3 famous Portuguese products with English origins

July 20, 2020

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Today, I share with you 3 famous Portuguese products with English origins. Products that are well established in the Portuguese gastronomy and that one would think are of Portuguese origin but are not !

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1 – Portuguese products : “Bolacha de Maria” cookie

If you are living in Portugal, you know the famous “bolacha de Maria” cookie. It is one of the Portuguese products most bought by portuguese families. If you don’t know it, go quickly to a supermarket to buy it !

In Portugal, “bolacha Maria” (Maria’s cookie) can be found in any supermarket, and in most Portuguese people’s cupboards. This cookie is also used in many Portuguese desserts such as the famous “bolo de bolacha”, “natas do ceu”, “salame” … For the gourmets, I tell you more in my blog post about Portuguese desserts. But what is the link between this cookie and England ! This cookie is NOT Portuguese but English ! What ?????

Portuguese products

In 1874, these cookies were created in honor of the wedding of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, to Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Romania, daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. So, the name “Maria” does not refer to a Portuguese woman as we can imagine because this name is very popular in Portugal. But it refers to a Romanian duchess. On the cake, the name of the duchess is indicated and the ornament on the outline of the cake would represent the dress of the duchess as you can see on the photo below. The cookie was appropriated by many countries and especially Portugal where it is the most popular.

Portuguese products

2 – Portuguese products : The cod

When we talk about cod (“bacalhau” in Portuguese) we immediately think of Portugal since it is one of the main Portuguese products.

You just have to go to a Portuguese supermarket to see the large shelves of dried cod. Meters and meters of shelves full of cod. It is even said that the Portuguese have 365 ways of cooking cod : 365 recipes, one for each day of the year. It will be impossible to avoid this fish if you go to Portugal. Try to give me the name of a restaurant in which there is no cod in Portugal ? It’s hard, isn’t it ?

So yes, you probably knew that cod was a must-have fish in Portugal but if you are not a big fishing connoisseur (like me), did you know that this fish is not found at all in Portugal and has initially no connection with the country. So why has cod become the emblematic fish of Portugal when it is not found off the coast of this country ?

Cod is mainly fished in the North Atlantic, North Sea and England. In the 14th century, a fishing agreement between the Portugal and Great Britain was signed. But the cod craze really exploded during the period of the Great Discoveries in the early 15th century. Portuguese navigators were looking for a non-perishable food that could travel for several months. Salt cod was therefore an ideal and inexpensive food and over the years it became THE flagship fish of Portugal.

Portuguese products

3 – Portuguese products : Port Wine

Port wine is the internationally known Portuguese wine. Did you know it was born thanks to an Englishman …… !

In the 17th century, Colbert, King Louis XIV’s prime minister, launched a series of measures to tax all English products. Furious, King Charles II of England decides to boycott French wines. The English then began to consume Portuguese wines.

In 1703, the commercial treaty of Methuen was signed between England and Portugal. This commercial treaty provides that England can freely export its woollens to Portugal, in return England import wine from Portugal.

The Portuguese wines (from the Douro vineyards) were then shipped from Portugal to England. But the English realized that the Portuguese wine did not stand up well to the sea voyage and was not very good once it arrived in England. To solve this problem, an English merchant, Jean Bearsley, decided to add brandy to the barrels : Port wine was born !

The brandy in the wine stops the natural fermentation of the wine and also makes it lose its acidity while keeping its sugars. Port wine was born from this clever solution. The United Kingdom is still today one of the biggest consumer countries of Port wine.

Portuguese products

Conclusion

These 3 Portuguese products : “bolacha de Maria”, cod and Port wine are three products very anchored in the Portuguese culture, three products that are found everywhere in Portugal but whose “roots” linked to England.

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