There exists a subtle difference between marinades and their first cousins mojos, mainly but not only, in the Canaries. Marinades were born as a medium for food storage, when there were no refrigerators, in the same way as Hispanic escabeche, salting, drying in the sun and air, or smoking. By contrast, mojos have always been less practical and more enjoyable.
As expressed in Canarian folklore: ‘To sing well, you must eat grouper and roasted maize meal and scald your kisses with pepper mojo.’ The various mojos, with their powerful base of garlic, paprika, cumin, coriander and chillies, green pepper and a long etcetera of accompaniments to fish and meat, although similar in composition and forcefulness to many marinades, tend to reveal the culinary habits of a people rather than the work of an effective preservative.
With technical advances, necessity becomes pleasure, and we no longer need to consider the conservative effectiveness of our marinades alone but to value above all the taste they contribute. Thus, as examples, we have the aroma of cumin, so Moorish, in Cadiz Bienmesabe or in marinated mackerel and, of course, the carnival ‘pickled pork’ or Embarrado from Extremadura.
Something else, definitely different but with a certain kinship to the mojo, is the Mexican mole. The history of the mole dates back to pre-Columbian times. The word itself, mole, mulli comes from Nahuatl, meaning ‘sauce’ (Nahuatl is a very ancient dialect in Mexico), meaning porridge or mix for the great lords.
However, (perhaps the most famous) mole poblano, which in its original recipe used about one hundred ingredients, was created for a feast in Puebla de los Angeles in the 17th century by mother Andrea of the Assumption, a Dominican nun at the convent Santa Rosa.
To be properly called mole, the dish must have at least fifteen ingredients, including chillies, of course. In Mexico there are a great variety of them, about fifty types. Each state has its own mole and the state of Oaxaca is known as the ‘state of the seven moles’.
It is always best to prepare the mole the day before, and then add the turkey because it tastes better reheated. The reason is that the preparation is long and laborious, and the flavour is much improved when the different ingredients have time to integrate well. To make the mole paste, a metate should be used, a flat, heavy stone of volcanic origin, which used to be present in all Mexican kitchens, but is now unfortunately almost a museum piece. A modern robot or manual mill can be used.
