Brazil's Most Popular Sausage Family - Meet the Linguiças

Brazilian inherited their love of sausages from their European ancestors, whether those ancestors were Portuguese, Italian, German, Polish or any number of other nationalities. Most churrascos (barbeque parties) include a course of grilled sausages and in any self-respecting churrascaria with its constant parade of sword-bearing waiters passing by the table, one of those waiter's swords will be laden with sausage. One of the most popular bar snacks in the country is a plate of sliced sausages, fried with rings of onions and sparked up with squirts of fresh lime juice.

Many European styles of sausages and cold cuts are represented in Brazilian cuisine - from hot dogs, to bratwurst and on to pepperoni. But the most popular sausages of all must be the group that goes under the Portuguese name linguiça (pronounced lin-GWEE-sa). The name itself comes from Portugal and attests to the antiquity of this style of sausage - linguiça is related to the Italian word luganega, a style of Italian sausage. That Italian word is derived from an ancient tribe in the Italian peninsula, the Lucanians. Recipes for linguiça-style sausages can be found in cookbooks from classical Rome.

In 21st century Brazil, the linguiça family includes at least a dozen different styles of sausage. Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture regulations  define linguiça as:

A processed meat product, containing meat, with or without the addition of animal fat, and seasonings, stuffed into a natural or artificial sausage casing.

That definition is very broad and could fit any number of styles of sausages. However, the regulation goes on to define with greater precision, by name, the most popular types of linguiça:

Linguiça Calabresa - A product that contains exclusively pork meat and which must have the spicy flavor characteristic of the use of calabresa peppers, stuffed into sausage casings or not, dried and/or cooked, and smoked or unsmoked.
Linguiça Portuguesa - A product that contains exclusively pork meat and seasoning ingredients, processed by hot smoking. The traditional presentation is in the shape of a horseshoe and the seasonings include a large amount of garlic.
Linguiça Toscana - A product that contains exclusively pork meat, raw or cured, with or without additional pork fat, and seasoning.
Paio - A product that contains a mixture of pork and beef (maximum 20% beef), stuffed into natural or artificial sausage casings, seasoned and cured, and subject to hot smoking.

In addition to these traditional styles, Agriculture Ministry regulations permit the sale of the other sausages in the linguiça category: beef linguiça , pork linguiça , pork loin linguiça ,pork loin and fresh ham linguiça, and smoked pork linguiça.

For Brazilians, what type of linguiça to use in a particular dish varies from recipe to recipe. For example, feijoada recipes generally call for linguiça toscana and paio, the preferred topping for pizzas is linguiça calabresa, and garlicky linguiça portuguesa is popular at churrascos.

In the next few days, we'll offer up some Brazilian recipes for linguiça, as well as a recipe for making Brazilian linguiça at home.

RECIPE - Roast Linguiça (Linguiça assada)

This super-easy-to-make dish of linguiça sausages, roasted with tomato halves and rings of red, yellow and green peppers and seasoned with fresh rosemary, makes a wonderful homestyle supper for family or for a casual dinner with friends. All that is needed to accompany this substantial dish is a loaf of crusty French or Italian bread to sop up the juices, a simple green salad to refresh the palate, and a hearty bottle of red wine to refresh the soul.

In Brazil, this recipe is made with linguiça sausages, usually either linguiça calabresa or linguiça toscana. You can make the recipe with any good quality fresh, uncooked sausages - preferrably artisanally made. If you wish to make a less fatty version, before you begin the recipe prick the sausages all over with a fork, then pop into boiling water for about 4-5 minutes. Then drain, rinse and proceed as below.
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RECIPE - Roast Linguiça (Linguiça assada) 
Serves 4

1 1/2 lb (600 gr) good quality fresh sausages, linguiça or similar
2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb (500 gr) small ripe tomatoes, halved and seeded, but unpeeled
1 small green bell pepper
1 small red bell pepper
1 small yellow bell pepper
2 large onions
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar (optional)
a few sprigs fresh rosemary
salt and black pepper to taste
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Preheat the oven to 375F (200C).

Heat a medium frying pan, add the oil then the sausages. Brown them on all sides, turning them frequently.

While the sausages are browning, seed the peppers and cut them into rings. Cut the onions into thick rings.

