From Portugal

Portugal has a rich tradition in the convent sweets that have origins in Portugal in the fifteenth century. Have been at this time that sugar has entered the culinary tradition of the monasteries. The principal sweetener until this point was the honey, the sugar is a common ingredient. With the colonization of Madeira, sugar receives special attention, being cultivated sugarcane. The production of honey, which has always been used as food by man, is an important activity in Portugal .The Honey is the only product, sweet, containing protein and several minerals and vitamins essential to our health. Apart from the high energy value, has known medicinal properties, being a food of known antibacterial action. In Portugal there are nine denominations geographic origin of honey recognized, demonstrating the interest of producers to focus on quality. The Liquors begin to get into the habits of the Portuguese in the seventeenth century and become a social drink, shooting a dinner or in the good company gatherings among friends. Two centuries later, there were the first records about the production of liquors with national stamp. The liquors were of herbs and fruits of the region because they enjoyed what the land gave the liquor brought some freedom to women, becoming the first alcoholic drinks, that ladies consumed. For being a drink with little alcohol was allowed to drink because the ladies they would not be alcoholized, which was not in good taste. The Jams In Portugal and the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, there are records about the craft confectioners, and canning, dating from the late Middle Ages and early modern period, as canning industry or fruit candy, a Moorish influence developed associated with sugar production. This art was developed domestically by women, serving as sustenance for many families, but there were also men involved in the craft, as reported by the Portuguese documentation to refer to "canners", "confectioners" and "alfoeleyros" (manufacturers alféloas a sweet sugar syrup or molasses in point). But it was in convents and female gatherings that the art of confectionary and conserve expanded, notably in Portugal and its colonies, from the 17th century. This confectioner tradition, marked the Portuguese cuisine to the present day, giving identity to the Lusitanian regional sweets such as "queijadas" Sintra, soft eggs Aveiro convent sweets and many others, whose recipes have been passed on through generations. Olive oil also it usually is referred to as food product used as a seasoning, produced from the olive, the olive fruit is a regular fixture in the Portuguese diet and now present in most large kitchens throughout the world.

Besides the health benefits olive oil adds flavor to food and peculiar aroma. In Portugal, the reference to the olive tree is very old. The Visigothic Code, the laws of protection agriculture, had a fine of five cents for those who plucked olive tree, of another person paying for another tree just three pence.

In Portugal produces the best olive oil in the world. Are necessary 1300-2000 olives, to produce 250 ml of olive oil.