is a traditional Portuguese conventual sweet of egg yolks boiled in sugar syrup and then broiled.

History

Like many other

conventual sweets Conventual sweets () are a typical part of the Portuguese cuisine and a generic term to a variety of sweets in Portugal. As the name implies, conventual sweets were made by nuns who lived in the Portuguese convents and monastery, monasteries. Star ...

that developed in the 15th century, encharcada contains a substantial amount of egg yolks and sugar. It is believed that the dish was created in the '' Convento de Santa Clara'' in

Évora Évora ( , ), officially the Very Noble and Ever Loyal City of Évora (), is a city and a municipalities of Portugal, municipality in Portugal. It has 53,591 inhabitants (2021), in an area of . It is the historic capital of the Alentejo reg ...

Alentejo Alentejo ( , , ) is a geographical, historical, and cultural region of south–central and southern Portugal. In Portuguese, its name means "beyond the Tagus" (). Alentejo includes the regions of Alto Alentejo Province, Alto Alentejo and Bai ...

. The dish is named after the method in which the eggs are cooked, encharcado, ―drenched, in hot sugar syrup. Doces de ovos and

fios de ovos ''Fios de ovos'' () is a traditional Portuguese sweet food made out of egg yolks, drawn into thin strands and boiled in sugar syrup. It is used as a garnish on cakes and puddings, as a filling for cakes, or eaten on its own. Through Portugue ...

are similar

made with the similar ingredients. Doces de ovos is cooked at a lower temperature in order to prevent

curdling Curdling is the breaking of an emulsion or colloid into large parts of different composition through the physio-chemical processes of flocculation, creaming (chemistry), creaming, and coalescence (chemistry), coalescence. Curdling is purposeful ...

of the eggs. Fios de ovos is drizzled into fine threads and drained before using it in other desserts.

Preparation

To prepare encharcada, nine egg yolks are separated from its whites. Two whole eggs are whisked with the egg yolks and then strained through a

sieve A sieve (), fine mesh strainer, or sift is a tool used for separating wanted elements from unwanted material or for controlling the particle size distribution of a sample, using a screen such as a woven mesh or net or perforated sheet m ...

. A cup of water is boiled. To it, two cups of sugar are added with

lemon peel Zest is a food ingredient that is prepared by scraping or cutting from the rind of unwaxed citrus fruits such as lemon, orange, citron, and lime. Zest is used to add flavor to many different types of food. In terms of fruit anatomy, the zest ...

. When the sugar syrup reaches 225°F (107°C), the lemon peel is removed, and the egg yolk mixture is slowly drizzled into the syrup. The curds are cooked for about 15 minutes, then drained into a dish, and sprinkled with ground

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

. Optionally, the top is

caramelized Caramelization (or caramelisation) is a process of browning of sugar used extensively in cooking for the resulting butter-like flavor and brown color. The brown colors are produced by three groups of polymers: (C24H36O18), (C36H50O25), and ...

with a

blowtorch A blowtorch, also referred to as a blowlamp, is an ambient air fuel-burning tool used for applying flame and heat to various applications, usually in metalworking, but occasionally for foods like crème brûlée. Description Early blowtorches ...

or by broiling.

References

{{Portuguese cuisine, state=expand Portuguese desserts Egg desserts

History

Preparation

See also

References