Extracted from Food and History,
by Eduardo Mayone Dias
University of California, Los Angeles

Alheiras, a yellowish sausage from Trás-os-Montes, served with fried potatoes and a fried egg, have an interesting story. In the late fifteenth century King Manuel of Portugal ordered all resident Jews to convert to Christianity or leave the country. The King did not really want to expel the Jews, who constituted the economic and professional élite of the kingdom, but was forced to do so by outside pressures. So, when the deadline arrived, he announced that no ships were available for those who refused conversion -- the vast majority -- and had men, women and children dragged to churches for a forced mass baptism. Obviously, most Jews maintained their religion secretly, but tried to show an image of being good Christians. Since avoiding pork was a telltale practice in the eyes of the Inquisition, conversos devised a type of sausage that would give the appearance of being made with pork, but really only contained heavily spiced game and chicken. Nowadays, however, tradition has been broken, and pork has been added to the alheiras.

Jewish influence may have determined some other practices in food preparation and eating habits. Different kinds of unleavened bread and cakes, such as the arrufadas de Coimbra, are baked all over Continental Portugal and the Azores. In the islands meat is often repeatedly rinsed in water to clean it of any trace of blood. After chickens are killed, they may be hung up upside down, so the blood may be drained, however, paradoxically, it can be used later for cabidela. Blood spilled on the ground is sometimes covered with dirt, as the Leviticus directs Jews to do. Scaleless seafood, such as morays, may be shunned in some areas. And, finally, a point is made of slaughtering animals with a very sharp knife, a practice also exacted by rabbinical law.

copyright 1997 Eduardo Mayone Dias EMDias@aol.com

E-mail: Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum