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Equipment · Kettles, coppers and boilers
tacho de cobre · Copper kettle (goiabada)
The tacho de cobre is a broad copper kettle used to cook guava and sugar into goiabada cascão in São Bartolomeu, Minas Gerais. Local accounts pair it with a wood-fired brick hearth.
The copper kettle called a tacho de cobre belongs to a particular Brazilian fruit-sweet tradition. In São Bartolomeu, a district of Ouro Preto in Minas Gerais, makers cook guava with sugar into goiabada cascão, a cuttable sweet that keeps pieces of peel. The copper vessel is part of the local craft rather than a universal pan for every Brazilian guava preserve.
The district's fruit-sweet making received municipal intangible-heritage recognition in 2008, and its Festa Cultural da Goiaba has been held since 1993. Those dates mark public recognition and celebration, not the invention of goiabada or the first copper tacho. A local historical guide recounts an early nineteenth-century report of sweets in the district by John Pohl; the cited account describes the earlier sweetmaking tradition, not a copper kettle for goiabada.
A tacho is a broad, open copper kettle used over heat. Local accounts describe the tacho and the hearth as different objects: the kettle can be inherited or passed between producers, while the round brick fornalha is built in place and fed with firewood through an opening. The paddle used to keep the fruit moving is wood, another separate tool. The vessel itself is not a fermentation jar.
One account from the local tradition says copper tachos are inherited from family doceiros or acquired from owners of former rapadura farms. That is evidence of a historic local route of transfer, not a current retail directory. The record does not identify a present-day maker, supplier, or a standard kettle shape.
The tacho holds guava and sugar while heat drives the sweet toward a thick, sliceable consistency. The local goiabada cascão method separates pulp from seed and retains pieces of peel; a wooden paddle keeps the mass moving as it cooks. This is a heated concentration stage, not fermentation in the kettle.
Two accounts show why no universal time belongs on the equipment record. One describes roughly two hours before the sweet begins to bubble and splash toward the cuttable point; a 2023 report of producer Pia Chaves records about two and a half hours of stirring. These are accounts of particular local work, not a kettle timer or a standard batch setting. The craft description values copper for distributing heat and maintaining the sweet's familiar bright colour; it does not provide a measured comparison with another metal.
Copper is the documented kettle material, but the consulted photographs and descriptions do not specify an alloy, wall thickness, inner coating, or the condition of any particular tacho. Local guidance stresses attention to cleaning and maintenance; it does not give a standardized schedule or a validated cleaning formula.
Brazil's RDC 854/2024 sets the current food-contact conditions for metal equipment. It lists copper, brass and bronze with a complete coating of technically pure gold, silver, nickel or tin. It also allows uncoated copper equipment for particular industrial or artisanal foods at the competent health authority's discretion, provided its technological function is demonstrated. The sources here do not establish whether a specific goiabada tacho has that authorization. Long use in a craft is not, by itself, proof of an individual vessel's present regulatory status.
The literature and local accounts give no standard kettle capacity or diameter for this equipment. The photo helps readers recognize the broad open form, but does not establish a measurement, lining, metal thickness, or a universal specification. Differences in the tacho, hearth, guava, sugar, and the maker's timing belong to the local practice.
The wood-fired brick hearth is important to the documented setup, but it is a built structure and not part of this movable kettle. This entry follows the copper vessel alone; its typed link connects it to the goiabada cascão preparation that uses it.
Local accounts document copper tachos in present-day goiabada cascão production and describe the wider fruit-sweet tradition. A local guide recounts an early nineteenth-century account of sweets in the district, but that record does not establish a copper kettle for goiabada at that date.
Current Brazilian rules condition the use of uncoated copper equipment for particular artisanal foods on a decision by the competent health authority and a demonstrated technological function. This record does not establish the coating or approval of any individual kettle.
Hazard sourceFor a specific kettle, verify its actual surface and the applicable competent-authority approval; historical use alone does not establish food-contact compliance.
