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Portuguese Feijoada

A hearty bean stew with assorted pork, sausage, and beef, flavored with onions, tomatoes, carrots, garlic, and spices.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Portuguese Feijoada

Serves 10
Time1 hour

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak beans for several hours, then put them in a large saucepan.

  2. Add all the meat to the pot.

  3. Add bay leaves and chopped parsley.

  4. Fill the pot with water and bring to a boil.

Make the stew

  1. Fry onions, tomatoes, carrots, and garlic in oil and margarine.

  2. Once the onions are fried, transfer two ladle scoops of the bean mixture into the skillet, mash with the vegetables, then dump all contents of the skillet back into the pot.

  3. Mix in the tomato paste, cover, and let cook for 1 hour. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika to taste.

Serve

  1. Cook the rice separately and, when finished, add it to the pot, then serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1144Calories
69 gProtein
56 gFat
90 gCarbs

Counts 15 of 16 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 15 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Pork100g cooked242
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Black Bean1/2 cup canned (120g) drained114
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Meatnot 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 Wikibooks Cookbook.

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. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pork + beeftop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  4. Beans + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried black beans
Form the bulk of the stew and, when partly mashed, thicken it into a creamy texture.
Pork and beef meats
Add rich fat and savoury depth as they flavour the long-simmered beans.
Onions
Caramelise when fried, adding sweetness and a savoury aroma to the base.
Tomato paste
Adds concentrated acidity, colour and depth to the cooking liquid.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma that mellows during frying and simmering.
Rice
Serves as a starchy base that soaks up the rich bean stew.

The step that matters

Mashing part of the beans with the fried vegetables. Mashing releases starch from the beans and blends it with the vegetables, thickening the stew. Too little mashing leaves the broth thin, so the mixture should be mashed well before returning it to the pot.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, meat, pork, beef, onion, tomato, carrot):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, meat, pork, beef, onion, tomato, carrot. 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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