Pudim Abade de Priscos

Pudim Abade de Priscos is a pudding from Braga in northern Portugal made with a generous amount of egg yolks. It is cooked in a bain-marie in a caramel-coated mold and flavored with port wine, lemon and cinnamon. The most striking of its ingredients is toucinho, or pork fat.

Combining the yolks with a syrup cooked with pork fat and spices

In one example by chef Henrique Sá Pessoa, cinnamon, lemon peel and toucinho are added to water and sugar and cooked. The syrup, with the fat and flavorings removed, is gradually combined with egg yolks mixed with port wine. Adding the hot syrup little by little also serves to combine it with the yolks without making them set suddenly. The yolks are mixed without incorporating too much air, poured into a caramel-lined mold and cooked in a bain-marie. The yolks set to create a smooth texture, while the sugar syrup and wine add sweetness and aroma.

In Sá Pessoa’s method, the fat itself is strained out, so no pieces of meat remain in the finished pudding. The step of cooking toucinho in syrup distinguishes it from other puddings centered on eggs and sugar. Portuguese food researcher Virgílio Nogueiro Gomes explains that the role of this fat is not to give a strong meaty flavor but to create a distinctive texture through its fat. The fat and wine used, and the way it is cooked, vary according to each maker’s recette (proportions of ingredients and method).

A name linked to the “Priest of Priscos”

The “Priest of Priscos” in the name refers to Manuel Joaquim Rebelo, who served for many years in the 19th century in Priscos, near Braga. This priest, who was skilled at cooking, is said to have created the sweet, and it remains popular today as one of Braga’s representative puddings. Gomes writes that he found the recipe for this sweet, which is said to have been created in the late 19th century, in a cookbook published in 1925. This published example does not indicate the year the sweet was created.

Glossary