Control sourceLocal tradition is not an approval for an individual kettle.
Brazil's RDC 854/2024 requires food-contact metal equipment to meet its material requirements. Copper, brass or bronze must be fully coated with technically pure gold, silver, nickel or tin; uncoated copper equipment for particular industrial or artisanal foods is permitted only at the competent health authority's discretion when its technological function is demonstrated. Approval of any individual kettle is not established here.
Source →These accounts document a local copper-tacho tradition in São Bartolomeu; heritage recognition dates the recognition of fruit-sweetmaking, not the invention of this kettle.
The regional account describes copper-tacho goiabada cascão as typical of southern Minas Gerais; it does not claim that all Brazilian guava sweets use this vessel.
Contemporary vessels used to ferment coffee cherries or pulped coffee with restricted air exchange. Drums, rigid tanks and hermetic bags differ in material and monitoring; “anaerobic” alone does not describe a batch's conditions.
Tipití is a long, flexible woven basket press used to squeeze grated cassava mash. Its looped ends let a maker suspend and stretch the tube; it is a processing tool, not a fermenting vessel.
Handmade wooden boxes package Santa Luzia’s firm quince paste in Goiás. Their exact dimensions, wood species and construction are not documented.
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Slow Food Brasil, Arca do GostoEquipment · Method · Geography · History
Goiabada Cascão no Tacho de CobreDescribes artisanal goiabada cascão cooked from guava and sugar in copper tachos over wood fire, especially in southern Minas Gerais.
Describes broad copper tachos, continuous stirring with a wooden paddle, the addition of reserved peel, and a roughly two-hour cook to a cuttable point.
Attributes a process role to copper heat distribution and traditional colour; this is a local craft account, not a controlled comparison.
Reports local use, care traditions and heritage recognition while not dating the first use of the copper kettle.
Cited in: A copper tacho in São Bartolomeu; Cooking the fruit to a cuttable point; What the record can measure
Secretaria Municipal de Cultura e Turismo, Prefeitura Municipal de Ouro PretoGeography · History
Conheça São Bartolomeu, a terra da goiabada!Identifies São Bartolomeu as an Ouro Preto district known for artisanal fruit sweets, especially goiabada cascão.
States that the local fruit-sweet tradition was recognized as Ouro Preto intangible heritage in 2008 and that the Festa Cultural da Goiaba has been organized locally since 1993; neither date establishes the kettle's origin.
Cited in: A copper tacho in São Bartolomeu
O TempoEquipment · Method · Geography
Gosta de goiabada cascão? Então você precisa conhecer São BartolomeuA 19 April 2023 account describes producer Pia Chaves putting fresh guava in a copper tacho and stirring the fruit and peel for about two and a half hours.
The article image shows a copper tacho with guava at an earlier stage and another with bubbling goiabada; its gallery credit reads “Foto: Instagram/Reprodução,” without naming a photographer.
Cited in: The movable kettle and the fixed hearth; Cooking the fruit to a cuttable point; What the record can measure
tmatic.travelEquipment · History · Geography · Care
São Bartolomeu, distrito de Ouro Preto (MG)Describes locally made utensils, a circular brick hearth fed with wood, wooden paddles, copper tachos inherited within sweetmaking families or acquired from former rapadura-farm owners, and local cleaning and maintenance practices.
Recounts a report of sweets in the district from traveler John Pohl's 1817–1822 Brazilian travels, but does not date copper-tacho use or establish that the old report concerned goiabada.
Cited in: A copper tacho in São Bartolomeu; The movable kettle and the fixed hearth; Copper, cleaning and food-contact rules; What the record can measure
Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (ANVISA)Safety · Limits
Resolução da Diretoria Colegiada – RDC nº 854, de 4 de abril de 2024The rule specifies full coatings for copper, brass or bronze in food contact and allows uncoated copper equipment for particular industrial or artisanal foods only at the competent health authority's discretion when its technological function is demonstrated.
Cited in: Copper, cleaning and food-contact rules