Flavors

Alcina Teixeira shared these small cakes through Mário Teixeira, residing in Refojos. The publication of the Museum, of 2020, links them to the recipes found in a Portuguese magazine during the years in Mozambique.

The Cassians belong to the same set of memories of lemon cookies and honey cake. The source describes the shape in polka dots, but does not explain the origin of the name.

The report identifies a family trip: Alcina, born in Penafiel, went to Vila de Manica, Mozambique, at the age of fifteen. There he met Alexandre Teixeira of Cavez, who worked on the railways. Alcina had a corn mill and a commercial establishment, and made cakes for family parties. The magazine where he found the recipes connected it to the flavors of Cabeceiras before the family came to live for the municipality. History follows the transmission of recipe; it does not establish who created it.

Chestnuts in April and May? In the memory of Maria da Conceição Gonçalves Mouta, they were dried chestnuts that arrived at the table during the cultivation and sowing of corn. The broth, with beans, cabbage and potatoes, closed the first meal, by nine or nine and a half in the morning, after fried cod with bread.

The testimony was collected by Maria de Fátima Carvalho in February 2011, in Pedraça. Maria da Conceição had learned the preparation with her mother-in-law. The chestnuts were previously dried and aired; the baked potato was crushed and returned to the pot. Conservation, texture and working hours are found in this family memory.

Here there are two calendars: that of the fruit and that of the meal. The dried chestnut kept allowed to bring to the spring table a food associated with the harvest of another season. The memory does not only describe ingredients: it explains how the reserves of the house accompanied the time of tilling and sowing. The time of the “lunch” also surprises those who today use this word for the midday meal.

It is a story with voice and place, not a rule for all the houses of Cabeceiras. When talking about a family recipe, it is worth keeping these differences: who taught it, when it was prepared and what changed between the fireplace and the stove. Thus, a list of ingredients becomes a small history of work, learning and domestic life.

In the January collection of 2011, Maria da Conceição Gonçalves Mouta recalls beans, grelos, pork and cornmeal. It is a cooking memory transmitted by the grandmother of Cavez and registered in Recovos, Pedraça. The flour entered close to the end of the cooking, moved continuously to undo the clumps. This gesture helped to body the broth.

The testimony also notes a change in the utensils: the gas stove and the stainless steel pans had entered the everyday, while the fireplace and the three-legged pot remained present in the conoada. The memory does not describe a kitchen stopped in time. In 2011, the informant said to prepare this broth rarely, distinguishing the custom remembered from the frequency of that moment.

Compare this dish with the cabbages with migas from the same informant: the broth receives cornmeal, while the cabbages receive pieces of bread after runoff. One collection is associated with January and February; the other value the tender cabbages of April and May. The cereal connects the dishes, but the gesture and the season distinguish us.

In Moimenta, Cavez, the vineyards occupy terraces on the slopes of a sheltered valley. The municipal description connects this landscape to the production of green wine. Looking at the steps on the ground is another way to know the wine culture. The visits to Thursdays and the tastings depend on the conditions of each space.

The municipal guide presents the terraces as a dominant mark of the slopes and also highlights the Casa do Valle and Casa da Ponte. The vineyard does not appear isolated: it is part of a village with built heritage, agriculture and livestock. This framework helps to look beyond the bottle and recognize the work inscribed on the ground.

The landscape, however, does not reveal alone the variety of each plot. To continue, it compares the names of the grapes described in the other readings of Basto with the utensils used in the harvest. They are different clues to know the wine culture.

The municipal presentation highlights the cherry in agriculture of Faia and associates the parish with the production of wine. The tannaria, linked to wooden containers, adds a artisanal dimension to this agricultural landscape.

In May 1758, the abbot described a greater abundance of wine, fruit and olive oil than cereal. The two sources allow different seasons to approach, but do not tell an exact continuity of cultures: the ancient document speaks of fruit in general, without identifying cherries. Comparing them is a way to discover as much as we know and what remains to be clarified.

In 2011, Maria da Conceição Gonçalves Mouta already cooked in gas stove and stainless steel pans. However, the whole meal returned to the fireplace and to the three-legged pots.

The collection in Recovos, Pedraça, also notes that it sometimes resumed this way of cooking outside Christmas. The old utensil continued to take place in a kitchen that had changed. It is a family memory, not a custom attributed to all the houses of the municipality.

In the March collection of 2011 in Recovos, Pedraça, Maria da Conceição described several signs: the mass rested and increased in volume; the whitish interior of the oven indicated enough heat for the batch. It then served the dough in a basin, giving it a rounded shape. The testimony shows a knowledge made of gestures and observation, learned in a kitchen and registered by the Museum. It does not establish a universal rule for all ovens or masses.

There is a sequence between these signals. First, the rest allows us to observe the change of mass; then the oven is prepared and the breads are formed. The record adds attention to the time, volume and color of the inside of the oven. Knowing how to cook included relating these observations, besides knowing the ingredients.

The presentation of Cabeceiras in the Gastronomic Weekends of 2025 identifies quails as a local fruit linked to winter traditions. In the described preparation, they are roasted in the coals until they soften and serve hot, peeled, with red or wine-free green wine. It is a way to discover the fruit through the cooking gestures. The recipe documents a gastronomic proposal; it does not guarantee that it is available daily in restaurants.

