The table also tells stories

The painting Supper of St. Benedict and the Raven, of 1703, is attributed by the Land Museum of Basto to Father Manuel Correia de Sousa and comes from the Monastery of Refojos. In an article of 2011, Isabel Maria Fernandes draws attention to individual dishes, salt shakers, cutlery and napkins represented. The work opens a window for the material culture of the table. However, it is not a record of a concrete meal of the monks of Refojos. The location in the Municipal Session Room is indicated in that publication, without confirmation of current exposure or access.

In the recipe collected in March 2011 by the Museum of Lands of Basto, Maria da Conceição Gonçalves Mouta, resident in Recovos, Pedraça, combined white rye, dark rye and wheat. The testimony distinguishes the cornbread learned with the grandmother from the mixture bread that she later made. Tradition also changes inside a kitchen. In the same collection, he says that he no longer cooked weekly: he made bread for the parties and when he missed the homemade bread. I also prepared him for Santa Marinha and for Christmas and the defoliation of Association D. Nuno Álvares, Pedraça. The bread connected the kitchen to the community meetings.

The rhythm of the batches also changed the yeast. When it was cooked frequently, the dough of the previous batch was kept; in the preparation described in 2011, the informant resorted to baking leaven prepared on the eve. The change of the ingredients accompanies a change of calendar, between the weekly bread and the bread of the meetings.

Cabeceiras de Basto integrates the production area of Mel das Terras Altas of the Minho DOP described by the PTPT portal. The flowers of the heathers bind the serran vegetation to this dark honey, which can present fluid or crystallized. The story does not end in the hive: the chart describes the collection, extraction, decantation and packaging in the production region. There are therefore plants, bees and human labor on the way to the bottle. The inclusion of the municipality in this area does not mean that any honey sold here is certified.

The name also has criteria in the reference form.The portal distinguishes the polynic composition of the product and the name ‘Mel de Urze’ or ‘Mel de Queiró’, associated with a presence of more than 35% ericaceous pollen.This information is not obtained only by looking at the color of the bottle.

The presentation may vary: the form includes centrifuged, liquid or crystallized honey, and honey in honeycombs. To know a concrete product, it is worth reading the origin and identification on the label. A photograph of the landscape or the sale in a local market does not show the DOP certification alone.

In the gastronomic program from 23 to 25 March 2012, Cabeceiras presented the roasted goat as a specialty and the French toast with honey as regional sweet. The municipal announcement also associates the table with green wine, meat and honey. This combination shows how gastronomic dissemination brings products and preparations together. It is the historical program of that edition, not a current menu nor an assignment of exclusive origin of French toast to the municipality.

The 2015 guide adds a preparation with milk and honey. Compare it to the wine version of Dídia Teixeira: the same name can store different recipes.

The Miguelitos de Alice da Conceição de Magalhães Alves won the Sweet Cabeceirense Contest, announced on Casa do Tempo in 18 May 2019. The municipal news describes a preparation wrapped with yellow beans, flour and green wine, stuffed with eggs and honey. The contest was part of the Monastery of Emotions program. In February 2020, the Municipality again highlighted them as dessert of the Gastronomy Weekend, next to the stew as the main dish. The candy thus passed from the competition to the promotion of the head table; the news does not confirm current availability.