Portugal Expert®
October , 2024
t is said that the origin of alheira dates back to the end of the 15th century and beginning of the 16th century and is associated with the presence of Jews in Trás-os-Montes. Since they did not eat pork, the Jews did not make or smoke the usual sausages, and were therefore easily identifiable by the Inquisition. They therefore decided to take other types of meat and wrap them in bread dough to create alheira. The recipe ended up becoming popular among Christians, who added pork to it.
History of Alheira:
The first references to the “alheira” sausage appear in the 16th century, as an original way for practicing Jews to deceive the Spanish Inquisition, during the reign of Isabella of Castile.
The queen, a deeply Catholic, believed that the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula during the conquest of the last Moorish stronghold (Granada) and who had taken refuge in Portugal, could encourage those who had already converted to Christianity to return to their original religion.
To avoid persecution and death sentences, these Jews formed communities where they pretended to be Christians, simulating their lifestyle through various tricks. One of them had to do with food, as pork was part of the Christians’ diet, while the Jewish religion prohibited its consumption. This was one of the ways the Spanish Inquisition had to identify Jews, assessing whether they consumed pork or not.
To deceive the inquisitors, the Jews then created a sausage that contained only chicken meat and bread, which in appearance resembled the sausages with pork consumed by Christians
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