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Madeira is much more dry than Port wine. The soil of the island and the salty breeze are enough to change the nature of the wine at the grape level; plus, it’s a fortified wine. Good Madeira should end on a slightly bitter, somewhat acidic note.

Port wine grows inland, on hills, where a river cuts across deep valeys. Any Port is sweet by nature, very round on the mouth, with wood and berry notes. The whites tend to be slightly more dry, with a somewhat citrus or flower note, but nonetheless sweet.

You can cook with these wines, especially if you want to flex a bit and add a few dimensions to the end result but plain wine os more than enough; Portugal was always essentially a poor country. Wine was prolific but fine wines like Port amd Madeira were luxury items and most of our traditional cuisine was born in farm kitchens, where food needed to be plentiful and tasteful, to help push away a hard day of labor.

Drowning meat in wine is almost standard fare. One especially traditional rabbit stew involves drowning the meat in red wine, over night, with garlic, onions and bay leaves, seasoned with some salt and pepper, and the next day cook it very slowly in a clay pot in the hoven. After a few hours, the meat should peel of the bone. Try it, if you can.

And cheese usually is not part of the main dish, unless you’re serving francesinha or some preparation of hoven baked cod, where you may grate some island cheese on top for salt and the bitterness of it.

Bifana with cheese. That’s criminal.

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abraxas@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

Madeira is much more dry than Port wine. The soil of the island and the salty breeze are enough to change the nature of the wine at the grape level; plus, it’s a fortified wine. Good Madeira should end on a slightly bitter, somewhat acidic note.

I’ve heard of dry Madeiera, but I’ve never tried it. Acidic, yes. Local Madeiras are very sweet around here. The most popular brand of Madeira in my area is effectively reduced grape juice mixed with Brandy. Sickeningly, coyingly sweet. My area perhaps the largest Portuguese Festival in the world (Feast of the Blessed Sacrament) is drink-sponsored by Justino’s Madeira, and it’s like drinking alcoholic maple syrup. It’s freaking delicious, for all of 2 oz pour and then it gets hard to finish :) The local Madeira’s have raisin or prune notes.

Now Port. We’ve got Sandalman and Pacheca. That can get fairly heavy, in either sweet or dry direction. I haven’t had a bone dry port, but I’m told they exist. I always have a bottle of Port in the house. Not so much Madeira. Special occasions only (not the price, it’s cheap. The extreme sweetness).

You can cook with these wines, especially if you want to flex a bit and add a few dimensions to the end result but plain wine os more than enough

I like the one-two punch of Sherry and Brandy much of the time. However, my wife and her family always uses a good Vinho Verde for her dishes. Cacoila is one of the local staples, and it’s basically pork left to soak in wine forever with a few secret ingredients (usually at least some some paprika)

One especially traditional rabbit stew involves drowning the meat in red wine, over night, with garlic, onions and bay leaves, seasoned with some salt and pepper, and the next day cook it very slowly in a clay pot in the hoven

OMG… I had that once at one of the local places (Captain’s place, since I’ve already doxed myself regarding the Festa). It was incredible. Rabbit isn’t common here, so it was a special. I’ve never seen it since :(

And cheese usually is not part of the main dish, unless you’re serving francesinha or some preparation of hoven baked cod, where you may grate some island cheese on top for salt and the bitterness of it.

francesinha looks incredible. I’ve never seen it around here. I’m guessing it’s a mainland dish? We have Sao Jorge cheese around here, but we only eat it straight. Also, nobody around here puts cheese with Cod, but baccalhau is often made with milk, so it’s not a huge stretch to me.

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- qyron@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Francesinha is a traditional dish from Porto. Mainland.
  
  Regarding bacalhau, we only have about 1001 different recipes to prepare it. There are a lot of ingredients with which to cook it with.
  
  Off the top of my head I can think of Bacalhau Espiritual and Bacalhau com Azeitonas, which are both baked.
  
  Bacalhau Espiritual is prepared with scalded bacalhau, just enough to easily peel the fish and debone it, flaking it. Usually the water will have a clove or two of fresh garlic and a bay leaf. When the fish is out, take a few laddles of water into a bowl and throw some small peeled shrimps, of the frozen kind into it. Let it steep. On the side, prepare mashed potatoes; use one egg yolk per person, minus one, for more than two persons eating, for color and richness, and season it with nutmeg but don’t fully season it with salt. You want a thick, creamy, mash. Cut two good sized onions in rings and lightly fry it in olive oil, until tender; add the shrimp and two or three table spoons of the water into the mix. Evaporate it. Throw two or three table spoons of white wine on it and evaporate it again. Add some finely chopped fresh parsley when you take it from the heat. In an oven safe glass or clay deep dish, pour a layer of mashed potatoes, smooth it, spread the cooked onions on top, with the shrimp, and cover with the flaked bacalhau. Pour a second layer of mashed potatoes on top. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and grate some queijo da ilha on top. Take to the oven until the bread is golden brown and the cheese has melted.
  
  The cheese will add the missing salt to the potato mash and bind the entire dish together with its sharpness.
  
  Bacalhau com azeitonas uses potatoes cut into small cubes, parboiled, with the bacalhau prepared in the same fashion and no shrimp. The onions are slightly fried, until soft, along with some garlic, freshned up with some white wine at the end, allowed to boil a bit to take away the alcohol; you want liquid in the pan. Turn off the heat. Throw the potatoes in, mix well, add a good hand full of olives, combine. Cover the bottom of an oven safe dish with the flaked cod, cover with the potatoes. Sprinkle with a bit of finely grated cheese for extra salt and that sharpness. Take to the oven until the potatoes are fully cooked, golden, and the cheese melt. Sprinkle with fresh parsley before serving.
  
  Not being a person of faith, I consider it borderline sinful to cook with vinho verde; too good for it. If you can, try and find some Alentejo, Douro or Dão. Three diferent regions, with very distinct wines. Just by playing around with the wine you use to cook you can get wildly diferent results.
  
  Ever heard about chanfana? It’s either old sheep or goat, left to marinate in red wine, onions, garlic, rosemary and bay leaves for days, then slowly cooked in the oven. It can take an entire day to properly cook it but the end result is a very tender meat. Goes well with potatoes. And some more wine.
  
  The Port brands you mention are mostly export brands. Pacheca is quite pricey for our market, in fact. Like any other wine, Port is plentiful here, with a bottle starting at less than €5. And of good quality. Even supermarket brands are good. Port wine undergoes very strict production requirements to be classfied and labelled as such. Cheap, yes. Knockoff, no. I often buy a lesser known brand, Porto Intermares; its what I call an old style Port, unapolegetic, straight to the point, uncompromised. It will get you drunk and fast and warn you in advance but you just want to keep enjoying another little sip.
  
  And you’re giving me the chills with that description of the Madeira. Give it to me dry, please.
  
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