Roadside Stand · Roast Suckling Pig
Leitão à Bairrada
Photo: Adriao / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0
The earliest known written recipe for this suckling pig comes from a regional monastery in 1743, and the roasting method has barely changed since.
A whole young piglet is rubbed with garlic, pepper and lard, then slow-roasted in a wood-fired oven until the skin turns shatteringly crisp. Sold whole, by the plate, or stuffed into a sandwich at roadside restaurants and stalls around Mealhada.
Why it's made this way: The Bairrada wine region's mild climate made it ideal pig-raising country, and Mealhada's roadside restaurants, sitting on the old main road between Lisbon and Porto, built their reputation feeding travelers this exact dish.
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