Tigelada

Tigelada is a Portuguese egg-and-milk sweet baked in an earthenware bowl. Beneath its well-browned top it is soft, much like a pudding, and its bottom is dotted with small holes. These holes form because the bowl is heated before the batter goes in.

In the method from Rio de Moinhos, near Abrantes, eggs and sugar are mixed well, and then flour and milk are added. Small, deep earthenware bowls are heated thoroughly in the oven, and the batter is poured in without taking the bowls out of the oven. One recorded technique is to tie a cup to the end of a long pole and pour the batter inside the hot oven. Another example from Abrantes uses unglazed earthenware bowls and adds lemon peel and cinnamon to the batter. The eggs set with the heat, and the sweet bakes to a flan-like texture.

When the liquid touches the very hot bowl, the part in contact with the bowl cooks suddenly, leaving traces of air bubbles on the bottom. Although both are egg sweets, this differs in how heat is applied from pudim Abade de Priscos, which is gently poured into a mold and set in a water bath. The flavorings and proportions vary by place and household.

Abrantes has a tradition linking the sweet to a convent, and sweets with similar names are said to appear in old cookbooks and in records of convent cooking. On the other hand, several places claim to be its origin, so it cannot be determined that it was born in a single place. In Rio de Moinhos, there is also a surviving custom of decorating by stacking baked tigeladas alternately with green ferns.

Glossary