Arrange the pepper and onion rings, plus the tomato halves, cut side down in a glass or ceramic baking dish. Sprinkle the optional balsamic vinegar over, if desired. When the sausages are browned, place them atop the vegetables in the dish. Add the rosemary sprigs. Cover the dish with aluminum foil, then place in the preheated oven.

Cook for about 30 minutes, then remove from oven and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately, in the baking dish.

RECIPE - Homemade Linguiça (Linguiça Caseira)

Making sausage at home, any type of sausage, appears at first to be a daunting task. Particularly the whole business of getting that mixture of ground meat, fat and spices into those tubes of (horrors!) cleaned-out intestines. The machines needed to do this work look positively infernal, and the sight of a rapidly filling sausage casing isn't for the weak of stomach.

However, the results can be very good indeed, and well worth all the fuss and bother, much better (and much healthier) than commercially made sausage. And if the idea of filling all those lengths of sausage casing seems to be too much work, the product can be formed into patties, like hamburgers are, which gives you all the taste without much work at all.

Brazilian linguiça is a style of sausage that's quite straightforward, and the recipe below will give you the authentic taste of Brazil's most popular family of links. If you want to form the sausages with using either natural or artificial sausage casings, there are many sources on the internet to help you with that process. Some good ones can be found here and here . The recipe is for the filling only - remember, you can always take the lazy way out and fry or grill patties. They'll still be delicious.
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RECIPE - Homemade Linguiça (Linguiça Caseira)
10 portions

5 lbs (2.5 kgs) ground meat - not too lean; beef, pork, lamb, or a mixture of beef and pork
3 Tbsp salt 
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 - 2 tsp cayenne pepper, to taste (optional)
1/4 cup
2 Tbsp finely chopped Italian parsley
2 Tbsp finely chopped green onion, green part only

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients. Using your hands, knead and mix the ingredients together until you have a firm and totally homogenous mass. Form the mixture into the shape of a ball, then turn out into a clean bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic film and refrigerate the sausage mixture for at least 24 hours for the flavors to blend.

The next day, remove from the refrigerator at least one hour prior to beginning the process of stuffing sausage casings. If forming patties, the mixture can be used straight from the refrigerator.

Recipe translated and adapted from Cozinha Regional Brasileira by Abril Editora.

RECIPE - Sausage Frittata (Fritada de Ovos com Linguiça)

As a bit of a break from things Maranhão-esque, here's a quick and easy recipe from the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in almost all ways the cultural opposite of Maranhão in Brazil's northeast. It's 2000 miles as the crow flies from São Luis, the capital of Maranhão, to Rio Grande do Sul's capital, Porto Alegre, but the two regions are worlds apart in almost every respect. They're as different as Boston and Las Vegas, or Quebec City and Calgary. So, for a change of pace, Flavors of Brazil offers up this go-to recipe for a quick and light main course that serves equally well for brunch or supper.
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RECIPE - Sausage Frittata (Fritada de Ovos com Linguiça)
Serves 4

1 Tbsp. neutral vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 12-inch length of cured sausage - kielbasa, chorizo, linguiça, andouille style
1 small onion, finely chopped
salt and black pepper to taste
6 large eggs
1 Tbsp. Italian parsley, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. green onion, green part only, finely chopped

Finely slice the sausage into thin rounds. Reserve.

In a large frying pan heat the oil, then add the chopped garlic and sausage and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the garlic and sausage slices begin to brown. Add the onion, cook for a few more minutes, until the onion is transparent but not browned.

In a mixing bowl beat the eggs lightly. Add this mixture to the frying pan containing the sausages. Lower the heat and cook, delicately mixing in the eggs. Continue until the eggs are cooked, but still moist.

Remove from heat, season to taste with salt and pepper, stir in the chopped parsley and green onion and serve immediately.

Translated and adapted from Cozinha Regional Brasileira by Abril Editora

Dobradinha - A Sunday Feast

I've been to pizza parties, to strawberry ice-cream socials, and even to a beaver roast, but until yesterday I'd never been to a dobradinha party. On a rainy Sunday afternoon here in Fortaleza, a friend of mine hosted just such a party for about twenty guests. The focus of the party was a traditional dish called dobradinha, and the party was in honor of a visiting friend from Rio de Janeiro whose culinary specialty just happens to be dobradinha. So even though this friend was the guest of honor, he was given the task of making the main dish. Which he did a magnificent job of, by the way.

