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Though recipes may vary slightly, the simple andsatisfying Portuguese bread has a proven versatility, equallygood toasted and smeared with sweet butter or a tangy jamas when used for any sandwich concoction or myriad ofother creations.

The Portuguese and their ancestors from the adjacent islandsof the Azores and Cape Verde Archipelago are known forcooking delicious dishes such as hearty kale soup, but fordecades they also also have been heralded for their breads.Pao, a frugal Portuguese country bread, and Pao-Doce, itsvariation known as Portuguese sweet bread, are the two bestliked. The Portuguese and their recipes began to become partof the local culture as far back as the whaling era, spanningthe 1700s through 1800s. Nantucket whalers made stops atthese islands to obtain fresh water, food and crewmemberswho eventually returned with the ships to Nantucket and

When it comes to bread, Nantucketers and the Island’s visitors have one clear preference.

With its dense texture and chewy crust, Portuguese bread has become the favored choice, disappearing from grocery shelves

as quickly as local bakers can stock it.

By Mary Lancaster

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settled here. Also, according to an excerpt from FrancesKarttunen’s book The Other Islanders, economic pressures onthe Cape Verdean and Azorean islands after the start of the1800s caused families to migrate to southern New Englandand concentrate in towns including Providence, RhodeIsland; New Bedford; Fall River; the Cape and Martha’sVineyard and Nantucket Islands.

By 1910, writes Karttunen, Nantucket’s Azores-bornpopulation numbered more than 160, among a total of fewerthan 3,000 Islanders. The original families continue to be anintegral part of Nantucket’s community with familiar names:Reis, Sylvia, Santos, Dias, Mello, Perry and others. “Feasts,dances, weddings and funerals brought Azorean familiestogether and drew their New Bedford and Fairhavenrelatives to the Island, as did hog-butchering and sausage-making,” writes Karttunen.

PortugueseBread

PortugueseBread

The families worked at various trades and professions,including three known to have had small markets. ThoughKarttunen’s chapter does not mention any bakeries per se,some locals recall women who baked Portuguese bread intheir home kitchens, perhaps selling a few loaves a day forextra income. Matt Fee, owner of Something Natural,recollects a woman named Helen Venetta who worked forother Island bakers, then later as the primary baker for TheSkipper restaurant on Steamboat Wharf when Matt’s father,Henry Fee, operated the place from the early 1970s throughthe early 1980s. Matt learned to make Portuguese breadfrom her, and with some adaptations, continues to useVenetta’s same basic recipe today.

NANTUCKET BAKE SHOP

Town Clerk Catherine Flanagan Stover remembers when hergrandmother bought Portuguese bread daily through the1950s from Aime Poirer, who had Aime’s Bakery on OrangeStreet where Cumberland Farms is now. Maggie Detmer, co-owner of The Nantucket Bake Shop, a bit closer to Town onOrange Street, said that in the Island line of Portuguesebread tradition, Poirer (who wed Helen Medeiros) trainedJoseph Cecot as his apprentice. Cecot opened his ownbakery in the 1960s – The Nantucket Bake Shop wherePortuguese bread was his number one seller – then taught

HOW TO SIMULATE A

PORTUGUESE BRICK OVEN

From The Food of Portugal by Jean Anderson

Use an oven thermometer to see if your oventemperature is correct. For high-temperature baking, itis critical that your oven temperature is neither too hot(in which case you will burn the bread) nor too low (thebread won’t develop the proper crust or texture).

Place three or four unglazed bricks in a large, heavy,shallow baking pan set on lowest oven shelf.

Place the rack on which you intend to bake the breadin the exact center of the oven.

Set temperature to 500 degrees to preheat oven andbricks for 20 minutes.

When ready to bake the bread, fill a metal wateringcan (without sprinkler attachment) with ice water anddrizzle water over the hot bricks. Whisk bread intooven and close door tight.

As the bread bakes, douse bricks every 5 minutes withice water and waste no time closing the oven door.

It is often said that man can not live on bread alone. With all these loaves to choose from, it is certainly worth a try.

Laura Pless

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Maggie’s husband Jay to make the bread when her familypurchased the business. “There isn’t anything truer than whatJay makes,” she says. “It’s a tradition we’re very proud of.We still make Portuguese bread the way Joe Cecot did. Wehaven’t changed a thing; it’s the same ingredients, samesteps, everything.”