Bravia and Serrana, including their crossings, are the breeds associated with the Goat of the Highlands of the Minho IGP in the form of the PTPT portal. Cabeceiras integrates the described production area. Adult animals take advantage of spontaneous vegetation; goats feed on breast milk. The shepherding can be individual or gather flocks from the village instead. This relationship between mountain, creation and between help precedes the dish. The gastronomic promotion of Cabeceiras March 2016 highlighted this product; this does not certify any goat served today in the municipality.

The description of the know-how in the PTPT portal follows the daily rhythm of the herds. Goats go out to pastures, while the suckling of goats is organized in the morning, before leaving, and in the afternoon, on return. The capril and the hill thus perform different functions in the creation.

The Bravia is associated with the mountains of the Alto Minho and the Northwest of Trás-os-Montes; the Serrana to Serra da Estrela. The product combines these breeds and their crossings in a production area of its own. It is not only an oven recipe: it is also a link between animals, milk, vegetation and shepherd's work.

Azal is a late-maturing white variety, adapted to dry and well-exposed land from the interior of the region of the Vinhos Verdes, including Basto. The technical file describes compact bunches that maintain a greenish even mature tone. Looking only at the color is not enough to decide whether the harvest time has come.

The adult leaf is rounded and thick, with regular teeth and quite pilosity on the lower face. The curl has a lateral branch, described as wing. These clues show why the description of a caste brings together leaves, curls and development phases, rather than being limited to the color of the grapes.

Azal has a long cycle: the fiche distinguishes early bloom from late maturation. One early start phase does not mean that all others also do so. The caste can be used alone or in batch wines with Arinto, Batoca and Loureiro; recognizing a variety in the landscape and knowing the composition of a wine remains different questions.

In Pedraça, Maria da Conceição Mouta recalled a cake made with the bread's own dough. She took small sardines or chorizo and entered the oven before the breads.

The collection of 2011, published by the Museum in 2015, links the name of the cake to the organization of the batch. The recipe holds gestures of a traditional oven, to know together with the history of bread.

A dessert of bread for Christmas and New Year, with honey, dried fruits and Port.

Fatima Magalhães collected this version in 2011 from Maria da Conceição Gonçalves Mouta, born in Cavez and residing in Pedraça. The Museum published it in 2016.

The preparation sequence gives the bread a leading role: it enters small pieces, after the dried fruit, and thickens the prepared as it moves. The lemon peel and cinnamon stick join the water and honey at the beginning; the cinnamon powder finishes the sweet in the dish.

This version keeps measurements of different natures: liters, a cup and quantities left to the taste of the cooker. The record keeps that difference. The collection does not provide portions or weights for all ingredients, so the recipe was not converted into an invented precision formula.

Alcina Teixeira found recipes of Cabeceiras in a Portuguese magazine during the years in Mozambique. Cookies arrived at the Museum through the son Mário, resident in Refojos, and were published in 2020.

The family also kept the honey cake and the Cassians. Compare these recipes allows you to follow the journey of a knowledge between a magazine, family cuisine and public disclosure.

Alcina Teixeira, residing in Refojos, shared this cake in 2016. I remembered meeting him in a magazine by Maria Odette Cortes Valente, about 1966, when I lived in Mozambique.

Honey, cinnamon and fennel are found in this family memory.

The collection identifies a family practice: Alcina made cakes for parties and sought recipes in magazines. The cake combines honey with sugar and brings olive oil, milk, nuts and spices. The chimney shape belongs to the registered preparation. These details allow us to recognize this version, without presenting it as the only way to make honey cake in Cabeceiras.

On Sunday, the cabidela took place in the kitchen described by Isabel Sousa, a natural and resident in Refojos. In the version she shared, the chicken accompanies the rice; onion, garlic, blonde and parsley enter the seasoning, along with white wine, blood and vinegar. The publication also keeps words of preparation, such as the strut and testus.

Conceição Magalhães collected the recipe in 2013, and the Museum published it in October 2014. The indication of Sunday gives the dish a place in the family calendar, but does not establish a rule for the whole municipality. It is the voice of an identified cook, with an occasion and a way of telling what he was doing.

In the collection of 2014 made by Conceição Magalhães, Ana Peneda, natural and resident in Arco de Baúlhe, describes cod pataniscas with eggs, wheat flour, parsley and onion. The Museum associates this preparation with meals and records a detail of vocabulary: the sertã was also called tacho. The memory of a recipe holds ingredients, occasions and words.

Maria Helena da Mota Lopes da Silva Almeida, resident in Refojos since childhood, told that she had learned these popes in the early 21st century. The master was a cook from Porto who came to Cabeceiras to work in baptisms and marriages. The parties were also places where techniques and recipes were learned.

The version collected in June 2011 combines different meats, cornmeal, cooked pig blood, red wine and cumin. The report situates the preparation in winter until the end of March. The publication, July of that year, documents the transmission of a knowledge and its usual time; it does not indicate a menu available today.