🐖 Leitão da Bairrada
Leitão da Bairrada is a whole suckling pig rubbed inside with a paste of lard, garlic, white pepper, bay leaf and salt, then roasted on a spit in a wood-fired oven. The skin turns thin, glassy and crackling while the meat stays very juicy. It is carved into pieces and served with crisp potato chips, orange slices and salad.
Diets
Allergens
None of the 14 major allergens in a typical recipe.
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 suckling pig, about 6 kg
- 100 g lard
- 1 head garlic, crushed
- 2 tsp ground white pepper
- 4 bay leaves, crumbled
- 3 tbsp coarse salt
Method
- Pound the garlic, salt, pepper and bay leaves into a paste and mix with the lard.
- Rub the paste all over the inside of the pig, close the cavity and skewer it.
- Roast in a very hot wood-fired or domestic oven (about 220 °C) for 2–2.5 hours, turning and basting the skin with its own fat.
- When the skin is crisp and amber, rest for 15 minutes and cut into pieces with kitchen shears.
How to make it lighter
- Remove most of the crackling to save a large share of the fat.
- Pair it with salad and orange slices instead of fries.
- A 150 g portion of meat is plenty for a meal.
History
The dish comes from the Bairrada region in central Portugal, where the town of Mealhada is famous for its roadside restaurants dedicated to it. Roasting suckling pig in wood ovens is a long-standing local tradition and the dish is now one of the best-known in Portuguese cuisine.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →