The secret Jews of Mallorca have been celebrating Rosh Hashanah surreptitiously with a cake called an 'ensaïmada' since 1492. The word 'saïm', derived from the Arabic 'shahim' (fat), means “lard” in Catalan.
Jews arrived in the Balearic Islands more than 1,000 years ago. They imported the tradition of baking sweet rolled yeast cakes, called 'bulemas', from the Middle East. Traditionally, bulemas were made with sheep's milk butter. After 1492, butter was replaced by lard and the Crypto-Jews of Majorca renamed the bulema. They called it ensaïmada, which means, “with lard”.
