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Păo de Queijo means
in Portuguese Bread of cheese.
However in first
days of Pao de Queijo had no cheese in it.
Everything started
back in the years 1600’s when the slaves of our Minas Gerais state were making
Manioc Flour to the rich farmland owners. That was pretty much the time
Feijoada was invented as well.
But going back to
the Păo de Queijo history, the slaves used to crop manioc (yucca root), peel
them off, finely grate them, and soak them in a big wood bowl (gamela)
with plenty of water. So they wash and drained this grated manioc, then spread
this manioc on a tiled floor outdoors and let it dry under the sun.
 Yucca root.
When dried, they
scraped this manioc into big bags and stored them for food consumption
throughout the year.
This was a noble
food prepared to the farmland owners. Therefore slaves were not supposed to eat
them. Even today this manioc flour is largely used in Brazilian cuisine. In our
site we can see a recipe of Tutu (creamed beans) prepared with manioc flour, and
also it is used to prepare the Farofa (a seasoned manioc flour). I’ve seen some
people here say it tastes like beach sand. But don’t be fooled, a well prepared
Farofa with manioc flour is a “Farmland owner’s exclusive food!”.
OK. But our hard
working slaves end it up with a fine white powder left in the big wood bowls
after taking out the manic flour. This was the manioc starch that dried out in
the “gamelas” after preparing the manioc flour. The manioc flour had the starch
washed out that’s why the sandy appearance.
So the slaves
managed to scrape this white starch off the gamelas, make small balls and bake
them. This manioc starch balls had neither cheese nor milk in it, just plain
manioc starch. These baked balls became popular among the slaves and rich people
just discarded this type of food.
More than 200 years
latter, cattle farms became widespread in Brazil and slaves (that were being
freed by that time) gained access to better foods such as milk and cheese. So
they began to increment the baked balls with milk and ultimately cheese!
When Brazil had no
more slaves, their culture began to spread among the rest of the population. And
Păo de Queijo became popular in Minas Gerais.
Today, in every
house you visit in Minas, they will prepare for you a fresh brewed coffee with
Păo de Queijo.
The manioc starch
latter got the name of “Polvilho” and now we have two types of “Polvilho”. Sweet
polvilho that is made in the same way our ancestors slaves used to do: wash out
grated manioc and dry the milky liquid in a large open tiled floor, or big wood
bowls.
The second type is
the Sour Polvilho. This one is made by letting the germs in the wood bowl to
ferment the milky liquid before putting it to dry.
The sour polvilho
makes a Pao de Queijo a little more acid and bigger. The
prepared mix you buy is
made with sour polvilho.
During the slavery
times in Brazil, the Africans incorporated old traditions they brought from
Africa with the culture they developed in the new country Brazil.
Their culture
blended in our Brazilian culture and we are very proud of it. Today people have
a hard time to remember if a specific tradition or food is from African slaves
origin or not. Food such as the Chicken Ximxim, vatapa, canjica, cocada, Feijoada and Păo de Queijo are better known by the geographic location they
exist than by ethnic origin. And the same I can say about the martial art Capoeira and the samba music. They are just Brazilian, there is no racial
segregation in my loved country Brazil.
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