Brazilian Bread; and an MSG Mystery
By Melissa Haun
Well this is just wild. The whole idea that MSG is bad for you comes from a 1968 letter a white, American-born surgeon sent to the New England Journal of Medicine as a goof, and somehow they didn’t get the joke, and published it.
EXCEPT! That might not be true. Maybe it really was written by a doctor from Hong Kong and the American doctor’s true prank was telling people he wrote it. To what end? No one knows.
We don’t know the real author’s intentions, either, since it was a one-off letter from him and not an area he dedicated his life’s work too. Maybe he was joking around, too … but it certainly didn’t do any good whatsoever.
In other news, please enjoy the essay below by Melissa Haun. — Katherine
Brazilian Bread Beyond Cheese Rolls
by Melissa Haun
If you’re not from Brazil, the first thing you think of when you hear “Brazilian bread” is probably pão de queijo — those spongy little balls of tapioca flour and cheese that even Trader Joe’s has co-opted. But that’s sort of like thinking that American bread consists solely of bagels. So what does your everyday, run-of-the-mill bread look like in Brazil? It’s a fairly simple, French-inspired roll.
My gluten-loving boyfriend — who grew up in northeastern Brazil but identifies as Portuguese — has a serious vengeance against Brazilian bread. He’s constantly comparing it against the fantastic array of loaves available in Lisbon, where we live: pillowy pão alentejano, corn-based broa de milho and other specialties with incredibly rich flavors that belie their simple ingredients.
According to him, the quintessential Brazilian bread is downright boring when you consider all the wonderful things that can be done with flour and water. And yet it's a staple of the national diet; people flock to local bakeries every morning to buy bags of it. I’m sure plenty of those people would be shocked by the hatred it’s inspired in him.
I asked my boyfriend’s cousin — who grew up eating the same bread as he did — how she feels about the carioquinha (as it’s called where they’re from). Her reaction was one of pure adoration and nostalgia: “It tastes like childhood.” She described slathering one in butter and toasting it over the flame of a gas stove. When I mentioned that her own cousin has a vendetta against it, her face fell in shock.
But then she admitted that the majority of this bread is mass-produced as cheaply as possible; if you buy it at any average supermarket, it’ll be dry and tasteless. She said you have to seek out a decent bakery, which seems to support her cousin’s point. Maybe high-quality bread is just more common in Portugal (but don’t quote me on that).
To make matters even more interesting, this simple roll has a seemingly infinite number of names. Depending on the region of Brazil, it might be called pão francês (French bread), pãozinho (little bread), pão de sal (salt bread), cacetinho, carioquinha… the list goes on.
Its most widely recognized name, pão francês, gives us some insight into its origins. In the early 20th century, Brazilians started imitating early versions of the famous French baguette. They added a bit of sugar and fat and shaped it into rolls instead of oblong loaves.
At the time, there was a movement in Brazil to embrace European trends and culture, which was accelerated by an increase in international travel and imports. French culture in particular was seen as highly prestigious (similar to how it’s been fetishized in the U.S. for centuries).
Considering that, it’s no wonder that this little “French” bread became such a staple of the country’s cuisine, despite — and in part because of — the fact that it was nothing like what you’d get in a traditional Brazilian bakery.
When done well, it’s white and fluffy on the inside and light brown and crispy on the outside. And whether you think it tastes like childhood memories or nothing at all, the cacetinho clearly has a story to tell. Maybe its real value lies less in flavor and more in symbolism — but I don’t think that’ll do much to change my boyfriend’s mind.
Sources:
https://www.world-grain.com/articles/15561-french-rolls-popular-in-brazil
https://www.portalvilamariana.com/gastronomia/historia-do-pao-frances.asp
https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Portuguese_Brazilian_Studies/ejph/html/issue29/pdf/v15n1a05.pdf
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/why-are-americans-so-obsessed-with-the-french
More Food Media:
Speaking of French bread … anyone can make a baguette, but France doesn’t seem quite ready to embrace that fact.
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This newsletter is edited by Katherine Spiers, host of the podcast Smart Mouth.
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This is wild! and so very not surprising. So many chefs use MSG, and at the time of the "scare" weren't loads of people using Accent! seasoning for every dang thing?