Dobradinha is one of the meat-and-bean dishes that Brazil has inherited from its Portuguese ancestors, just like the famous Brazilian feijoada. In Portugal the dish is a specialty of the north of the country, and is the subject of a famous poem by Fernando Pessoa, "Dobrada à moda do Porto". The Portuguese call the dish dobrada, and the Brazilians, who like to add diminuitives to many words have modified that name to dobradinha, meaning little dobrada.

Dobrada is the Portuguese term for cow's stomach and the dish features exactly that ingredient. The meat portion of the dish consists of tripe (which is the gastronomic term for cow's stomach), smoked pork ribs and linguiça sausages. The beans used in dobradinha are dried white beans, what we might call Navy beans - the type from which Boston baked beans are made. The beans are either cooked in a pressure cooker or slow cooked, and the meats are added towards the end of the cooking process.

Yesterday, the guest of honor-cum-cook, whose name is Napoleão, started to cook the dobradinha about 9 am, and the dish was ready to serve around 2 pm. Dobradinha is not something you'd want to make for a quick weeknight supper!  Cleaning the tripe was the first step, and any good dobradinha cook will tell you that a proper and thorough cleaning of the stomach is the secret to a successful dish. Then the beans were cooked in a pressure cooker while the ribs and linguiça were browned. Finally all the ingredients were mixed together and the completed stew was allowed to bubble slowly on the stove for a couple of hours.

The dobradinha was served accompanied only by white rice and hot sauce for those who wished to add it to the dish. Most of the guests washed it down with plenty of beer. Most of the guests were enthusiastic dobradinha eaters, though as is often the case with organ-meat dishes, some just weren't interested in trying it - fortunately, there was an alternative dish of chicken stroganoff for those who didn't have the stomach for stomach.

I found the dobradinha a delightful variation on feijoada. The beans were creamy-soft and melted in the mouth. The tripe was cooked to a gelatinous state, but still had a bit of firmness to it, so that it didn't feel overly-mushy as can sometimes happen with tripe. It was extremely rich, and one plateful, plus a bit of rice, was very filling. I'm not normally a lover of innards, and have to confess that I approached the dobradinha with a bit of trepidation, but I'm glad I tried it. It's a dish with a long and noble history and an important part of Brazilian food culture - and that's what Flavors of Brazil is all about.

Tripe and linguiça sausage

Pot of dobradinha

Dobradinha for 20

The chef - Napoleão

On Wednesday, I'll provide a typical recipe for dobradinha.

RECIPE - Feijoada (Classic, Traditional Recipe)

In my previous posts about feijoada, I mentioned that this meal contains numerous possible additions, modifications, substitutions and deletions. Consequently, there is no single definitive recipe for feijoada. Cookbooks and food magazines, Brazilian and foreign, newspapers and the internet offer up thousands of recipes for making this dish.

I'll post a few feijoada recipes here in Flavors of Brazil, but I thought it would be proper to start out with a very traditional recipe from 's Rio de Janeiro . As it's from Rio de Janeiro, it is called "Feijoada Carioca" in Portuguese. Carioca is a Portuguese word that means someone or something that is from Rio de Janeiro. Although feijoada is enjoyed everywhere in Brazil, it is most closely associated geographically with Rio de Janeiro.

This recipe is for a very traditional feijoada, and I'm posting it, even though not all the ingredients are likely to be available outside of Brazil, as illustrative of a classic feijoada. Fortunately, feijoada is infinitely flexible, and can be altered to suit taste, budget and availability, so don't hesitate to try this recipe even if you can't find everything that's in the list of ingredients. Just improvise!

You'll note that this recipe is high in saturated animal fats, and it is consequently highly caloric and probably not the most healthy recipe from Brazil. However, the final product is quite rich and most people do not eat a large quantity at one time, nor is feijoada eaten frequently. Just like the Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner, this is a meal for special event or celebration, and as such, rules of healthy nutrition go out the window.
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RECIPE - Feijoada (Classic, Traditional Recipe)
Serves 6

1/2 lb. (250 gr.) pork ribs, salted
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) pig's tail, salted
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) pig's foot, salted
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) pig's ear, salted
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) pork loin, salted
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) carne-do-sol (click here for instructions on how to make your own carne-do-sol)
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) beef brisket
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) Linguiça sausage, or other smoked sausage
1/2 lb. (250 gr.)  Linguiça sausage, spiced, or pepperoni
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) Kielbasa sausage, or other garlic sausage
1 1/2 cups dried black beans
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch green onions
5 bay leaves
1/2 cup cachaça
1 unpeeled orange, scrubbed and quartered
1 lb. (400 gr.) pork lard
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) thick sliced smoked bacon, cubed
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
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The day before cooking the feijoada, place all the salted,meats in a large pan, and cover with cold water. Refrigerate. Change the water every three hours, for minimum 24 hours. Drain thoroughly.

