Brazilian Spices and Seasonings: Dendê, Urucum, Malagueta, Garlic and Bay

Brazil doesn’t have one spice cabinet. It’s a huge country with several regional cuisines, and its seasoning runs from the deep red palm oil and chiles of Bahia to the garlic, onion and bay in an everyday pot of beans. In Bahia, acarajé fritters are fried only in palm oil. In Brazilian homes and restaurants, chiles often come on the side, pickled or as hot sauce, so everyone sets their own heat.

At a glance

Dendê (palm oil)

Dendê is the oil of Elaeis guineensis, the oil palm, which comes from West Africa. A 2025 study of Bahia’s dendê tradition in the journal Heritage describes how closely many Bahian palm-oil dishes resemble West African ones. It says the oil’s vibrant color, rich flavor and distinct aroma define the comidas de azeite, the “oil foods” of Bahia.² Technically it’s a cooking fat, not a spice, but in these dishes it brings as much flavor and color as any spice.

The same study names the core dishes:

• Acarajé, a black-eyed pea fritter. In Bahia it’s fried only in palm oil, while in Africa peanut oil was sometimes used.
• Moqueca, a seafood stew flavored with coconut milk and dendê.
• Vatapá, a rich paste of bread, peanuts, dried shrimp and dendê.
• Caruru, a thick okra dish.

Dendê belongs to Bahia and the Afro-Brazilian kitchen in particular. We found nothing showing it’s the go-to frying oil across all of Brazil, and no source for the often-repeated line that it tastes floral, nutty or like olive oil.

Urucum (annatto)

Urucum is the Brazilian Portuguese name for annatto. Its Portuguese names include urucú, urucum and açafroa-do-Brasil. The tree is native from Mexico to tropical South America, and South America, Brazil included, is still the main growing region.

You use annatto for color. Katzer notes the seeds have a faint fragrance, but it doesn’t carry into the food they stain.¹ You’ll see it described as tasting like nutmeg with a peppery bite, but the sources we checked don’t back that up, so think of it as a coloring first. See our annatto seeds and achiote powder profiles, cooking with annatto seeds, and annatto substitutes.

Malagueta and other chiles

The malagueta (also spelled melegueta) is a Brazilian chile that Katzer says is believed to be the wild form of Capsicum frutescens. Don’t mix it up with melegueta pepper, which Katzer notes is just another name for grains of paradise. He also notes that ajíes are known in Brazil.³

In Brazilian homes and restaurants, chiles often come on the side, as pickled peppers in oil or vinegar and as hot sauces, so everyone sets their own heat.

Garlic and bay: the feijoada base

Feijoada, the black bean and pork stew, shows how simple the everyday seasoning base can be. Saveur’s version cooks the beans with crushed garlic and bay leaves, adds a lot of minced garlic and some onion, and seasons with salt and black pepper. Black pepper is the only heat. It’s traditionally served with garlic rice, sautéed collard greens, a tangy vinaigrette, and farofa, toasted cassava flour, with orange slices on the plate.⁴

See garlic, bay leaves and cooking with bay leaves.

Cilantro (coentro)

Cilantro goes in fresh. Aldehydes dominate its smell, making up more than 80% of the volatile compounds in the leaf oil.⁵ It’s a familiar finishing herb for Brazilian fish and seafood stews, moqueca included. We found no source for the claim that it’s especially popular along the Atlantic coast or in Bahia, though. See cilantro, and culantro for its stronger-smelling cousin.

Cumin

Cumin is especially popular in Asian, North African and Latin American cooking. It shows up in some Brazilian stews and meat dishes, but we couldn’t confirm the specific dishes it often gets credited to (cabrito ao molho, barreado) in any source we reviewed. See cumin and cumin uses.

Black pepper

Brazil is one of the world’s big black pepper growers. An AramcoWorld history of the spice says Vietnam, Brazil and Indonesia together produce more than 60% of the world’s pepper,⁶ though the article doesn’t give a year for that share. See black pepper.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a common topping for Brazilian sweets like arroz doce (rice pudding) and curau (sweet corn pudding), and some cooks add it to roast chicken. See cinnamon, Ceylon cinnamon and cassia.

Related pages

• Portuguese spices and Peruvian spices
• Annatto seeds and achiote powder
• Okra spices
• The master list of herbs and spices