Feijoada

Brazil's black bean and salted pork pot, simmered half a day and served with rice, farofa, sautéed collards and orange

Origin: Rio de Janeiro & Brazil

From the journey of Beans.

Feijoada is black beans cooked for hours with an assortment of salted and smoked pork, and it is Brazil's national dish in the fullest sense: eaten on Wednesdays and Saturdays across the country, served in a fixed configuration with rice, farofa, sautéed couve, and orange slices, and followed by a long afternoon. The origin story most often repeated holds that it was invented by enslaved people from the offcuts their owners discarded, ears, tails, and trotters. Brazilian food historians have argued against this for some decades. Bean-and-pork stews are common to Portugal, Spain, and much of Europe, the feijoada name and form descend directly from Portuguese feijoadas, and the earliest Brazilian references place the dish in restaurants and among the well-off rather than in the senzala. Carlos Augusto Ditadi and others have pointed out that expensive cuts appear in the early recipes. The dish is genuinely Afro-Brazilian in its development and its meaning, and the specific story about scraps is folklore that has proved very hard to dislodge. The accompaniments are not garnish and each has a job. Farofa, toasted cassava flour, takes up the liquor; couve à mineira, collard greens shredded to a thread and flashed in garlic and oil, cuts the fat; orange slices are eaten between mouthfuls and are widely held to help with the richness. Molho de pimenta, a raw chilli and lime sauce, sits on the table. The pork is the variable. A full feijoada carries carne seca, smoked ribs, paio and linguiça sausage, and in traditional versions ear, tail, and trotter for the gelatine they give. Everything salted must be soaked and the water changed several times, and skipping that is the commonest way the pot is ruined.

Ingredients

Beans

600 g dried black beans, soaked overnight

Meat

400 g carne seca or salt beef, soaked overnight in several changes of water
400 g smoked pork ribs
200 g paio or smoked sausage, thickly sliced
200 g linguiça or coarse pork sausage
300 g pork shoulder, in large cubes

Aromatics

2 onions, finely chopped
8 garlic cloves, crushed
3 bay leaves

To cook

3 tbsp oil

Seasoning

1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 salt, to taste

To finish

2 oranges, one juiced and one sliced to serve

Method

Soak the beans overnight, and soak the carne seca separately overnight in at least three changes of cold water.
Change the salt beef's water three times. Salted meat that has not been properly soaked will make the entire pot inedible and there is no correcting it later.
Drain the carne seca, cover with fresh water, boil for fifteen minutes, and drain again.
Put the drained beans in a large heavy pot with the bay leaves and 2.5 litres of fresh water and bring to the boil.
Add the carne seca, smoked ribs, and pork shoulder, and simmer, partly covered, for two hours.
Add both sausages and simmer for a further forty-five minutes, until the beans are collapsing at the edges and the liquor has gone dark and thick.
Do not add salt until the very end. The cured meats release a great deal of it as they cook and the pot seasons itself.
Fry the onions in the oil in a separate pan for ten minutes until golden, then add the garlic for a minute more.
Ladle in a cupful of the cooked beans, mash them into the onions to a rough paste, and return the whole lot to the pot.
This mashed cupful is what thickens a feijoada. It should be spoonable rather than soupy, and never thickened with flour.
Simmer uncovered for a final twenty minutes, add the black pepper and the juice of one orange, and taste for salt.
Rest it for half an hour off the heat, then serve with rice, farofa, sautéed collards, orange slices, and a chilli sauce.

Notes

Soak the salted meat in three changes of water and boil it once separately; this is the one step that cannot be skipped. Salt only at the end. Thicken by mashing a cup of the beans back in rather than with flour. A feijoada is better made a day ahead and reheated, and Brazilian cooks generally make it the night before. The accompaniments are part of the dish, not options: rice, farofa, couve, and orange are all expected on the plate. For a lighter pot, leave out the ear, tail, and trotter, but a proportion of gelatinous cuts is what gives the liquor its body.

The Gastrographer

Name: Feijoada
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 3 h 30 min
Total time: 4 h
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Rio de Janeiro & Brazil
Ingredients: 600 g dried black beans, soaked overnight; 400 g carne seca or salt beef, soaked overnight in several changes of water; 400 g smoked pork ribs; 200 g paio or smoked sausage, thickly sliced; 200 g linguiça or coarse pork sausage; 300 g pork shoulder, in large cubes; 2 onions, finely chopped; 8 garlic cloves, crushed; 3 bay leaves; 3 tbsp oil; 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper; 2 oranges, one juiced and one sliced to serve; 1 salt, to taste

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control