In a very large kettle or bean pot, place the beans, the meats and sausages, the cilantro and green onions tied together, the bay leaves, the cachaça, and the orange. Cover with cold water, bring to a boil over medium heat. Continue to cook over low heat. As each meat in turn becomes fully cooked and tender (test with a fork) remove from the kettle, let cool, cut into bit-size pieces, and reserve.

When the black beans are fully cooked and soft (about 1.5 - 2 hrs.), remove 1 cup of beans and cooking liquid, and blend until smooth in a blender. Return 1/2 cup of this mixture to the beans in the kettle to thicken the cooking liquid.

In a large frying pan heat the lard, and cook the bacon in it until browned and crispy. Remove the bacon cubes, and in the same lard, fry the garlic and onion until soft and transparent, but not browned. Remove from heat, then stir in the reserved 1/2 cup of the blended beans. Stir entire contents of frying pan plus the reserved meats and bacon, into the beans in the kettle. Let cook over low heat for 20 minutes for flavors to blend.

Serve accompanied by Mineiro-style kale, thick slices of peeled oranges, white rice, farofa (recipe to follow), and caipirinhas to drink.

RECIPE - Virado à Paulista

In yesterday's post, which concerned the efforts of an informal group of young chefs to preserve the traditional cuisine of São Paulo, we mentioned that one of that city's councilmen has asked the municipal heritage committee to enshrine a dish called virado à paulista in the roll of São Paulo's intangible patrimony.

Should his efforts be successful, virado à paulista will join a number of traditional festivals, dances, and other foods considered worthy of preservation in the face of global homogenization. To be worthy of such august company you'd think that virado à paulista might be a complicated or extravagant dish. Nothing of the sort - virado à paulista is a common mid-day meal in thousands of downtown and suburban restaurants and lunch bars. It's often served as a restaurant's prato feito (blue-plate special). It's never expensive and sometimes it's downright cheap. But its supporters feel that it is worthy of preservation efforts due to its long history, and also to the emotional attachment that many paulistas have to this dish they've eaten since their childhood.

Basically, virado à paulista is a full-meal plate consisting of white rice, cooked beans, manioc flour, a slice or two of garlic sausage, a thin steak, sauteed kale, a fried plantain and sometimes a fried egg. Nouvelle cuisine this ain't. Satisfying and filling, a virado à paulista is fuel for the whole day - for the body and for the paulista soul.

Although there are innumerable variations on the basic virado à paulista theme, this recipe is a fairly typical rendition. Feel free to modify it as desired - everybody has their own favorite way to make virado à paulista.
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RECIPE - Virado à Paulista
1 portion

3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
3/4 cup cooked dried beans, with their broth (click here for recipe for beans)
1/3 cup farinha (dried, toasted manioc flour)
4 oz. (100 gr) sliced garlic sausage (kielbasa, linguiça or similar)
8 oz. thin beefsteak (round steak or other)
salt to taste
7 leaves kale, destemmed and cut into thin strips
1 ripe plantain, peeled and sliced
cooked white rice
1 fried egg, sunny-side up (optional)
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In a medium saucepan, heat 1 Tbsp of the olive oil, then saute the onion and garlic until transparent and softened but not browned. Add the beans and their broth and heat through. Mix in the manioc flour, adding a bit at a time and mixing each batch in completely before continuing. Reduce heat to very low and cook for about five minutes, or until the manioc flour is softened. Remove from heat and reserve, keeping warm.

In a small frying pan, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and fry  the sliced sausage until browned and crispy. Remove the sausage to a small plate and reserve, keeping warm. Season the steak with salt to taste, add the final Tbsp olive oil to the pan in which the sausage was fried and fry the steak to the desired degree of doneness. Reserve the steak, keeping warm. Still using the same frying pan, briefly stir-fry the kale - just until it takes on a brilliant emerald color. Seaon with salt and reserve. Finally, fry the plantain in the same frying pan.

