Tecula-Meca

Description: Cake made from eggs, sugar, almonds, butter, cinnamon and lard (in the past it was made with Alentejo pork bacon). Its interior color is golden-brown.

Region: Alentejo.

Other denominations: Teculameco.

Variants: Bacon of the Sky.

Particularity: Circular shaped cake and small or medium size. It is white in color because it is covered with sugar syrup.

History: There are more than a dozen toucinhos-do-céu in the Alentejo, rancid bacons, toucinhos dos Duques, etc. In the past, in Portalegre, there was a certain rivalry between the two convents of the city, that of the Bernardinas and that of the Poor Clares, and each of them strove to supplant the other in the confection of the best confectionery. Similar recipes thus appeared, such as Tecula-Meca, possibly inspired by that of toucinho-do-céu. But the one in Tecula-Meca differs from it by its final appearance and composition, which makes it an original and typical confectionery of Vila do Crato.

Use: Consumed as a dessert or as a snack with tea.

Know-how: Make a sugar syrup, let it cool and add the other ingredients. They mix well and form into a pan greased with lard and sprinkled with flour. After cooking, it is removed from the oven and unmolded, allowed to cool and covered with a syrup made with sugar and egg white.

Source: Produtos Tradicionais Portugueses, Lisboa, DGDR, 2001