Enjoying food is an important part of the culture of Portugal. Whether you’re buying groceries, ordering at a restaurant, or just talking about food, you’ll need to be comfortable with the basics of Portuguese cooking vocabulary. To start, let’s focus on some of the things you might find in a Portuguese kitchen.
Food Storage
There are many different places and containers you can use to store or preserve food.
- Food that can be stored at room temperature can be placed in a despensathe pantry , in o armário de cozinhathe kitchen cabinet , a gavetathe drawer , or right on a bancadathe counter or a mesathe table . Fruit, in particular, can be put in a fruteirathe fruit holder , which might be a bowl, basket, or a whole multi-tiered stand.
- Food that needs to be preserved at lower temperatures could be placed in o frigoríficothe refrigerator , others in o congeladorthe freezer . Some people might have a arca frigoríficafreezer cabinet , which is a larger freezer, separate from the fridge.
Cooking Tools and Appliances
Knives
To prepare food on the kitchen counter or table, we often use a tábua de cortarcutting board
When cutting meat or vegetables, you might use a faca de chefchef's knife or a faca para vegetaisparing knife . If you’re cutting bread, then a faca serrilhadaserrated knife would be more appropriate.
Utensils
- as colheres de pauwooden spoons
- as pinçastongs
- as espátulasspatulas
- o coadorcolander
- o raladorgrater
- o batedorwhisk
- o quebra-nozesnutcracker
- o rolo da massarolling pin
Appliances
- o micro-ondasmicrowave
- o fogãostove
- a placa de induçãoinduction cooktop
- o fornooven
- o grelhadorgrill
- a liquidificadorablender
- a chaleirakettle
- a panela de pressãopressure cooker
- o processador de alimentosfood processor
- a tostadeirasandwich / panini press
- a batedeiramixer
- a varinha mágicahand blender
- o espremedorjuicer
- a cafeteiracoffee maker
- a balançascale
- a máquina de lavar loiçathe dishwasher (Or just wash them in o lava-loiçathe kitchen sink )
- a máquina de lavar roupathe washing machine
Cookware
- as panelasdeep pots
- os tachosshallow pots
- as frigideirasfrying pans
- as luvas (de forno) oven mitts
- as caçarolascasseroles
Tableware
Tableware includes os talherescutlery , os pratosplates, serving dishes and os coposglassware .
When it comes to cutlery, the three main eating utensils are as colheresspoons , os garfosforks and as facasknives .
Here are some other common items you may see at a Portuguese table:
- a travessaplatter
- a tigelabowl a taçabowl
- a conchaladle
- o cesto de pãobread basket
- a colher de cafécoffee spoon
- o jarropitcher, jug
- o copoglass
- a chávenacup, teacup, mug
- a canecamug
- a garrafabottle
- o guardanaponapkin
- o piressaucer
Cooking Techniques
Our guide wouldn’t be complete without mentioning some Portuguese vocabulary for cooking methods!
- assadoroasted assadaroasted
- grelhadogrilled grelhadagrilled
- cozido a vaporsteamed cozida a vaporsteamed
- fritofried fritafried
- cozidocooked, boiled cozidacooked, boiled
- fervidoboiled fervidaboiled
In Portuguese we do not use “barbecued” to express how something was cooked. We say grelhado when you use a grill, whether it’s a barbecue or a stove, and we say assado when you use an oven. There is one exception though: don’t be surprised when you hear frango assado for barbecued chicken. Let’s see a few examples in context:
Peixe com batatas cozidas.Fish with boiled potatoes.
Legumes cozidos a vapor.Steamed vegetables.
O pastel de bacalhau é frito.The codfish cake is fried.
Ela gosta de carne assada.She likes roasted meat
Salmão grelhado é saudável.Grilled salmon is healthy.
Cooking Meat and Fish
- CruaRaw – Not a great idea unless you like steak tartar, and definitely avoid it with chicken.
- Mal passadaRare to medium-rare
- Ao pontoMedium
- Bem passadaMedium-well to well-done
- QueimadaBurnt – Not a great idea either.
Cooking Eggs
- estreladossunny side up
- mexidosscrambled
- escalfadospoached
- omeleteomelet
- “Over-easy/over-medium/over-hard” eggs are not very common in Portugal, so there’s not a true translation. You would likely have to describe how they are cooked if you wanted to order them this way.
Cooking Potatoes
- fritasfried
- cozidasboiled, cooked
- assadasroasted
Be careful when you go to a restaurant and ask for batatas fritas, since sometimes you get a side of potato chips and other times, French fries. You can ask them to clarify if the batatas fritas are batatas fritas às rodelaspotato chips, crisps or batatas fritas em palitosFrench fries .
Wow, a lot of vocabulary to learn here!
I’ve been going round my kitchen pointing at things and reciting. LOL
Love the detail. Thank you!
I think it is time for more yellow post-its in the kitchen, thank you for this helpful vocabulary, particularly as we want to learn to cook traditional Portuguese meals.