Assemble the plate - put a scoop of white rice and a scoop of the beans on a large deep plate. Place the steak to one side, and top with the sausage slices. Add the kale and banana slices, and if desired, top it all with a fried sunny-side-up egg. Serve immediately.

RECIPE - Spicy New Year's Sausage (Virada Picante)

New Year's parties in Brazil tend to be buffets, with food available for snacking throughout the evening. Early on, the table might be filled with salty snacks, savory dishes and finger foods. As the evening progresses, sweeter foods and desserts take the place of the snacks and appetizers. This recipe for spicy sausage is a traditional New Year's dish from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, and livens up any buffet or cocktail platter on which is is served. The quantity of peppers can be modified to suit one's taste and capacity for spicy food.
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RECIPE - Spicy New Year's Sausage (Virada Picante)

1 lb. (450 gr.) homestyle linguiça (other artesanal sausages with garlic may be substituted)
1 Tbsp. neutral vegetable oil
2 cups red onion, coarsely chopped into cube shapes
1 Tbsp. dried, flaked red pepper (or fresh Thai red peppers)
2 Tbsp. finely chopped Italian parsley
2 Tbsp. finely chopped green onions (green and white parts)
4 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 loaf baguette or other French or Italian bread, warmed briefly
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Prepare the sauce: If using fresh Thai peppers, crush into a paste with mortar and pestle. If using dried peppers, place in mortar. Add olive oil, then parsley and green onion. Crush lightly with pestle, but do not over-mix. Let sit at least four hours for flavors to blend.

Slice the sausage into bite-sized pieces. Fry in the vegetable until thoroughly cooked and browned. Add the red onion, and cook for about 5 minutes, until the onion is transparent, but still slightly crunchy.

Place the sausage slices and red onion on a serving platter, Drizzle the sauce over. Serve with slices of wam bread.

(Translated and adapted from Cozinha Regional Brasileira by Abril Editora)

RECIPE - Bean Soup (Caldinho de Feijão)

This recipe for a simple and delicious bean soup is typical of the caldo sold by beach vendors throughout Brazil. They carry the hot soup in thermos jars as they walk along the miles of sand looking for hungry customers. This soup can be made with almost any type of dried bean, and in Brazil, regional differences will dictate which bean is most commonly used. In Rio de Janeiro and neighboring states, the black bean is most common. In Brazil's northeast they use pinto beans or kidney beans. Any will make a delicious soup - great to serve on a tropical beach, but equally satisfying when the temperature is below zero and the snow is blowing.

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  Bean Soup (Caldinho de Feijão)

2 cups dried beans (see above about types of beans)
8 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 thick slice bacon
1 6-8" linguiça or kielbasa sausage (optional)
1 med. onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
chopped cilantro and green onion to garnish
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Either soak beans overnight in cold water, or use quick-boil method* to soften. Put beans in heavy, medium-sized saucepan with water, bay leaves, bacon and optional sausage. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until beans are very tender, 40 minutes to one hour. Let mixture cool in saucepan.

If using sausage, remove from bean mixture, slice thinly, and reserve. Remove bacon from bean mixture, chop into small pieces and reserve.

Heat olive oil in heavy frying pan, add bacon and fry over medium heat until bacon renders most of its fat. Add onion and garlic and saute until softened. Add all to the bean mixture in saucepan. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Return saucepan to heat, bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer for ten minutes. Remove from heat. Let cool for 15 minutes, then carefully blend mixture in blender or food processor until smooth. Return to heat to bring to serving temperature.

If using sausage, place a few slices in the bottom of a cup, then pour bean soup over. Otherwise, serve the soup in cups, garnished with the chopped green onions and/or cilantro. You may also add additional garnishes such as chopped hard-boiled egg or Mexican style pico de gallo.

*Place beans in heavy, medium-sized saucepan, and add cold water to cover by one inch. Over medium-high heat, bring beans to a brisk boil, let boil for one minute, then remove from heat. Cover the pan and let beans soften for one hour. Drain prior to beginning recipe.

RECIPE - Francesinha Sandwich

This recipe for Portugal's extravagant francesinha sandwich, which has crossed the South Atlantic in recent years and can now be found in thousands of Brazilian bars, lunch counters and restaurants, is courtesy of Brazilian food-writer Ailin Aleixo's food blog Gastrolândia.

