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Kitchen condiments - Letter from the Algarve By Frances Ruddick
• 05 Apr 2007 •
 AS in Britain, there is concern in Portugal about the large numbers of children and adults that are overweight. Serious though the situation is, it’s unlikely that Tony Blair or his Portuguese counterpart, José Socrates, would consider passing laws restricting the amounts we are allowed to eat.
Six hundred years ago, overeating in Portugal had become so gross that King Duarte felt obliged to intervene.
Since obesity, slothfulness and flatulence had become nationwide complaints, strict guidelines were provided about the quantities of food that people should eat. In order to keep the nation sober, the King also recommended that wine should be watered down.
Over-indulgence had become so serious it was estimated that the average nun drank two-and-a-half pints of wine per day. Convents were entitled to a share of wine but their demands began to be excessive.
Well-off people sat down to lunch at around 11am and continued to eat for two to three hours, feasting on great bowls of soup, followed by three-courses of meat (fish and shell fish were eaten on religious occasions) and large quantities of rich desserts and cakes.
The meal was followed by a siesta and people only rose in time for supper, another gargantuan spread
The king wrote a book about the issue, the Livro da Cartuxa, carefully recording all the details. He further expressed his concern for his people and their disproportionate dietary requirements.
He observed that the working classes occasionally enjoyed some meat or fish but usually filled up on cheaper produce consuming large amounts of vegetables, pulses, chestnuts, cobs of bread and pint pots brimming with wine.
The king who was a virtuous man and the son of a pious English woman, Phillipa of Lancaster – the daughter of John of Gaunt – led a prudent lifestyle. His mother, believing that sins of the flesh were evil, taught him that people’s physiological needs distracted them from religion.
This opinion is exemplified by a privy installed in the gardens of the National Palace in Sintra. The little room was formally named, ‘a casinha de rezar que tem o mijatorio’ – the little house of prayer that contained the urinal.
The king was brought up with the medieval perception that all bodily functions were a sinful pleasure and only through prayer could they be excused.
It followed that if urinating was judged to be an immoral indulgence, then overeating was an even greater sin.
As the king became increasingly concerned about the nation’s waistband, he advised citizens to leave at least eight hours between the two main meals and to regulate the quantity of food laid on the table.
With such a clear vision about appropriate meals, it is ironic that the king lived in a palace with the largest pair of kitchen chimneys in Portugal.
Nowadays, they are likened to giant salt and pepper dispensers and have become the symbol of the palace. Hans Christian-Anderson, author of numerous famous fairytales, compared them to pair of oversized champagne bottles.
Undoubtedly at 33 metres they are exceptionally tall, towering over a monumental kitchen built by King Duarte’s father, Dom João.
Unlike his wife and son, he enjoyed hosting huge parties. The palace guests, having previously hunted for game in the countryside of Sintra, sat down to splendid banquets cooked in the massive kitchen.
Hunting, it was claimed, brought about physical and moral virtues that far outweighed the degenerative effects of overeating. When his father died, the young King Duarte must have decided this was a poor excuse since he showed no personal interest in the sport.
Instead, inspired by his mother’s teaching, he launched a countrywide campaign devoted to sensible eating. |  Return to Top
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