The detail in this course marks it out as special.
So much to learn yet but worth every moment of study.
Hi!
Liquidificadora seems to be an adjective. Should it perhaps be um liquidificador?
Kind regards,
Tommy
Hi, Tommy. Both are absolutely fine – “O liquidificador” or “A liquidificadora”. The feminine variation derives from “A máquina liquidificadora” (the juicing machine), so it’s true that there is a certain adjectival nature there.
Great! Many thanks for clarifying.
I have just put post it notes all around my kitchen, a minha esposa não está muito feliz !!!
Thankyou for this language course, it is very good.
One question , is tostadeira, a toasted sandwich maker, and is torradeira, a toaster ,(for making toast) ?
Thanks, Paul! Also, you’re absolutely correct regarding tostadeira vs. torradeira.
I can’t seem to move on from storage tools and cooking!
At the end of the Learning Note, if you click on “Mark as Complete”, you should be guided to the next lesson 🙂 If that doesn’t do the trick, we can troubleshoot it more closely with you via our support channel: https://www.practiceportuguese.com/contact/
I love that Portuguese eggs are star side up rather than sunny side up! A whole new concept. I think I’m starry eyed about that one!
Excellent, thank you!
Are cozido and fervido interchangeable for boiled or is there a difference somehow?
Thank you too, Frank! To answer your question, ‘cozido‘ and ‘fervido‘ are similar, but not entirely the same thing.
If you’re cooking in boiling water, you can use both expressions, but keep in mind that ‘cozer‘ (‘to cook’) refers mainly to the cooking method itself, while ‘ferver‘ (‘to boil’) refers to the temperature, usually of the water used to cook the food. So, you can say “ferva a água” (‘boil the water’) when you want to bring it to boiling temperature, but you can’t say “coza a água” (‘cook the water’), because we don’t cook water. On the other hand, if you want to cook fish in boiling water, you can say either “coza o peixe” (‘cook the fish’) or “ferva o peixe” (‘boil the fish’, as in cook it at boiling temperature).
When something is very hot (food, an object, the weather…), you can also say that it “está a ferver!” (‘it’s boiling hot!’).
That makes sense, thank you!!
should we say ‘arca frigorifica’ or ‘arca congeladora’ for a chest freezer?
Olá, Alan. You will hear and see both, and I couldn’t confirm if there is one that is more correct than the other – I don’t think so. Personally, if the context is obvious, I just say “arca”. I’m all for the simplest possible option 🙂
Hi,I often see the expression “frango ou borrego etc no forno”, which i know means in the oven, wheras you use only “assado/a” in this lesson. is there any particular reason for this?
Olá Robert! Both options are very commonly used. In this case, we were more focused on covering many of the simple adjectives we can use for direct descriptions of food. For something cooked no forno, we typically say assado, but it’s fine to use the former as well.
Hi guys, it would be really helpful if you included the gender of all these nouns. I find myself having to look all of them up to be sure.
Thanks for the feedback! We are working on some improvements that will allow us to add details such as gender, part of speech, etc. 🙂
What’s the difference between tigela and taça?
Many times, we use them interchangeably to describe bowls. A ‘tigela’ (or ‘malga’, in the North) is always a bowl, but a ‘taça’ may also be a cup or glass with a stem/base. For example, we may use ‘taça’ to refer to champagne glasses or certain trophies.
O que é que a diferença entre um coador e um escorredor? In English both seem to mean colander.
Olá. I think it’s mainly a size difference. A ‘escorredor’ would be larger than a ‘coador’. We mainly use ‘escorredor’ for dish drainers, but it’s also sometimes used for cooking utensils, like salad or pasta colanders (these are usually called ‘passador’). A ‘coador’ is usually smaller, like, for tea/infusions, for example.
HI Rui and Joel
Great learning tool. Thank you. The fact that I can hear the pronunciation of each word is amazing.
It would be super helpful if next to the nouns was added the a or o, as or os to indicate if the noun is female or masculine. I would be great to learn the words together with the articles.
I was trying to add the articles by inputting the words into the translated and found out that some of the words are translated differently on the translator.
Examples:
Wooden spoon
A colher de pau but when I wrote the wooden spoon on your translator it come up with: a colher de madeira
Rolling pin
O rolo da massa but in translator: o rolo de pastel
Toaster
A tostadeira but in translator: a torradeira
I really enjoy your course and I practice português every day. I also like the fact that there are dialogs included. I also watch your podcasts and videos. I love the video when you are visiting your grandma “Lavar a Loiça com a Avó Odete”; I watched it several times.
Kind regards
Margaret
Olá, Margaret. Thanks for your kind words and feedback, which was duly noted. Regarding the translations, technically, they’re fine, but not necessarily idiomatic. ‘Colher de pau’ and ‘colher de madeira’ are synonyms, but we usually prefer to use the former. Same for ‘rolo de pastel’ and ‘rolo da massa’ – I’m not fully certain, but I believe the former is more typical of Brazilian Portuguese. I only hear and use ‘rolo da massa’, personally. As for ‘toaster’, that one’s actually on us! 🙂 This depends on the model at hand, but generally speaking, ‘torradeira’ is a closer translation for ‘toaster’ (to toast individual slices of bread), whereas ‘tostadeira’ is closer to a sandwich press. We’ll update that translation for clarity.
