Manuel Joaquim Machado Rebelo

Manuel Joaquim Machado Rebelo (29 March 1834 – 24 September 1930), most commonly known as the Abbot of Priscos , was a Portuguese priest who is best known as a famous amateur cook and a gastronomic reference in 19th-century Portugal. He is today mostly remembered as the creator of Pudim Abade de Priscos, a classic of Portuguese cuisine.

Biography Manuel Joaquim Machado Rebelo was born on 29 March 1834, in the civil parish of Santa Maria de Turiz, Vila Verde, the son of Manuel José Machado and Teresa Angélica Rebelo, landowners and proprietors of the Quinta do Arco estate. He had two brothers, Luís Manuel Machado Rebelo, also a clergyman, and Francisco José Machado Rebelo, whose daughter Maria Amélia Machado Rebelo (d. 22 May 1954) lived with uncle Manuel Joaquim, and was devoted to him like a father. After the meal, the King wanted to meet the Abbot and to thank him in person; reportedly, he inquired about the secret ingredient of a complicated dish, and was surprised to learn it was hay. This would not be the last dinner he would prepare to the Royal Family, however: one was especially rich in fanciful confectionary and decorative ornaments — the pièce de résistance was an enormous chocolate beehive, topped with angel hair imitating a thatched roof, and filled with honeycomb-shaped puddings and sugar bees with translucent wings. Queen Maria Pia and Princess Royal Amelia stood up to admire the detail and were astonished to learn it was entirely edible.

His most famous confection, however, was one of the few which recipe he actually publicised: the Pudim Abade de Priscos (Abbot of Priscos pudding). Mgr Manuel Pereira Júnior asked him to share a recipe to teach the schoolgirls at the primary school at the .

By the 1910s, he was suffering from chronic hearing loss and had to resort to an ear trumpet; by 1917 he could no longer attend at the confessional. He died on 24 September 1930, at the age of 96.