Bread plays an important role in Portuguese cultural and gastronomic heritage. It is an unquestionable and indispensable element at the table of the Algarve.

This traditional bread from the highlands where the cereal was grown is prepared with wheat flour, yeast, salt and water that is sufficient to knead. It weighs between 1 and 1.5 kg and is a forehead loaf (more raised at one end, resembling a fold) and has hard crust, light brown and whitish crust. With a divine taste and a unique texture it can serve as an entrée, a meal or even a dessert, as the appetizing "golden slices".

In the Algarve was the Moorish occupation marking the form of consumption of bread: it is said that the tharid resembles the açordas. Since antiquity this food has acquired an economic and social importance, being used as a form of payment - "bread of every day" - and engine of the economy - the type of bread reflected the status of the population: white bread was used for "Masters and servants from the inside", rye for "servants" and rye bran for "cattle dogs".

*Image in Roteiro dos Sabores do Baixo Guadiana 2018