Pão de queijo
(Cheese Bread)
Where did the Pão de queijo recipe came from?
Ok, so, as most Brazilian things, the real origin of these yummy cheese
bread is unknown. It’s believed that they became a thing around the 18th
century in the state of Minas Gerais, which totally makes sense, since
production of milk and cheese is higher in that state. Anyway, the other
important thing to note is, at that time,
Brazilians had long mastered processing yuca into different forms,
including flour, while processing wheat flour in the other hand wasn’t a thing then.
Looks like wheat flour wasn’t really produced locally until the
beginning of the 20th century.
So,
if wheat flour was even to be considered for making Brazilian cheese
bread, people at the time would have had to rely on flour imported
from Europe.
And in 18th century Minas Gerais that would have been… complicated.
Also, apparently, the quality of the wheat flour coming from
Portugal wasn’t the best to begin with, so, that didn’t really play in
favor of wheat as a first option anyway. Too hard to get, too low
quality. With that, Minas’ savvy locals, decided to do the logical thing
and stick to the better, local ingredient *drum roll*, yuca
starch.
Yuca startch is what we call, polvilho, which you might know as, wait
for it…. tapioca flour!
And just like that, with a little bit of milk, a little old/hardened
cheese, and some eggs the pão de queijo recipe was born.