Best Bragança Foods
Vinhais ham is a smoked pork meat specialty made from the hind legs of Bisaro pigs raised in the municipality of Bragança in Portugal. Vinhais presunto is made by first massaging raw cuts of pork to eliminate the internal fluids.
These pieces are then covered with salt and sprinkled with a mixture of paprika, oil, and pork lard, and smoked over a low heat using dry oak or chestnut wood. The ham has a color ranging from pink to dark red, and it has a predominantly salty, smoky flavor.
The filling for this traditional smoked delicacy is made by combining small pieces of meat and bread. This sausage is traditionally smoked using olive or oak wood, which gives it a unique flavor, aroma, and color while enhancing the flavor of the spices. Mirandela sausage contains beef and pork meat along with fat, poultry meat, wheat bread, olive oil, and lard, and it's flavored and seasoned with salt, garlic, and sweet or hot paprika.
This sausage is an irreplaceable ingredient in traditional Portuguese dishes such as açorda, cannelones, and pies, but it can also be served as a main dish with a side of potatoes or vegetables.
OTHER VARIATIONS OF Petiscos
This hard cheese is made from raw goat milk taken from Serrana breed. Goat cheese has long played an important role in the economy of the Bragança region, and many of the local families raise animals and produce cheese as their main source of subsistence.
Once the goats are milked, the milk is filtered and heated. The curd is then salted and cured at a low temperature and high humidity. Transmontano cheese is round with a semi-hard crust, and is uniform, smooth, and white. It is a firm cheese with an intense and pleasant aroma and a slight spicy note.
Terrincho cheese is a ripe, semi-hard cheese made from the milk of the Churra da Terra Quente breed of sheep, which graze on the grasslands and marshes of Terra Quente in the municipalities of Bragança, Vila Real, Viseu, and Guarda.
This breed of sheep, colloquially referred to as terrincho, has spread to such an extent that it now accounts for 98% of the sheep population in the region. To produce the cheese, the milk is filtered, heated, and curdled with animal rennet.
This smoked sausage is made exclusively with meat taken from the Bísaro breed of pig or its cross-breeds, and at least 50% of it must come from pigs raised in the northern district of Bragança in Portugal. The meat is cut into small pieces and boiled in salted water, which is then used to soften the bread that goes into the final mixture of meat, bread, paprika, garlic and olive oil.
The mixture is stuffed into sausage casings and slowly smoked over an oak or chestnut fire. The final product is yellow to brown in color and has an intense, smoky aroma and a lingering aftertaste. This chorizo pairs well with vegetables, sprouts, and boiled or mashed potatoes.
OTHER VARIATIONS OF Chouriço
Vinhais salpicão sausage is a traditional smoked sausage made from pork of the Bísaro breed of pigs from Vinhais in the municipality of Bragança. Bísaro pig farming is widespread throughout this area, and it is an important source of income for the local rural population.
The pigs feed on chestnuts and acorns, which gives the meat and its products a unique flavor of the Portuguese north.
The sausage is made by combining pork loin with local wine, salt, garlic, bay leaves, and paprika and leaving the combination to marinate.
Traditionally produced in the Portuguese district of Bragança, butelo de vinhais is a smoked sausage made with pork meat and pork loin from Bísaro pigs. The meat is seasoned and flavored with garlic, paprika, bay leaves, and salt, and it's also infused with regional red or white wine. Vinhais sausage has a pronounced smokey aroma and a well-rounded flavor.
It is used in many traditional dishes, the most famous being butelo de vinhais com cascas – slices of butelo sausage served with a side of beans and potatoes.
This sweet, smoked chorizo sausage is a specialty of the Vinhais region in northeastern Portugal, and it is made from lean meat and fat taken from the Bísaro breed of pig or its cross-breeds. The chopped meat is mixed with pig's blood, local wheat bread, honey, walnuts, almonds, and olive oil.
After it has been seasoned and flavored, the mixture is stuffed into thin sausage casings and slowly smoked until it develops a dark color and an intense, smoky flavor. The sausage must be fried to be fit for consumption, and it is usually served with fresh bread, local cheese, and a glass of full-bodied red wine on the side.
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