Managing meals in Brazil

I am not the best example in terms of healthy habits. I really like pastel, coxina and churrasco.

I couldn't enjoy much some the sweet food, like pizza doce, it is first time I see pizza with chocolate, nutella, doce de leite, etc... For drinks, caipirinha de limao is my favourite

Cheryl,

Just to get it out of the way as Dave Ramsey says, "I live like no one else" Due to a combination of care for my Brazilian Born 2nd mother and my 99year old Father's last wish to watch over her and that thing called an exchange rate I moved here and am living an extraordinary life in a small village in Northeastern Brazil.  FYI you asked about family. My wife has several brothers and sisters all living in the same small village all living the life.

Because we have several people who work for us, clean our house, do our landscaping and gardening we are pretty set.

I make it very easy for the staff. My wife who is in charge of everyone (at least she built me my own house to share with SIMBA) also prepares meals for My 98-year-old mother, Mentally Challenged Uncle and herself.

Breakfast:

1.   Scrambled Eggs
2. Coffee

Dinner: *

1. Salad
2. Beverage.
3. Ocassionally I will have Feijoada for dinner.

Because my wife runs a very, very popular Sorvete Shop which gets busy at night this makes it easy to have my food ahead of time since everyone knows the menu.

Roddie in Retirement😎

A question for those who like to cook: what’s the deal with cream (creme de leite) in Brasil? At home, cream looks and has the consistency of ‘thick’ milk, and I’ve never seen other types. Here, it’s more like thick chunks in a milk-like ‘bath’, which not only feels weird, but it doesn’t taste particularly good either. I almost exclusively use it as an ingredient for pasta sauce, and it doesn’t taste very good. And I’m sure it’s because of the cream, since all the other ingredients are exactly the same as I used to cook with in Switzerland. There are about 5 or 6 different brands available in the large mercados, and I have tried all of them, and never got a good result. Just to make sure that you know what I’m talking about: it’s called Creme de leite leve UHT homogeneizado, between 17-20 % gordura (or 10% if it’s the levissimo type). In Switzerland creme has a fat percentage of 25-35%, is it just because of that? If so, is there a way to make it fatter? And I really don’t get why it’s those chunks, rather than a liquid of homogeneous consistency. Am I supposed to pass it through the blender before using it? Or is there a brand that I don’t know of, with a higher fat percentage?

@Kurterino

I’ve heard tales of refrigerated cream being available in supermarkets in the south of Brazil I’ve never seen it in Espírito Santo. It’s all about the lack of refrigeration in Brazil as a whole. Also, Brazilians are very resistant to change when it comes to food. They wouldn’t know what to do with refrigerated cream. So if available, the markets would probably not carry it. Also for most Brazilians outside the big urban areas, it would be cost prohibitive. You may want to try substituting plain yogurt for some recipes. There are hacks to make pseudo sour cream for example. Another unknown refrigerated treat not found in Brazil.

11/30/25 @Kurterino.  You've just sent me on an interesting trip down memory lane that started in Aracaju, Sergipe in 1973 and ended in my pantry tonight.  So come on along.

When I first lived in Brazil in the 1970s, whole milk was refrigerated and came in one liter plastic bags throughout the country.  At that time, every house that had children and lactose-tolerant adults (there's a lot of adult lactose intolerance in Brazil) had a kind of an open, hard plastic pitcher that people would place the bag in (after washing it), clip the corner with scissors, and use it to dispense the milk, repeating with a new bag when empty; it would be kept in the refrigerator.  These things were as universal in households, rich and poor, at the time as earthenware water filters were -- and have disappeared just as completely.  I never bought cream at that time, but I think I remember it in similar packaging, only smaller. 

What did them in was UHT (ultra high temperature) processing of milk.  UHT milk is practically unknown in North America but it's rather common in Europe, so I'm surprised that you haven't run into it there.  The huge advantage is that it has an unrefrigerated shelf life of about six months, and that advantage extends to the whole supply chain, so it's almost certainly here to stay.  The disadvantage is that it gives UHT treated milk and milk products a flavor that people's descriptions range from "slightly carmelized" (my own reaction) to "burnt" -- yuck! 

Cream is processed the same way.  They start with light cream, 15-20% milkfat, as you say, homogenize it, and subject it to UHT processing.  (you'll find a good enough description of that here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-hig … processing) .  That probably accounts for the flavor you're picking up, and every brand will have it to a greater or lesser degree. 

As for lumps, we currently have two brands in the pantry, Itambé and Italac.  My husband, who does the cooking, tells me that Italac sometimes has lumps, but Itambé does not.  So if Itambé is available where you are, try that; otherwise, try other brands and hopefully, you'll find one without lumps.  To get away from the burnt flavor and to get a higher fat content, though, I'm afraid that you'll need to find an artesanal dairy.

@abthree

We used to get those bags as well, when we first arrived years ago. Nightmare without the jug, (nobody told us, so we did not have one), as the bag collapsed as soon as you opened it, and the milk went everywhere...!

We have had natural milk here before, when a caretaker stole into a field, and actually milked a cow for us - he took our request about sourcing fresh milk a little too literally...!!

As opposed to UHT we have bought pasteurised milk from Extra, but that was years ago, so @Kurtino, you may have to get used to the taste of UHT like the rest of us...