Influence of Spice Trade on Portuguese Cuisine
In the book named “Livro de Cozinha da Infanta D. Maria de Portugal”, one of the oldest gastronomy books on the cuisine of Portugal, a lot many famous as well as popular Portuguese dishes made up of fish, meat, eggs, and with other staffs have been mentioned in this book of the 16th century. The infamous dishes of Portuguese have been greatly influenced by the spice trade with the East Indies, which brought in varieties of spices and the rational use of them in the cuisines of the country as per Assunção et al., (2019). Spices like piri piri (the fiery and small chilli peppers), black peppers, types of cloves, paprika, nutmeg, allspice, as well as cumin were being used in cooking of the meat, fishes, and in other delicacies in the Azores and in the Madeira islands of the Continental Portugal. Additionally, other spices and flavours like vanilla, aniseeds, cinnamons, cardamom, allspices as well as cloves have been used to prepare several traditional cuisines, dishes, and in savoury delicacies like desserts. Herbs like onions and garlic have been widely in use in the preparation of traditional Portuguese meals. Also, other famous herbs like oregano, bay leaf, mint, rosemary, chilli flakes, parsley, thyme, marjoram, as well as corianders were also prevalent as the famous ones in the use as stated by Garcia, (2019). Most of the cuisines of the Portuguese are hugely cooked on olive oil in order to add more flavours to the meals. The food habits of the Portuguese people are largely dependent on traditional breads such as bora, and rice. There are many factors on which the Portuguese cuisines have evolved itself in a wider sense. The influence of Portuguese food is important to explore because of its blend with different other spices and delicacies of other countries who had set a commercial business with Portugal in the ancient times. The most widely used seasonings which have been used in Portuguese cuisines are various types of spices and the use of coriander. Also, a lot of use of eggs is also there in the Portuguese cuisines. The famous cuisines of this country is Bacalhau, dried and salted cod, cataplana de marisco, sardinhas assadas, and many more such dishes Graça, Gregório and Graça Freitas, (2020).
The cuisines of Portuguese is not only influenced by the locations and the geography but also is deeply impacted by the history. The main ingredients of these cuisines are chicken, salted cod, olives, rice, shellfish, and potatoes. Another important savoury of these cuisines is that they are made up with the use of wine. From the time of the Middle Ages, several cereals, legumes and poultry like duck, turkey, chicken, quail and red-legged partridge have been cultivated by the Portuguese for their survival. They were also very much habituated and indulged with fishing as well as hunting as sustenance, for more convenience people from certain area lived near water bodies and forest area for much ease with the purposes as stated by Manuel, (2019). This way they incorporated fish, meat and vegetable in their staple foods. During these times, people used to hunt for a large amount and preserve the meat and fishes with wine and lemon juices. This method is still prevalent because both of these ingredients keep the food fresh and healthy. Along with this, vine and olive trees were grown which had also been used as preservatives during this time. Also, people considered the eating of bread prepared with acorn or the wheat as a staple food. Bacalhau is one of the famous dishes of this country which can be cooked by 365 ways as per Manuel and Glatzer, (2019). This has been invented in the ancient times and to preserve them, they were soaked in water or milk. In Portugal, there had been a history of undernourishment to at least 10 per cent of the population. The country faced less per capita income for about a decade long which made the country to suffer shortages of food throughout the nation. Also, the less exportation from the country to the other countries for the commercial purposes also triggered the poverty prevalent in the country because of the less income of the country. Though, at this moment, the country has turned around very much methodically and now food is available to everyone. At this point, the cuisines of Portugal are famous worldwide and it has also influenced many of the dishes of other countries like Australia, France, and Italy (Moreira and Parente, 2021).