The francesinha, with a delicate and feminine name, is decidedly a masculine sandwich. It's a dieter's nightmare, and and glutton's pipedream all in one. As mentioned in yesterday's post about how the sandwich came to be invented and how it arrived on Brazilian shores, one of these sandwiches represents well over a thousand calories - half of the daily total recommended intake for men and more than half of women's recommended intake.

Most people eat the sandwich in a commercial establishment. It's not something to throw together at home and preparing a home version involves making a relatively complex gravy as well as constructing the sandwich itself. But for those brave (foolhardy?) readers of the blog who want to try one out without having to travel to Brazil or Portugal, here's how it is done:
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RECIPE - Francesinha Sandwich

For the gravy:
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
6 oz (150 grams) flank steak (fraldinha) cut into medium-sized cubes
1 bay leaf
piri-piri hot sauce to taste (Tabasco sauce can be substituted)
2 Tbsp corn starch
3 Tbsp tomato paste
2 oz (60 ml) Port wine (optional)
2 cups (500 ml) Pilsner-style beer
salt to taste


For the sandwich:
1 slice good-quality smoked ham
1 small sausage of your choice (chorizo, linguiça, andouille, wurst, etc.) , sliced lengthwise and fried until nicely browned
1 slice Italian mortadella
3 slices mozzarella cheese
1 small boneless steak, grilled or fried
2 thick slices rustic peasant bread at least 1 in (3 cm) thick
1 fried egg (sunny-side-up is traditional)
gravy to taste
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Prepare the gravy: In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, the garlic, the cubes of meat and the bay leaf and fry them, stirring frequently, until the onion and the meat have nicely browned. Add the Port wine, if using, and the tomato paste and mix them in thoroughly. Pour in the beer and hot sauce, and correct for salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook for at least one hour or until reduced by about half. Dissolve the corn starch in about 4 Tbsp cold water, then stir it in. Let cook for about 5 minutes or until the corn starch is transparent and has thickened the gravy. Remove from heat and strain through a sieve, pressing down on the solid ingredients. Reserve, keeping warm.

Prepare the sandwich: Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Place one slice of the bread in an ovenproof dish or casserole. Top the bread with one slice of the mozzarella, then the ham, mortadella and grilled steak. Add one more slice of cheeze and the second slice of bread. Top with the final slice of cheese. Place in the oven for 5-10 minutes, or until the meats are hot and the cheeze has melted and browned. Meanwhile, fry the egg. Remove the sandwich from the oven and place it on a deep plate, using a spatula and taking care that the sandwich remains whole. Pour the warm gravy over all, making sure there is plenty at the bottom of the plate. Top with the fried egg and serve immediately, accompanied with french fries if desired.

Feijoada - The Essential Ingredients

Although feijoada is often crowned with the title "Brazil's National Dish" it is not, in fact, a dish at all. Feijoada is a meal, in the same sense that Thanksgiving turkey dinner is not a dish but a meal. Just as one family might serve creamed pearl onions at Thanksgiving, while another family considers that heresy, and serves a broccoli casserole instead, the core ingredients of the Thanksgiving dinner rarely vary - turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, etc. Feijoada is exactly the same - there are a huge number of dishes that have made their way into a feijoada, but there is only a small number of dishes without which one cannot really call the meal a feijoada.

A true feijoada will consist, at the very least of:

Cuts of pork, including hocks, ears, and belly, cooked in black beans

Linguiça sausage cooked in black beans

Boiled white rice

 Peeled slices or cuts of fresh oranges

Farofa

Mineiro-style kale

 And to accompany this enormous repast, the traditional beverage of a feijoada:
Caipirinhas

Together, all these dishes constitute a proper feijoada, but other additional dishes may be added as desired. Note that the first two ingredients, the true core of a feijoada, are pork products cooked in black beans. Although in today's world, with today's sensibilities, vegetarian feijoadas do exist, the traditionalist Brazilian would refuse to call that concoction a feijoada at all. But if the 21st century universal compendium of food has allowed the entry of vegetarian haggis or a vegetarian pasty, then let's allow an exception for vegetarians to allow them to enjoy feijoada. However, truth be told, a true feijoada is a meal for carnivores only.