The bread kept the next batch alive
A small piece of dough linked one batch to the next.
Includes an activity to try →Explore: Three ways to look at the same dough →Read here and view sources
In an account recorded in March 2011, Maria da Conceição remembered bread being baked every eight days. A piece of dough from the previous batch was kept in a bowl with a little salt, inside the wooden kneading trough. On the eve of the next baking day, warm water and flour were added. The account from Recovos, Pedraça, also describes an adaptation: when baking became less frequent, yeast bought from the bakery was used.
This change is part of a family history. Maria da Conceição was born in Cavez and had learned to make maize broa from her grandmother. When she was interviewed, at the age of 69, she also made mixed-grain broa. The account does not present an unchanging tradition: it shows learning, choices and an adapting routine.
The baking calendar extended to the community too. In the 2011 account, batches of bread were associated with annual celebrations, a longing for homemade bread, the feast of Santa Marinha and Christmas and maize-husking events organised by the Associação D. Nuno Álvares in Pedraça. Keeping dough for the following week made sense in a weekly routine; occasional baking created different needs. These are practices remembered in that account, not a current programme of festivities.
Source and context
Accessed: . Editorial summary; the date of consultation is not the date of the facts.