Traditional Portuguese Kitchen: How To Make Marmelada

This is the first of a photo series featuring the inner workings of a typical Portuguese kitchen. Recipes can be found all over the internet but what I am discovering is that there’s a lack of photos for the preparing/cooking process. My goal with this series is to introduce traditional Portuguese dishes and how they’re made using photos instead of words. Let’s face it, I’m sure everyone’s mama cooks differently but every dish is the result of years of feeding families and are thus tried and tested! As with all cooking, measurements are not precise and are up to personal taste. Also, I don’t want to give away any of the chef’s secrets.

Special thanks to my mother-in-law for letting my camera nose in on her time-honoured traditional Portuguese cooking!

I’m starting with a very simple dessert/snack named marmelada, which my husband loves. There are only two ingredients of more or less equal parts: quince (marmelo) and sugar (açúcar). I’d never eaten quince or marmelada before Paulo introduced it to me, and I have to admit I wasn’t taken by it the first time I had it. Or second. Or third. But by the time you reach the end of this post you’ll see how I needed a proper introduction to be won over.

Although it sounds like the English word marmalade, it is quite dissimilar in texture, since quince is not citrus and the paste is smoother (no peels go in), cooling to a dense block that you cut with a knife. That’s probably the main reason why I wasn’t too keen on it, because I was associating it too much with English-style marmalade, which I find too sweet. With marmelada you can dial the sugar up or down of your own accord. You can also cook it longer for more firmness and a darker brown shade.

Ahhhh, now THIS is how it’s done: a warm spread of marmelada on fresh bread with a slice of cheese. (My husband hates cheese, no wonder he didn’t tell me about this. He eats his marmelada with chouriço, Portuguese sausage, which I thought was a weird combination.) This recipe refers to marmelada with cheese as “Romeo & Juliet”.

Oh my goodness, I would never have expected this combination to be so tasty — in fact, I never would’ve thought to team up cheese with marmelada at all. If you’re trying this outside the Iberian Peninsula, go for a mild cheese. The cheese here in Portugal is excellent and the most common is queijo flamengo, super smooth and mild in flavour, similar to Dutch Edam. Mainland cheese is from sheep and goats, and cheese from the Azores is from cows. If you like cheese you can’t go wrong here — I’ve yet to meet a Portuguese cheese I didn’t like.

Possibly Related Posts:

Traditional Portuguese Kitchen: How To Make Bola De Carne Learning The Portuguese Kitchen Bacalhau Com Broa: Portuguese Salted Cod With Cornbread Mother-In-Law Restaurante: A Portuguese Kitchen Round-Up Portuguese Rice and Bola de Carne Portuguese Kitchen: Chuchu and Robalo

• Portuguese kitchen,
• marmelada,
• quince,
• Mother-in-Law Restaurante,
• cheese