Carne no Espeto

Carne no Espeto is known around these parts as meat on a stick, a direct translation. It is the Portuguese version of Shish Kebab, but the stick is about all the two dishes share in common. Portuguese cuisine is one of the great neglected cuisines of Europe. It first appeared in Massachusetts on the South Coast with Portuguese fisherman before the Revolution, and we are very lucky this is one of the few places in America where it is available.

A Manuel DaSilvia or DaSilva enlisted for Easton in the Revolution and was among our longest serving men. It's doubtful that he actually lived in town, however, since he never shows up on tax records after the war. For some reason Easton wasn't an attractive destination for Portuguese immigrants for a long time. The 1885 state census listed only a handful of Portuguese in Easton while Raynham and Stoughton had large numbers. Farms in Raynham and shoe shops in Stoughton may have been more attractive to these immigrants, but by and just after the turn-of-the 20th century the Portuguese joined the Irish and the Swedes as one of Easton's largest immigrant groups.

The families that came to Easton or perhaps just the males in those families brought with them an excellent marinade for barbecued Carne no Espeto. It became a specialty, a famous delicacy served at ethnic and family events throughout town. It was delicious and served with great pride and a degree of secrecy.

Now at Oliver Ames, the American History classes always did a "Your Immigrant Ancestor" project where students brought in traditional foods. Even warmed up meat on a stick was delicious, but the recipe was still a secret. Heck, in my classes I even added a rule that a recipe had to accompany each dish, you know in case someone had a nut allergy, wink, wink, but still meat on a stick was "oh it's just salt and pepper." Wrong there was more to that recipe, I could taste it.

I made it a crusade to get a real authentic Easton recipe without cheating and using the Internet. It was actually easier to find out who joined the KKK back in the 1920s than to get a recipe for meat on a stick. My attorney knows the damn recipe, but even under the strictures of attorney-client privilege I couldn't weasel the recipe out of him. Things looked grim for years, but I still wouldn't cheat and turn to the 'Net.

Then two weeks ago I was in the Stoughton Bakery, a bastion of wonderful Portuguese baked goods. While waiting for an order of shrimp cakes, I noticed a bag of salt on a shelf. Closer inspection revealed a Gonsalves product labelled "Carne no Espeto." The fine print noted it was for shish kebab Madiera style. Meat on a stick! It had an ingredient list. I bought the bag and marinated some steak tips. It was the real deal.

It actually is mostly "just salt and pepper." Two kinds of pepper: the everyday black stuff and red pepper flakes. I've learned since that most people use American red pepper flakes which is made from cayenne peppers, but that there is a Portuguese pepper (pimenta muida) that is traditional. Along with the salt and pepper, there was garlic powder. Homemade versions may use crushed fresh garlic, lots of garlic. The final and very surprising ingredient was crushed bay leaf. I never would have gotten that.

I happened to mention my find to a Portuguese immigrant who moved to Easton from Stoughton and who is apparently not bound by the secret death curse for talking about the marinade. She confirmed the ingredients on the bag and added that there is a wet and dry version of the marinade. You don't use it like an American style dry rub because the meat would be too salty. In the old days the meat was rubbed and then was brushed off before cooking. Today you can shake it with the meat in a plastic bag and brush off the excess before barbecuing. The homemade wet marinade contains red wine vinegar with all the dry ingredients mixed in.

How much marinade do you need? A wet version from the Internet (I finally looked) uses a quarter cup of red wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons of red pepper, and "liberal amounts" of the other ingredients for two pounds of beef tips. A dry version starts the base with 6 tablespoons of cayenne for five pounds of beef. All recommend an overnight marinade. This probably comes from the old days when the vinegar and salt would be needed to soften up tough cuts of beef. A few hours in the fridge seems to work as well flavorwise. No Internet recipe mentions the bay leaves-the secret ingredient or the one that makes the mix "Madiera Style?" Who knows, but if you don't want to mix it yourself, it's there on the shelf in a really wonderful ethnic bakery. Try the pastel de nata, the famous little custard tart that Portuguese mariners have spread to every corner of the world, while you're there.