Traditional Ingredients and Spices
Though the country practices acceptances to all kinds of religions in the world, but most of the population, more than 80 per cent, practices Catholicism. So, the food practices followed by the whole population of Christianity are quite uniform all over. There are no dietary restrictions as such but the Portuguese heavily gets indulged into the seafood, influenced by the Mediterranean Sea. The Christian people mostly cook food with olive oil; great use of spice is also there, as per Oliveira et al., (2021). They mostly prepare food by roasting it raw with lots of spices, grill and char it with olive oil over the barbeque. Sometimes, they also prefer having boiled the vegetables and have it like stew with the use of black pepper and lemon. There are no as such dietary restrictions followed by the religion communities, mostly Christianity, of the country, though they mostly like the food prepared roasted. The most common nad popular dishes that the people of Portugal like to have is definitely Bacalhau as well as their national food, named as Cozio a Portuguesa, prepared with the meat of pig. The cultural trend of the Portuguese is that they mostly have meals of seafood (Palos-Sanchez and Correia, 2018).
There is a lot of governmental debt on the economy of Portugal. During the ongoing pandemic of the COVID-19, the country has been struggling with its economy as in related with the export and import. There is reportedly huge number of unemployment prevalent in the country since the pandemic. As the livelihood of the country is based sea, and the export and import related to the commerce with other countries faced turmoil, the effect directly fell on the employment sector of the country as per Ribeiro et al., (2019). The people who literally survive on the sea business were the worst hit by the downfall of the economy during the pandemic. The business of the tourism also was greatly impacted due to the lockdown. The fall in the economy has directly impacted the food security of the lower income group in the country. Around 20 per cent of the people suffered from the food shortages due to the pandemic. Low food intake during this time, along with COVID-19, has led to loss of appetite, weaknesses, dehydration, and prone to many diseases due to less available of food (Vicente-Martins et al., 2019).
Conclusion
The cuisines of Portugal are important to explore because of the blend of the different types of spices and sea food from all around the world. From the ancient times, the Portuguese used rich spices and olive oil in their food with the use of meat, fish and poultry. The trend is changed with the experiment of food from the influence of the other country as well. There are snacks available like pizza, burger, and desserts too. There are no as such food concerns in the country because Portugal is mostly based on seafood. It is important for people to keep on holding the tradition of its food because the country consists of some really unique cuisines made up from seafood, which is famous to the world.
References
Assunção, R., Martins, C., Viegas, S., Viegas, C., Jakobsen, L. S., Pires, S., & Alvito, P. (2018). Climate change and the health impact of aflatoxins exposure in Portugal–an overview. Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A, 35(8), 1610-1621.
Garcia, M. T. M., & de Freitas Sanches, D. M. A. THE SHADOW ECONOMY DETERMINANTS-THE CASE OF PORTUGAL.
Graça, P., Gregório, M. J., & da Graça Freitas, M. (2020). A Decade of Food and Nutrition Policy in Portugal (2010–2020). Portuguese Journal of Public Health, 38(2), 94-118.
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Manuel, P. C., & Glatzer, M. (2019). The State, Religious Institutions, and Welfare Delivery: The Case of Portugal. In Faith-Based Organizations and Social Welfare (pp. 103-133). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Moreira, S., & Parente, C. (2021). Transformative Communication Radar: Practices, Action and Praxis Communication in Solidarity Economy Networks in Portugal and Catalonia. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, 19(2), 438-458.
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Palos-Sanchez, P. R., & Correia, M. B. (2018). The collaborative economy based analysis of demand: Study of Airbnb case in Spain and Portugal. Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research, 13(3), 85-98.
Ribeiro, A. R., Altintzoglou, T., Mendes, J., Nunes, M. L., Dinis, M. T., & Dias, J. (2019). Farmed fish as a functional food: perception of fish fortification and the influence of origin–insights from Portugal. Aquaculture, 501, 22-31.
Vicente-Martins, S., Oleastro, M., Domingues, F. C., & Ferreira, S. (2018). Arcobacter spp. at retail food from Portugal: Prevalence, genotyping and antibiotics resistance. Food Control, 85, 107-112.
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