The sweet sea monster of Portuguese Christmas
atlasobscura.com
atlasobscura.com
The main reason is that many of these recipes were developed by nuns in convents. Convents were the places were the "unwanted" women would be "placed" in Catholic patriarchal societies. In ancient times a source of income for these convents was to wash rich people's clothes. After washing the linens, they had to be ironed and a common ingredient for starching and making them crisp smooth was egg whites. Because of this they'd have an immense supply of egg yolks that they began using for making pastries, after sugar plantations where introduced in Madeira island and Brazil, in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Would you have any references on the subject? If so, would you mind sharing in here?
I read it in an old recipe book, probably out of print. But after you asked, I tried to find an online reference and got this one: https://www.portugalthings.com/portuguese-conventual-sweets/
Just look at the huge amount of yellow on those pictures.
To the "egg whites were used for starching rich people's clothes" (engomar os fatos dos homem mais ricos) they add another one: filtering impurities in wine. Probably they'd mix egg whites with wine, warm it to coagulate the whites so they'd grab impurities in wine and make it easier to filter them.
It’s just too sweet for me
Henry I of England reportedly died from eating too many of them.
Interesting facts there too, learned something new today.