Queijadas de Sintra
Sometimes the history of a sweet seems monotonous, punctuated here and there by an episode marking a point in its evolution. After all, sweets are made every day. It is only the people who makethem who are aware of their circumstances, who know about theups and downs of their history. In the long life cycle of queijadas de Sintra, we get a sense of the timelessness of the recipe constantly changing hands. Thus, its history is made up of all the stories that compose the everyday lives of those who have made them, from the days they were used as payment of rent, until a distinction was made between ne queijadas and the queijadas sold in the market. It would be di cult and unfair to try and mention the names behind the houses that, over the centuries, excelled in the production of this unique sweet that always travelled beyond the geographical limits of the town of Sintra. Di cult because the list of names is so long, unfair because we would, almost certainly, fail to mention at least one, including the anonymous people who contributed to the extensive reputation of a sweet that bene ted so much from tourism in the romantic town of Sintra. Instead, we should talk about the intentions, everyday occurrences and culinary practices that made the avourof queijadas universal, while always varied and distinct, like the various hands that made them, shaping their crisp shell countless times and preparing their unique lling, which in Sintra is calledmiolo. The cheese is the main protagonist in the latter, leading to attempts, at times, to regulate its supply through the Association for the Provision of Cheese to the Sintra Queijada Industry. Sugar, eggs, our and cinnamon would always be used in the mixture to accompany the cheese. However, while the ingredients are always the same, there are an in nite number of ways in which they can be used. This is what leads to the multiplicity of avour, texture and aromas that melt together in the rich imagination of queijadas de Sintra, a sweet treasure so frequently mentioned in literature that it has almost turned into poetry. Even when described as an unmissable element in the context of tourism, queijadas de Sintraare assigned a kind of celebrity status that is equally appealing to royal, erudite and common palates. Queijadas are a rare example of a national sweet that confuses us with its journey through time and space. Our palate is in uenced by the avour of the queijadawe taste today, but our memory recalls the numerous additions that so many hands have made to it. We could even say that queijadasde Sintra, more than just an icon of local confectionery, are today a tribute to all the queijadeiros and queijadeiras who, in their time,succeeded in creating magic with this mixture of ingredients.
Fatias do Freixo
The rst thing fatias do Freixo [Freixo Slices] impress us with is their colour. Their honest, strong yellow reinforces our certainty that, in the history of confectionery, the choice of egg yolks as a main ingredient and eternal companion of sugar was not, in any way, a coincidence. Yellow is striking and hints at the sweetness of what we are about to taste. It is perhaps for this reason that yellow is the main colour in Portuguese confectionery, at least when it comes to making an eye-catching sweet that awakens our appetite. This is exactly the case for fatias do Freixo. The yellow not only catches our eye but makes us anticipate the delicacy we are about to experience. It is a sumptuous yellow, a yellow that xates, a yellow that oozes. Luis I of Portugal was indeed wise to always have these sweets on his table. An orderly and very regimented mixture of eggs, sugar, our and water reminding us that the most beautiful compositions are made from the simplest ingredients, fatias do Freixo pleasantly surprise us with their precise measure of sugar,not so much to be imposing, but providing enough sweetness tosatisfy us. Because they are not overly sweet, the perfection offatias do Freixo depends precisely on the fact that sugar is not the main protagonist, but merely what allows the tempting yellow to come through and convince us of perfect harmony. These fatias arethe legacy of the rich tradition of pão-de-ló [Portuguese sponge cake] in the northern regions of Portugal. While in other places di erent sweets take centre stage on festive tables, in the North, and especially the Minho, pão-de-ló is the most prized o ering in
community festivities. For this reason, there are so many variationson the same recipe and so many varieties of this sweet, softsponge cake. Fatias do Freixo are a classic example of this same tradition that trickled down as far as the Tâmega River and created a avour that would make the people of Marco de Canavezes proud. While their avour, texture and aroma can be experienced by allwho try these fatias, it is in the Casa dos Lenteirões, in Freixo, that we nd the expertise and knowledge of the correct proportion of ingredients used to make this sweet. Made with a family recipe,the impact they have on us, and the way they stand out from somany others, leads us to believe that the rst hands to make them were inspired by noble sentiments capable of creating perfection through confectionery. This is a perfect sweet, perfection disguisedas fatias do Freixo.
