The Ray, a Typical Lenten Fish

Now that we are fully immersed in the season of Lent, we will talk about one of the fish that was once part of the traditional culinary recipes of our islands. Ray recipes can be found in Menorca, Mallorca, Ibiza, and Formentera. Unfortunately, due to changing habits of eating fresh fish from abroad, these recipes have been lost, not only in homes but also in most restaurants that offer local and market-fresh cuisine.

The ray belongs to the Ray family, order Batoidea. It is a cartilaginous fish with a rhomboid body that is very abundant in Menorca. It normally lives on soft, vegetation-free bottoms located between 50 and 300 meters deep. There are at least eleven species of rays in the Mediterranean, the largest of which can reach one meter in length. They are all solitary hunters that feed on bottom-dwelling invertebrates, usually crustaceans. In Menorca, they are commercially fished with nets and trawls, and they are frequently found at the market, although often without their skin.

In the past, among the fishermen themselves or those who took the fish to the market, and the fishmongers who stayed to help the fishwives, who were often their wives, there was a certain rivalry to see who could be the fastest at skinning a ray, as well as for skinning redfish, because the ray is a type of fish called the bastina (fish) and has no scales but rather a rough skin reminiscent of sandpaper.

One of the great experts in skinning redfish and rays was Tomeu Vila (ACS), popularly known as Mestre Tomeu de sa Balandra. He was born in Valldemossa and arrived in Ciutadella in the 1930s with the Calafat brothers, aboard one of the first trawlers permanently based in the port of Ciutadella, the famous "Valldemosa."

In Menorcan cuisine, it is one of the most prized fish, prepared in the Menorcan oven, where the fish or meat is cooked with baked potatoes, onion rings, and tomatoes cut in half or into rings.

Ray with capers

Other ray dishes highly appreciated by Menorcans include noodles with ray, a creamy noodle cooked in a clay pot, or fried ray with island butter and capers, although this preparation can also be found in the Pitiusas.

Being a cartilaginous fish, it has no bones, making it easy for children to eat. In addition to the recipes we've mentioned, we can also eat it fried, with tomato, with red peppers, with almond sauce, with white sauce, or in one of the oldest known ways, "borrida de raya" (ray borrides). This is already present in medieval cookbooks, such as the "Sent Soví" (Symbol of the Sea) or the "Liber de Coch" (Liber of Coch), and which has been preserved in Menorca.

As a historical and gastronomic note, it should be noted that the ray was and is one of the fish prohibited by the Jewish religion because it has no scales. Kosher indicates that the Jews could not eat any seafood that did not have scales or a tail, and therefore, in addition to shellfish, they also excluded bastina fish such as skate, ray, dogfish, and manta rays, as well as conger eel and moray eel. That's why the ray was part of the Lenten recipe book, and was to be consumed by good Christians and those who had embraced the new dominant religion.