Pão de Casa

Description: Domestic kneading bread, made with regional wheat and sweet potatoes. It is preferably a closed bread on the west and north coasts of the island, rounded at Ponta do Sol and elongated in the other rural villages. This bread can be eaten for many days, depending on the family's needs. It is usually a bread that weighs about 1 kg and has 75% wheat flour, 17% sweet potato and 8% fresh bread dough, used as yeast.

Region: Autonomous Region of Madeira.

Other denominations: Regional Bread. Wheat Bread of the Earth. Family Bread.

Particularity: Bread made with wheat flour and sweet potatoes, baked in a wood oven.

History: Bread made at home from a very early age began to be part of the family economy. To this end, all ancient dwellings were equipped with a bowl that is still seen today as an excrescence at the back or side of the building. Eduardo C. N. Pereira states in the Islands of Zargo: «As early as 1461, in the Chapters sent to Duke D. Fernando, successor of Infante D. Henrique in the Mastership of Christ, it was requested, among other exemptions, that the use of an oven not be allowed in a particular case, except for a furnace for a bushel of bread.» Compliance with this exemption has limited the capacity of the Madeiran furnace to this day.

Use: It is used as a base or accompaniment to meals. It is very common in traditional restaurants, accompanying typical dishes such as beef skewers on a laurel stick.

Know-how: In a bowl, mix the flour, water and yeast already prepared previously. After the yeast is dissolved and mixed with the flour and sweet potato, it kneads for approximately 1 hour, until the dough starts to make a "bladder". The dough, after being sour, will be baked for about 45 minutes in a wood oven, which has been previously brought to the ideal temperature.

Source: Produtos Tradicionais Portugueses, Lisboa, DGDR, 2001