A Plate Of Grapes

Several years ago I saw this commercial for Miller High Life. It got me thinking; did the French really come up with mayonnaise? After all wine, for which the French are perhaps best known, was brought to Gaul (modern day France) by the Celts (the Romans are widely given credit for this, since they did so much for French wine making). Got me thinking…and investigating.

Turns out, mayonnaise wasn’t first made in France, but the French did have some role in its creation. It was first made on the island of Minorca when this guy defeated the British during the siege of Fort St. Phillip during the 7 Years’ War. Turns out a chef wanted to create a sauce during a celebratory dinner, and had to improvise. Since they were in the city of Mahon, he called it mahonaise.

Originally, Cinderella’s slippers weren’t made of glass but squirrel fur (hey, you’ve got to do something with the hide after you’ve enjoyed your stew). It seems that things changed when Charles Perrault included this tale in Stories or Tales of Past Times, with Morals (popularly known by its other name, Mother Goose Tales). It seems that Chuck either mistranslated “vair” (fur) into verre (glass) or did it on purpose because wearing squirrel fur shoes was out of vogue when the stories were published in 1697.