Cavacas das Caldas da Rainha
Sometimes, the easiest way to understand a sweet is not by looking at its origin, but by considering the reasons for its shape and texture, as its avour was accepted long ago and is generally consensual. This is true of cavacas das Caldas. Even beforetasting one of these cavacas we immediately ask ourselves why the sweet itself is hollow. And why is it so hard? Perhaps because they originated as a pilgrim’s sweet, cavacas are very dry in textureso that they keep for a long time without going stale. As for the shape, this could perhaps be explained, like many other examples of confectionery in this sweet-loving country, by their double purpose, rstly as a receptacle for wine, which would moisten and soften them, and simultaneously as an accompaniment. This versatile sweet demonstrates the ingenuity of human beings who, in food, have always associated taste, function and form. A pilgrim’s sweet, with humble ingredients and a simple recipe, thecavaca looks to sugar syrup to grace it with sweet satisfaction, and while in the interior of Portugal the recipe for cavacas includes oil, on the coast, where Caldas cavacas are more common, it is butterwhich makes the connection between the eggs and the our. Oncethey are cooked, the cavacas are soaked in a sugar syrup wherelemon is the element that gives them avour and takes the edge o their sweetness. Taking into account the importance of tourism associated with the thermal springs and the presence of a social and aristocratic elite in the town of Caldas, especially during the19th century, many cavacarias appeared that made and soldcavacas, which due to their longevity, became unique souvenirs of tours around the city. At a time when travellers were the main vehicle of propaganda for Portuguese confectionery, the cavacasof Caldas bene ted from the constant passage of tourists through the city, and as time went by the recipe was gradually perfected. In 1924, perhaps for this reason, they were mentioned in the 1st volume of the Guide to Portugal. Whoever travelled to or went through Caldas could not leave without trying a cavaca. It is hard to believe that, while they originated as a pilgrim’s sweet, which explains their texture and form, in the town of Caldas cavacasbecame an icon of confectionery and, in a much more re ned social setting, the preferred accompaniment to tea and co ee. After all, it is the sugar and lemon combined with the light crunch of thecavaca before it melts in the mouth that leaves us with a taste that tempts and invites us to take another bite, just to hold on to the irresistible avour of the cavacas das Caldas. The avour requires no explanation, it should simply be celebrated in each cavaca.
Morgados do Algarve
Opulent in avour and rich in form, the sumptuous morgado do Algarve [Algarve’s rstborn] is exemplary of the convergence of two confectionery traditions. On the one hand, the tradition of sugar and its use in combination with almonds, a practice introduced to the Al-Garb by the Moors, developed and established there during the extended presence of the latter in the southern Iberian Peninsula. On the other, complementing this knowledge and expertise, the lling of the morgado exhibits the noble confectionery tradition developed in the kitchens of Portuguese convents. Morgados
therefore take after two distinguished traditions, which together have succeeded in achieving perfection, both in the pastry or alcofa[carrycot or basket], and in the lling. The alcofa illustrates theMoorish tradition of the art of sugar work, in this case combinedwith almonds, one of the main fruits cultivated in the Algarve region. Thus, the pastry is made with nely ground almonds, sugar and water and moulded into a receptacle for an elegant lling of the best that convent confectionery has to o er, doce de gila [malabargourd jam], ovos-moles [sweet egg yolk] and os de ovos [angel hair]. It is well known that the art of working with the various stages of sugar, combined with egg yolks, was practised in noble houses, where young girls were initiated into the secret alchemy of good confectionery. The system of primogeniture which drove many young women behind the high walls of convents and monasteries, combined with the availability of sugar in these religious spaces, gave us a rich and opulent confectionery. It is therefore thanks toprimogeniture that we have this richness in the art of confectionery that combines sugar with eggs and fruit, considering that a certainamount of expertise is required to make a good doce de gila so that the result does not discredit the intention. The combination, in thetradition of morgados, of doce de gila, ovos-moles, os de ovosand massa de amêndoa [almond paste], the latter so illustrative of the Moorish legacy, can only result in an excess of perfection in every aspect. Finally, morgados are meticulously decorated with owers and fruits made of the alcofa pastry and adorned withstrips of coloured tissue paper in the traditional convent style of confectionery presentation. Undeniable proof that every single piece of our confectionery is the result of intersecting traditions, combined histories and reciprocal culinary arts, morgadosdemonstrate technique, presentation and avour in abundance.
Cavacas de Resende
In the monograph he wrote on the Council of Resende, Joaquim Caetano Pinto, when talking about the famous cavacas de Resende, said that they were ‘very well presented, made almost entirely of eggs and sugar. The whites are used to make ocas’. Rather than just describing Resende’s most iconic sweet, the author wanted to establish the di erence between cavacas de Resende and the other cavacas of Portuguese confectionery. While in the rest of the country a cavaca is a hollow sweet with a dry texture, in Resende it is brilliantly yellow, delightfully sweet and frankly irresistible due to the contrast of its white topping with the soft yellow pão-de-ló [sponge cake] beneath. In Resende, the white cavacas are called ocas [hollows]. In other words, what in the rest of the county is known as a cavaca, golden on the inside and painted with a white glaze, in Resende is an oca. Even the nameand its connotations demonstrate the contrast between the twosweets. Cavacas de Resende are slices of pão-de-ló made, almost entirely, of eggs and sugar, with our as a residual element, which used to be cut roughly, but are now sliced with perfect distinction. It is said that, in order for them to keep longer, these slices of soft sponge cake, called cavacas, are dipped in sugar syrup and dusted with our, acquiring an innocent white appearance that contrasts with the bright and tempting yellow of the sponge. Now that we have distinguished between the slices of soft sponge cake known as cavacas, and the so-called ocas, which are white and similar to other cavacas, it should be noted that this sweet has enjoyed enduring fame, with references dating from the 19th century. In 1889, the newspaper ‘O Baionense’ described how cavacas were an irresistible temptation for passing pilgrims who would nd them displayed by confectioners on white cloths with lace trim. Considering the strong tradition of pilgrimages to Santa Maria de Cárquere and Santa Maria de Barrô, the latter characterised by the pains and e orts of devotees to seek the image in stone found in a niche on the left bank of the Douro River, we can see that pilgrims on the path of devotion would, by the grace of God, be sweetened by the serene appearance and cheerful avour of a cavaca de Resende, which would aid in igniting their religious zeal even further.