Detmer’s recipe consists of flour, water, milk powder, salt andyeast. “The basic, authentic Portuguese bread,” says MaggieDetmer, “Without that, we’re just any bakery.” From bowl toslicer, the process for the Nantucket Bake Shop’s Portuguesebread takes four hours. Considering that the bread remainstheir “star,” selling at a volume of 700 to 800 loaves a dayin summer and 500 to 600 daily off-season, the procedureentails a lot of work. After the dough is mixed, it has tworisings in the bowl. Then the dough is divided into loaves,with another rising before it is shaped into round balls andplaced in wooden boxes for its final rise. While the dough iskneaded in a mixer, each loaf is hand-molded and isn’tbagged until thoroughly cool. Detmer says hand-moldingproduces uniform shaped loaves with a smooth, hole-freetexture not possible using bread machines.

All in all, the Detmers believe their extra efforts are worth it.Portuguese bread freezes well, but is always best eaten fresh.In response to the loyal summer patrons who fill their cartrunks with bread to freeze at home, they have offered mailorder service for more than 24 years, and for the last severalyears have sold their Portuguese bread on the Internet.Additionally, they provide the bread to several localrestaurants, including Faregrounds, Club Car, 56 Union andFast Forward. “It’s a lot of loaves,” says Maggie.

SOMETHING NATURAL’S PORTUGUESE

Something Natural’s Portuguese bread is made ofunbleached bread flour, milk powder, yeast and salt. It is “by

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far” the Cliff Road store’s most popular item, selling at 1,000to 2,000 loaves a day in summer and about 250 daily inwinter, says Fee. Their dough is mixed by machine. After itrises in big tubs, it is divided and some is rolled by hand,some mechanically. The dough has one more rising beforebaking in a rotary oven holding six to seven racks that spinlike a ferris wheel and bake up to 240 loaves at a time.

Fee said when the bread was served at The Skipper, it wasoften an accompaniment to chowder. They were goingthrough 300 to 400 loaves a night when the family openeda small ice cream/bake shop next door and started sellingthe bread there. In the late 1970s, they launched a breadrack at Island Pharmacy, then began wholesaling at thesupermarkets. Now they supply restaurants such as Arno’sand A.K. Diamond’s, the Hen House, Downeyflake and TheTavern. Something Natural also sells fresh dough at theIsland supermarkets; however, Fee says it is a French-styledough (no milk powder) that people use for pizza, frieddough and calzones.

Fee once owned The Nantucket Bagel Company on WestCreek Road, which was bought by Ray and Celeste Sylvia.The Sylvias used Something Natural’s bread for sandwiches.The recipe Ray treasured most was his grandmother Isabel’sfor Portuguese sweet bread. The difference between herrecipe and those of others is that Isabel added a touch oflemon and cinnamon to this rich and traditionally specialoccasion dough. The Sylvia’s have now sold the business and itnow houses Blue Water Bakery.

DAILY BREADS

Daily Breads on Lower Orange Street has a Portuguesebread more French in nature and baked using the “old-country” method. It is the only Island bakery with astationary, stone hearth, steam-injection oven. This means

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ISABEL SYLVIA’S PORTUGUESE SWEET BREAD

Courtesy of Ray Sylvia, former owner of Nantucket Bagel Company.Use a 10-inch tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup milk

1 envelope dry yeast

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup very warm water

1/2 cup margarine

4 eggs

4 cups sifted flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. lemon extract

1/2 to 1 tsp. cinnamon

PORTUGUESE COUNTRY BREAD (PAO)

From The Food of Portugal by Jean Anderson

Ingredients for two 8-inch round loaves:

3 pkgs. active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water

7 1/2 cups sifted unbleached all-purpose flour (approximate)

2 tsp. salt

Make a sponge by combining yeast, 2/3 of the water and 1cup flour in a large bowl. Beat till smooth, set in a warm,draft-free spot, cover with a clean, dry cloth and let riseabout 30 minutes until dough is light, spongy and doubledin bulk.

Stir sponge down, add remaining water and the salt, thenmix in enough of remaining flour a cup at a time to makea stiff but workable dough. Turn on to lightly flouredsurface, using only as much of remaining flour as needed tokeep dough from sticking, and knead hard for 5 minutes.Shape dough into a ball and place in a warm, greased bowl.Turn dough so all surfaces are greased, cover with dry clothand let rise in a warm spot until it doubles in bulk - roughly1 1/2 hours. Punch dough down with your fist, turn ontolightly floured surface, and knead hard for 5 minutes.

Shape dough into a ball, place in another clean, greasedbowl, turn to oil all sides, cover with cloth and let rise in awarm place about 1 hour. Then punch dough down, turnonto lightly floured surface, knead hard 5 minutes. Dividedough in half, knead each for 3 minutes, then shape intoballs. Place each loaf in lightly greased 8 or 9 inch layercake pans and dust tops with flour. Cover with cloth, letrise in warm spot for about 45 minutes.

