Tareco is a popular hard biscuit in Brazilian cuisine, often eaten as a snack or used in desserts. They can be made at home using cornmeal or wheat flour, eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Tareco cookies likely originated from hard-dough cookies used by British and Spanish naval fleets for long journeys.
In Brazilian cuisine, the tareco is a hard biscuit that is eaten as a snack with coffee or as an appetizer before a meal. It can also be used in the preparation of various desserts. These types of cookies are very popular in Brazil and Brazilians have even written poems and songs about tareco cookies.
These Brazilian cookies can be purchased ready-made at a store or supermarket, or they can be made at home; they’re fairly easy to make, and typically only take an hour or less to prepare. The main ingredients used to prepare these types of biscuits are cornmeal or wheat flour, eggs, vanilla and sugar; cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg can also be used.
Eggs are first beaten in a mixer until nice and fluffy, then wheat or corn flour, sugar, vanilla, and any other ingredients are added to the egg flour. The mixture is processed in the mixer and then blended into a well-kneaded dough. The pieces of dough are then separated and shaped into small, flat, round discs which are arranged in separate lines on a previously greased and floured baking sheet. Afterwards, the discs are baked in the oven for up to ten minutes. They are then removed, turned over and placed back in the oven to cool; the cookies harden as they cool.
Brazilian hard tareco cookies probably developed from hard-dough cookies; such biscuits were a staple in the British and Spanish naval fleets in the age of exploration. In those times, people needed to have food that could be stored or stored for a long time without spoiling, and it also had to survive any rough handling and transportation. It was unrealistic to take fresh food on very long journeys at a time when storage facilities were quite inadequate. Taking cookies made from wheat or cornmeal was a more convenient and reliable option.
Because biscuits can soften with age, biscuits intended for long journeys had to be made very hard. Typically they have undergone two cooking processes and have sometimes even been cooked up to four times. The hardened biscuits could then be stored safely in food barrels for up to a year or more. To eat, the biscuits were usually dipped in water, flour, soup or alcohol to soften them.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
