatize and thicken the sauce. This I think is of Mexican origin because you never find anything like it in Europe or Asia.
Why do I say this is secondary? Why do I think a Mexican technique was added to a Mediterranean one rather than vice versa? Because it seems monumentally improbable that the Spanish, having accomplished a military conquest of Mexico, having had a good shot at a spiritual conquest of Mexico (see Robert Ricard’s Spiritual Conquest of Mexico first published in Spanish in 1947), are then going to say, oh, we love the local cuisine, we will abandon ours and accept yours.
Finally, there is the matter of chocolate found in both the Catalan picada and the mole. I suspect in mole it is there to balance the heat of the chiles, heat in the humoral sense. It seems to me a tertiary part of the mole, used as a spice and in small amounts.
I have been thinking about this overnight and I think that Mole is a Mediterranean, irrespective of the New World ingredients or geography in several important respects. It fits into the late Medieval/Early Modern style of cookery so well, that I’m not sure that at the time it would have been perceived as being an amazing new dish (maybe this is why there is a lack of documentation on it at the time of it’s “creation”?), just another variation on the usual theme. Some indirect evidence for this is seen in how the first European to have contact with Curry in Indian/ Sri Lanka.
The Dutch explorer Jan Huygen van Linschoten in the 17th century commented, “Most of their fish is eaten with rice, which they seeth in broth, which they put upon the rice, and is somewhat soure, as if it were sodden in gooseberries, or unripe grapes, but it tasteth well, and is called Carriel [curry] which is their daily meat the rice is in stead of bread.” The important part of this description is “as if it were sodden in gooseberries, or unripe grapes” as these where historically commonly used as souring agents in European dishes, such as in this 16th century English example; “Take youre chekins and season them with a lytle Ginger and salte, and so putte them into your coffin and so put in them barberies, grapes or goose beryes, and half a dyshe of butter…”. It seems that Linschoten is describing this new, but not altogether alien dish, in terms that are familiar to him such as “gooseberries or unripe grapes”, rather then the actual local fruits used (most likely tamarind pod pulp). This comfortable familiarity with a foreign dish is stated ever more explicitly by the early 17th century Italian traveller, Pietro della Valle “In India they give the name of caril [curry] to certain messes made of butter, with the kernal of coconut (in place of which might be used in our part of the world milk of almonds)”*
I think that you are correct, the problem with chocolate is that I think that it is a distraction. When I see chocolate in a savory recipe my immediate response is “Oh, that is like a mole [poblano]”, when in truth I should look at the core of the recipe which I think is the use of a ground nuts/bread type bases and the balancing out of sweet/sour flavors. Chocolate/chilli/fruit/acids/sugars are additions to the core I think. For instance there are several extinct and extant Tuscan savory recipes that use chocolate, but these do not fit into this style of dish as they don’t contain the “core” recipe.
I think that this type of intellectual framework is vital in considering the origin of dishes and how they have developed. In terms of the mole we can see how it takes its place in the family of dishes that were popular in late Medieval/Early Modern Europe and the Mediterranean, which have roots in the region as back as we can examine, but we can also see how it relates to dishes that it has a more indirect relationship with, such as the dishes of India and SE-Asia.
* comments copied from an article on “curry” I wrote at http://adambalic.typepad.com/the_art_and_mystery_of_fo/2007/01/the_great_briti.html
Hi! I think your perspective is a little bit limited. Mole, derived form the nahuatl wolrd ‘mulli’, means sauce, and as such was prepared often in prehispanic times. Mole poblano is only one kind of mole, made with some european ingredients and techniques. I’m sure you have tried ‘mole verde’, pipián, coloradito, and other moles (yellow, red, etc.). Mole verde/pipián is an example of a prehispanic sauce thickened with seeds (mostly pumpkin and chile seeds but there are several varieties). I don’t think that this case is influenced by european/mediterranean techniques.
You have a very interesting blog! And look forward to reading more of your articles in the future.
Thanks Gabriela. I look forward to more comments. I think there are several words that mole could be derived from and I’ll post about that. I am also not sure that “mole” is one thing or even one class of things (a natural kind as biologists would say). Thus I am quite open to the suggestion that some kinds of moles had prehispanic precursors. But it seems to me that most of what is said about prehispanic dishes is guesswork. Maybe residue analysis will help clarify what they were actually like in the next few years. But right now we’re pretty ignorant I think.
You article is well-thought out, and a very interesting read. I am still not convinced of the Mediterranean origin of mole, however.
One important thing to point out is that mole is not necessarilly an aristocratic food… Many rural Mexican families have their own mole traditions. These are people who usually have a higher percentage of indigenous ancestry, and share many customs in common with pre-hispanic cultures. As opposed to your question of why the Spanish conquistadors would readily adopt a foreign cuisine, I’d have a hard time believing that the traditional Mexicans would undergo a drastic change in taste.
I would have little problem believing indigenous-derived peasants would adopt Old World ingredients over time, however. In building upon their ancient cuisine, they would presumably make it more accessible to European tastes. Think of it in the same way that modern Chinese food is adapted to be made palatable to cultures all over the world.
Another point I’d like to bring up is that the concept of a thick, spicy sauce is not mutually exclusive to any one culture. The cuisines of China, the Andes, and sub-Saharan Africa are also notable for them. Right now I’m thinking of egusi stew, a seasoned Nigerian dish thickened with ground melon seeds.
