Brazilian · snack

Pamonha Goiana

Pamonha Goiana reads sweetness 5.4, richness 5.3 and salinity 4.1 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Brazilian snack, about 2 hr 21 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Sweetness 5.4 · Richness 5.3 · Salinity 4.1 · Umami 4.1 · Nutty 2.9 · Smoke 2.4 · Fruity 2.0 · Funk & Ferment 1.8 · Heat 1.8 · Floral 1.4 · Warm Spice 1.2 · Earthy 0.8 · Sourness 0.5

What's in it (9)

Time & effort: about 2 hr 21 min (2 hr 11 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 322.6 kcal, 8.1 g protein, 7.6 g fat, 62 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains dairy — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (8 steps)

  1. In Goiás pamonha is sold from roadside pamonharias with a queue outside, half sweet and half savoury, and the whole thing depends on the corn: it must be milho verde, picked young, at the stage where a thumbnail into a kernel releases milk rather than starch. Sweetcorn from a supermarket is too sugary and too dry and will give you a corn pudding, not a pamonha.
  2. Cut the base and tip off each ear and peel the husks off whole, keeping the widest ones intact — they are the wrapper and there is no foil substitute that gives the same grassy perfume. Rinse them and blanch them in boiling water for 30 seconds to make them pliable.
  3. Grate the corn on the coarse side of a box grater over a bowl, or cut the kernels off and blend them, scraping the cobs hard afterwards with the back of a knife to get the milk. You want a thick, coarse, pourable batter. If it is very loose, work in the cornmeal a spoonful at a time.
  4. Divide the batter in two. Into one half beat the sugar and half the melted butter and coconut milk; into the other, the salt, the rest of the butter and coconut milk, and the chopped linguiça.
  5. Make each parcel from two husks laid across each other to form a cup, or fold one large husk into a cone with the point folded up. Fill with 4 tbsp of batter, push a baton of cheese into the middle of each savoury one, fold the husk over and tie firmly at both ends with string. They should be snug — a loose parcel leaks and you lose the pamonha into the water.
  6. Lower them into a big pot of boiling water, weigh them down with a plate so they stay submerged, and boil 50 to 60 minutes. They are done when a parcel feels firm through the husk and a knife pushed into one comes out clean rather than milky.
  7. Lift them out, let them stand 10 minutes to firm up, and eat them hot straight from the husk, with coffee. They keep two days in the refrigerator and reheat in their husks in simmering water.
  8. Substitutions: a young mozzarella can stand in for the queijo minas.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.