Breads · 1/2

Bread · fermented manioc

Carimã bread

The bread the Portuguese made in Brazil in 1587, with fermented manioc instead of wheat. A golden crust, a dense, moist crumb and a gentle sourness. It goes on the table with the stew.

  • 8 small loaves
  • 40 min prep
  • 30 min in the oven

You'll need

  • 250 g carimã flour, finely sifted
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 120 ml water
  • 60 ml olive oil, plus a little for your hands and the tray
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1 extra yolk, to glaze (optional)

Can't find carimã?

  • Massa puba (fresh fermented manioc, sold in Brazil's Northeast): use 400 g squeezed hard in a cloth, and leave out the water.
  • Fine gari (African grocers): 250 g, blitzed in a blender and sifted.
  • Or make it at home, below.

How to make it

  1. Sift. Push the carimã through a fine sieve and throw away any hard bits left behind: a fine powder makes a softer bread. Mix with the salt in a heatproof bowl.
  2. Scald. Bring the water and olive oil to the boil and pour over the carimã in one go, stirring with a wooden spoon until it turns into damp, sticky crumbs. Let it cool 10 minutes so the yolks don't cook.With massa puba: add just the hot oil and go on to step 3.
  3. Knead. Add the yolks one at a time, working the dough with your hands for 3–4 minutes, until smooth and it doesn't crack when pressed. If it crumbles, add water by the spoonful; if it's too sticky, a little carimã. Cover and rest 20 minutes.
  4. Shape. Heat the oven to 200 °C. With oiled hands, divide into 8 balls of about 55 g, flatten to 2 cm high and set on an oiled tray. Cut a cross on top: it helps the middle bake through. Brush with the extra yolk if you want a shine.
  5. Bake 25–30 minutes, until golden on top and underneath. Tap the bottom of a loaf: it should sound hollow.
  6. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before cutting: the crumb finishes setting. Keep under a cloth. Bake on Friday; on Saturday eat at room temperature. It keeps two days.

Carimã at home

Start on Monday or Tuesday. 1 kg sweet cassava makes about 250 g.

  1. Soak. Peel the cassava, remove the core, cut it in chunks and cover with water. Leave 3–4 days, changing the water daily, until soft and faintly sour. This is puba.
  2. Squeeze it hard in a cloth until no more drips out.
  3. Dry. Spread thinly on a tray and dry in the oven at 70–80 °C with the door ajar for 4–6 hours, until hard and brittle.
  4. Grind and sift. Blender or mortar, then a fine sieve. Keep in a dry jar.
The story behind it

Soares, 1587: “Desta carimá … fazem os Portuguezes muito bom pão, e bolos amassados com leite e gemmas de ovos”, from carimã the Portuguese make very good bread, and cakes kneaded with milk and egg yolks (p. 195). Brandão, 1618: manioc left in water “se chama mandioca puba”; dried in the smokehouse, “se chama carimá” (p. 178). We dropped the milk so the bread can go on a table with meat. Scalding the dough is our choice: Soares doesn't say how it was bound.

In Jewish law only bread of wheat, barley, spelt, rye or oats counts for the blessing over bread and the two Sabbath loaves. Sources