In the same way that mole is similar to curry, there are many other parallels between Mexican dishes and Old World foods. Salsa can be compared to chutney of India, inamona of Hawaii, or any number of European and East Asian relishes. That doesn’t mean there is necessarilly a common origin.
Lastly, your article left me wondering, what *did* the Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans eat, if not mole? Using linguistic, archaeological, and anthropological evidence, we know that the ancient Mexicans did have sauces, as demonstrated by the existance of the word “mulli” in Nahuatl. We also know that they used molcajetes and metates as grinding implements. We also know of the existance of many indigenous spices in the New World, including the various chilis, achiote, epazote, culantro, mesquite, and allspice. The lack of evidence as to what composed Mesoamerican sauces is not enough for me… It is difficult to imagine that no one would attempt using those spices in a sauce for thousands of years until the Spanish arrived.
Thank you for your time, and keep up the great blog!
“Salsa can be compared to chutney of India, inamona of Hawaii, or any number of European and East Asian relishes. That doesn’t mean there is necessarilly a common origin.”
I would not compare Mexican salsas with East Asian relishes in terms of technique or ingredients.
The inamona of Hawaii is comparable only in the sense that it’s “some kind of relish”.
And, I’m curious which European relishes you would compare them to?
I would compare a few Mexican salsas to Algerian salsas (yes, even the same word is used). Nawal Nasrallah argues that the word “salsa” is Arabic in origin. That doesn’t mean, of course that the wide varieties of salsas outside of Algeria have Arab or Moorish influences. Neither does it mean that the Arabs or Moors invented all relishes that resemble salsa.
The word “salsa” maybe Arabic in origin, but the most famous Algerian “salsa” is harissa, a relish of peppers and sometimes tomatoes. The other most common Algerian table salsa is actually made from tomatoes and is reminiscent of some tomato based Mexican salsas. The two most common Algerian salsas made using ingredients that are entirely from the Americas.
I found the reference for “salsa” in Nawal Nasrallah’s Iraqi cookbook, pg 43.
Salsa is the singular of sulus, these were also called sibagh, which were “sour based dips, seasoned and sometimes thickened with nuts” and served with meats in Medieval Islamic cooking.
I thought that “salsa” was quite well established as a word of European origin in Arabic?
The medieval Arabic for it is “Sals”, Charles Perry has written a essay on it called “The Sals of the Infidels”.
The Medieval Sals are thick condiments to be served with fish (hence another Christian/European connection) apart for the etymology.
Anyway to get back to Tim’s comments.
“Mole” is not a very useful term as it is a general label, not a specific. Most of your comparisons are general comparisons. Rachel actually mentions a specific dish, Mole Poblano. In terms of ingredients and technique this dish is related to the this particular Catalan picada, which is not to say that Mole Poblano is simply a Catalan picada transported to Mexico.
Part of the point that Rachel is making is that a single dish can have diverse origins. Breaking down a dish into a list of ingredients doesn’t give you single origin nor does listing techniques used in a dish.
The dish “Mole Poblano” could not exist pre-European contact (ingredients and techniques), so it is reasonable to conclude that there must be some European influence on it’s development. A connection between Mole Poblano and this specific Catalan Picarda is reasonable and obviously it doesn’t have to all be in one direction.
Finally, there is the matter of chocolate found in both the Catalan picada and the mole. I suspect in mole it is there to balance the heat of the chiles, heat in the humoral sense. It seems to me a tertiary part of the mole, used as a spice and in small amounts.
So Catalans used chocolate before coco beans where brought from Mexico? And most if not all Chile’s are original from the Americas , in fact the original “ cacao” drink in precolombian Mexico used both Coco beans and Chile .
Mole as we know it is a fusion no doubt ( and no doubt cooking techniques from Europe have been used as well as someone ingredients ) , but what would be of all Mediterranean food without Tomatoes , Pepers, or the Swiss without chocolate , potatoes are also from the Americas .
Any part of central Mexico has its own mole tradition and there are hundreds if not thousands of Moles, every family swears by their mole and they are quite different , in fact talking about Mole as a single dish is almost sinful any Mexican would ask “ what Mole are you speaking about?”
If you ever have a chance Puebla has fantastic moles yes but Oaxaca’s market….. you can do a whole week tasting different moles every day and won’t even scratch the surface.
Thanks for all those comments, Yves.
I am Catalonian, and “picada” (or “majada” as it is know elsewhere) is a technique for thickening soups and sauces that is too generic to be “from” any one place. Primates use two rocks to break open fruits and nuts, so can we say they invented the mortar and pestle? The Spaniards who went to America were soldiers of fortune from the lower parts of society, and they had a very, very poor diet. It had little to do with the glorious (and glorified) “Mediterranean” food as we know it today. Chocolate, on the other hand, comes from the Americas, as do many other foods, such as tomatoes, that have had an enormous impact on Italian and Spanish cuisine throughout the centuries since. This is clearly documented. Anything else is just speculation.
Thanks for taking the time to write. I agree that the Spanish who first came to the Americas were overwhelmingly from the lower classes. I don’t think there is such a thing as the Mediterranean diet. And I agree that even primates pound nuts and that pureed sauces are found in different parts of the world (which I assume is your point).
However the Viceroys brought with them accomplished cooks and had fine kitchens. So did some of the religious orders and the larger landowners. There you can trace more sophisticated cooking of late medieval ‘Spanish’ style. I do not think chocolate is a defining ingredient for mole. Many lack it. You might be interested in this article of mine.https://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/200403/the.mexican.kitchen.s.islamic.connection.htm
Happy to follow up. Rachel