Francesinha ( meaning ''little French woman'') is a Portuguese

sandwich A sandwich is a Dish (food), dish typically consisting variously of meat, cheese, sauces, and vegetables used as a filling between slices of bread, or placed atop a slice of bread; or, more generally, any dish in which bread serves as a ''co ...

, originally from

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

, made with layers of toasted bread and assorted hot meats such as roast, steak, wet-cured

ham Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term '' ...

linguiça ''Linguiça'' () is a Portuguese sausage made from pork and seasoned with onion, garlic, paprika and other spices. It can be used fresh in cooked preparations or undergo a curing and preservation process through smoking. Uses in Portuguese cu ...

, or

chipolata A chipolata ( (British) or (American)) is a type of small sausage, usually containing minced pork, or sometimes minced chicken. History In the '' Oxford Companion to Food'', Alan Davidson gives the derivation of the name as the Italian , meani ...

over which sliced cheese is melted by the ladling of a near-boiling tomato-and-beer sauce called . It is typically served with

french fries French fries, or simply fries, also known as chips, and finger chips (Indian English), are '' batonnet'' or '' julienne''-cut deep-fried potatoes of disputed origin. They are prepared by cutting potatoes into even strips, drying them, and f ...

History

The francesinha is a 20th-century creation attributed to Daniel David de Silva who, upon returning to Portugal from time spent in France and Belgium, tried to adapt the

croque-monsieur A croque monsieur (, ''croque'' = "crunch", ''monsieur'' = "mister, gentleman") is a hot sandwich made with ham and cheese. History There are references to the dish before the end of the 19th century. In 1891, mentions them: In the early ...

to Portuguese tastes. In 1953, he introduced a sandwich with local meats and a custom beer-and-tomato sauce at A Regaleira, a restaurant in Rua do Bonjardim in

. The francesinha quickly became a popular dish, and although it remains associated with the city, it can now be found throughout Portugal.

Variations

There is no standard recipe for the francesinha. Different restaurants in Portugal have special variations, such as: * Café Barcarola (Porto): Francesinha à Barcarola - A Francesinha Especial with prawns and shrimp; * Café Ábaco (Porto): Francesinha de carne assada - A Francesinha Especial with roast pork; * A Cascata (Porto): ''Francesinha à Cascata'' - A Francesinha Especial with

mushrooms A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the name "mushroom" is ...

and

cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this proces ...

; The (special francesinha) is a francesinha with egg and/or potato chips. Other variations of the original include fillings such as

pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig animal husbandry, husbandry dating back to 8000–9000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooke ...

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

pastrami Pastrami is a type of cured meat originating from Romania usually made from beef brisket. The raw meat is brined, partially dried, seasoned with herbs and spices, then smoked and steamed. Like corned beef, pastrami was created as a way to pres ...

tuna A tuna (: tunas or tuna) is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bul ...

cod Cod (: cod) is the common name for the demersal fish genus ''Gadus'', belonging to the family (biology), family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gad ...

, and

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...

options.

Sauce

Francesinha sauce varies, with each establishment having its variation. The only common ingredient is beer. Most, though not all, sauces are tomato based and vary in their degree of spiciness. The colour is usually red or orange.

Regional variants

Francesinha poveira Francesinha poveira, or simply francesinha regionally, is a fast food dish from Póvoa de Varzim in Portugal. It resembles a hot dog only in shape, but the sandwich is made of linguiça (somewhat similar to a sausage), fiambre (a kind of ham), c ...

'' is a form of francesinha distinctive to

Póvoa de Varzim Póvoa de Varzim () is a Portugal, Portuguese city in Norte Region, Portugal, Northern Portugal and sub-region of Greater Porto, from its city centre. It sits in a sandy coastal plain, a cuspate foreland, halfway between the Minho River, Minho ...

, north of

, created in the early 1960s. The poveira form uses different bread and sauce to form a sandwich that can be eaten by hand. ''Pica-pau'' is a breadless variant in which a steak is cut into bite-sized pieces and covered with sauce. The name ''pica-pau'' (

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family (biology), family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar and the extreme ...

) references the traditional means of consumption with small skewers or toothpicks—making the diner "peck" at the dish.

Reception

The Daily Meal The Daily Meal is a food and drinks website. Launched in October 2010, it was the first site launched by Spanfeller Media Group, founded by former Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller. In 2016, The Daily Meal, along with Spanfeller Media Group, was ac ...

'' included the francesinha in their article "12 Life-Changing Sandwiches You've Never Heard Of".

References

External links

*
Francesinhas - History of the Francesinha
*
Francesinha Póveira
*
Irmandade da Francesinha
- Ranking and evaluation of Francesinhas {{sandwiches Portuguese cuisine Cheese sandwiches Culture in Porto Beef sandwiches Cheese dishes Egg dishes Ham sandwiches Sausage dishes