Alheira
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article deals with the Portuguese sausage. For the parish in the municipality of Barcelos, Portugal, see Alheira (Barcelos).
The alheira is a Portuguese sausage made with many meats other than pork, usually veal, duck, chicken or rabbit, and bread.
It was invented by the Jewish as a way to deceive the Portuguese Inquisition. As the Jewish weren't allowed by their religion to eat pork meat, they were very easily identifiable by the fact that they didn't prepare and smoke the common pork sausages in the smokehouses (or fumeiros, in Portuguese). They, therefore, replaced pork meat by a large variety of other meats, such as veal, rabbit, turkey, duck, chicken and sometimes partridge, which would then be mixed with a bread dough for consistency. This recipe would spread amongst Christians, although they added the ever-present pork to it.
Alheiras are usually fried in olive oil and served with boiled vegetables and potatoes.
Nowadays, the most renowned alheiras are those from Mirandela, although throughout Beira Alta and Trás-os-Montes the traditional alheiras are also renowned.