While the bread is in its final rise, improvise the brick andsteam oven technique. Set the oven at 500 degrees for a full20 minutes. When the loaves have risen, drizzle cold waterdirectly onto the hot bricks. Whisk loaves onto the centeroven rack, arranging them so they do not touch each otheror oven walls. Close the door tightly and bake loaves 15minutes, sprinkling cold water on the bricks every 5minutes.

Lower oven temperature to 400 degrees and bake breadanother 15 minutes, still drizzling cold water on the bricksat 5 minute intervals. When the loaves are deep-brown,firm, and sound hollow when thumped with your finger,remove from oven and cool on wire racks.

SOUP IN A BREAD BOWL

Baked, unsliced Portuguese bread is the perfect container when hollowed to

hold lobster bisque, clam chowder or potato and leek soup, and on hot

summer days, a spicy chilled gazpacho or cold cucumber soup with plenty of

fresh dill. If you request whole, unsliced loaves ahead of time from your

bakery of choice, they will be happy to fill your order.

As your soup becomes ready, prepare the bread bowls by using a sharp knife

to cut around the loaf tops leaving a 3/4-inch edge. Hollow the centers and

reserve scooped out bread for salad croutons or to dunk in the soup. Rub the

inside of hollowed loaves with garlic, then brush with olive oil and sprinkle

with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Place the hollowed loaves and “lids” on

a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until slightly

toasted. Spoon the soup into the warm bread bowls and garnish with chopped

parsley. Use the lids if dinner will be delayed a few minutes. When you’ve

finished the soup, tear the loaves into chunks and savor the taste! Each loaf

serves 3 or 4 people.

Heat milk with margarine until it bubbles around edge. Cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeastand 1 tsp. sugar in warm water and blend well. Let stand 10 minutes or until mixturebubbles. Beat margarine, sugar, eggs and lemon extract at high speed for 3 minutes. Addyeast to cool milk, blend well. Add dry ingredients and mix very well. Cover the bowl andlet rise in a warm place 1 1/2 hours or until double in bulk. Beat dough down and spooninto well-greased 10 to 12-inch tube or bundt pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place 45minutes or until nearly double in bulk. Bake in 350 degree oven 50 to 60 minutes or untilbread gives hollow sound when tapped. If top is browning too rapidly, place a piece of foillightly over top of pan. Cool bread in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Loosen aroundedges of pan and turn bread onto wire rack to cool. Rub margarine over bread while hot,if desired.

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their bread bakes more in the true Portuguese method, wherebrick or stone ovens and steam are responsible for giving theloaves a distinct texture and taste. After the oven is stoked toan intense heat, cold water is poured into a vent in the ovenwall. Dense steam is created when the water vaporizes whenit comes in contact with the hot oven’s interior, which in turnproduces a thick, dark crust and moist, chewy bread.

Daily Breads owner said his recipe is called a “lean dough”because it is without dried milk. The dough is made ofunbleached, unbromated flour, water, salt and yeast begunwith a starter dough of only yeast, flour and water thatferments for about 18 hours. The completed dough is rolledout and refrigerated overnight before baking. “It’s a long,slow proofing,” he says. “The key is that time.” Daily Breadssells mainly through the bakery, but also supplies restaurants.

PROVISIONS

Provisions, behind the bandstand on Straight Wharf, bakestheir own Portuguese bread and finds it is the most popularfor sandwiches such as their original Turkey Terrific. Formerowner Beth English says they have used the same basic over20 years, with minor “twists and turns” initiated by variousbakers. She recalls when the shop was searching for a newbaker several years ago they found a fellow who wasextremely talented, she said, he wanted to alter thePortuguese bread recipe to one using buttermilk, a changethat wasn’t welcomed.

“It was delicious, but more sweet, more like a pound cake,”English remembers. “We already had the perfect breadrecipe. I couldn’t imagine why anybody would want toimprove on the Portuguese bread.” What sets Provisions’bread apart from others, says English, is that they bake it asa large, three-pound loaf using a sandwich loaf pan whichoffers uniform size from end to end.

“When a customer is stumped and can’t make one moredecision our employees always say, ‘Try the Portuguese,’because everybody loves it. The bread should be the canvasof the sandwich and not the dominant flavor. That’s whyPortuguese bread is the best for the sandwiches on ourmenu.”

Bread, with all its wondrous renditions, is a staple in manypeople’s daily menu. Since Portuguese bread is Nantucket’sfavorite and most of us are too busy to bake it ourselves, weare fortunate to have several fine bakeries making this veryuseful loaf. Whether made into a sandwich, dipped in afondue, drizzled with maple syrup as French toast or thebasis of a yummy pudding, Portuguese is truly the Island’spreeminent bread. Everybody on Nantucket wantsPortuguese bread.

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