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Arroz Congrí

A Panamanian rice and bean dish cooked with pork, onions, garlic, bell pepper, and spices.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Arroz Congrí

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans in a large pot with water for at least 8 hours or overnight.

  2. Bring the beans to a boil, reduce the heat and let cook for 1 hour and a half to forty five minutes or until tender, adding water if necessary.

Render the pork

  1. Cut the salt pork into medium chunks and cook in a large casserole.

  2. Remove the salt pork from the casserole and drain in paper towel.

  3. Cook the ham chunks in the rendered fat for 5 minutes.

  4. Remove the ham and wipe out the casserole with more paper towel.

Build the rice

  1. Add the oil and cook the onion, garlic, and bell pepper over medium heat until tender, about 5 minutes.

  2. Return the salt pork and ham to the casserole.

  3. Add the beans and 5 cups of the cooking liquid (add water if necessary) to the onions and bell pepper.

  4. Raise the heat to high, add the oregano, cumin, sugar, salt, pepper, and rice, and cook, uncovered, until most of the liquid has been absorbed, 15 to 20 minutes.

  5. Stir the rice with a fork, reduce the heat to low, and cook 10 to 15 minutes more until done.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

714Calories
34 gProtein
29 gFat
78 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 13 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bell Pepper1 medium (119g)31
Cumin1 tsp ground (2.1g)8
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Oregano1 tsp dried (1.8g)5
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Red Beannot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Oregano + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Oregano + clovetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together556 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Red beans
Provide the main body and creamy texture of the dish once cooked until tender.
Long-grain rice
Absorbs the bean cooking liquid and sets into fluffy, separate grains as it cooks.
Salt pork
Renders fat that flavours the pan and seasons the beans and rice.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, forming the flavour base with garlic and pepper.
Garlic
Adds aroma and savoury depth to the cooked base.

The step that matters

Cooking the rice after adding the liquid. Rice must absorb most of the liquid over high heat, then finish gently on low. Too much liquid or too little heat leaves the rice soggy or undercooked, and stirring with a fork helps the grains cook evenly without breaking.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, oregano, pork, olive, garlic, onion, pepper):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, oregano, pork, olive, garlic, onion, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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