Celestial Fatback

In rural Portugal in the 1970s, Susan Plant Dos Santos found the traditions of the convents alive and well. The nuns were taking advantage of the apparently endless supplies of cheap Brazilian sugar that had replaced the cane sugar introduced by the Arabs. In the middle ages, the convents, notorious centers of gastronomic luxury, manufactured enormous quantities of sweet delicacies from the basic ingredients of egg-yolks and sugar. These were sold, and many became customary foods at religio