Great list now want to go to repeating those words to get the pronunciation right
Thank you soooooooooooooo much 🤗❤it’s the best explanation and cooking subject that I have come across 🤩
I didn’t understand this at all:
“Over-easy eggs are not so common that you could order them without having to explain how to cook them.”
What am i missing?
It means there’s not really a translation for “over easy eggs” in Portuguese. If you wanted to order them that way, you would likely have to explain how they are cooked / just describe it, because it’s not very common in Portugal. I’ll reword this part to make it a bit more clear.
Add “over medium eggs” while you’re at it.
Can’t believe it! Five weeks since I started and I’m suddenly at A2.
Wow congrats, you’re doing great! Make sure to spend some time with Smart Review, too, to help you retain everything you’re learning. 😊
I suppose when asking how the fries are served at a restaurant you would say something along the lines of “as batatas fritas está servido como ás rodelas ou em palitos?”
Olá Brandon!
You’d be perfectly understood just like you put it. More correctly should be: “Como são servidas as batatas fritas: às rodelas ou em palitos?” or even “As batatas fritas são às rodelas ou em palitos?”. You may, however, find fries shaped as chips… It’s just not that common, though.
Cheers,
Luís
My dictionary says tostadeira means toaster, not a sandwich press. Which is correct?
This depends on the model at hand, but generally speaking, ‘torradeira’ is a closer translation for ‘toaster’ (to toast individual slices of bread), whereas ‘tostadeira’ is indeed closer to a sandwich press.
Hello! Thank you again for all your lessons! I have a question about pronunciation. I’ve been using an app for vocabulary, and the speaker (native) pronounces tigela like “chela” (hard ch) . Also I’ve heard words starting with desc pronounced like “ji” like descansado as “jicansado”. Am I hearing it wrong or do these words have different variations in pronunciation? Thank you for your help. I really appreciate that you take time to respond 🙂
Olá! I believe that you’re just hearing it wrong, specially due to quick pronunciation. Tigela does sound like “Tchela” if you’re speaking too fast. Same with Descansado… it may sound like “djcansado”. But there’s no specific variation in pronunciation here. Just lack of good articulation of words, which my happen often.
That sounds like Brazilian pronunciations. Ti-, te- are pronounced like Chee- in Brazilian Portuguese. And De- and Di- are pronounced as gee- (djee). Practice Portuguese is continental Portuguese. So, not wrong, but different and probably not helpful for you while learning.
“em palitos” is translated here as French fries ???
I always ask “Batas fritas:” if I want French fries in Portugal !
“em palitos” suggests something placed on sticks
Looks like a mistake
If you go to a restaurant and order batatas fritas with your dish you’ll most probably get regular french fries. Or batatas fritas em gomos (sliced potato chunks, like sliced apples), very trendy nowadays!
If you go to a cafe and order batatas fritas you’ll be getting a bag of chips, for sure.
If you want to make sure if what you’re ordering it’s batatas fritas (chips) or batatas fritas (fries) at a restaurant, though, you could ask something like “São batatas fritas às rodelas ou batatas fritas em palitos?” Or “As batatas fritas são às rodelas ou em palitos?” There’s no way around it.
In Portugal no one would think you’d be asking about French fries placed on sticks, so you don’t need to worry about that! 😄
The shape of the “batatas fritas” is implied when you say “às rodelas” or “em palitos”. Is like saying “batatas fritas em forma de rodelas” or “batatas fritas em forma de palitos”. And yes, you could also say “batatas fritas em rodelas”, but “às rodelas” sounds better.
😊
Thanks for the clarification. I learned something.
Actually, I had not realized the term “em palitos” referred to the shape of the French fries !
Obrigada pelas muitas palavras úteis! I don’t know if I am asking too much, but for me would be really helpful if you included small pictures of the objects, as I am not a native speaker of English and now and then don’t know the meaning of certain English words.
That is a good idea! I’ll pass along the feedback to see if it’s possible. Adding images next to the words can be tricky, but maybe we could work on adding some other images with labels.
Liquidificadora has become ‘a minha nova palavra favorita’ recentemente. I do this whenever a word is difficult for me to remember. In this case it is the liqui DI ficador part I’m having trouble with. (I forget to put it in all the time) And now that I’m at it; why is it not A or O? Anyway. What I was wondering; the ending …ficador(a) does it comes from the verb ficar? to become or in this case to make. And are there even more machines ending in …ficador(a)?
E uma otra coisa. Como a fada que eu sou. Esta a faltar a minha varinha mágica 🪄 nesta nota de aprender. 😉 Obrigado!
Hah, it’s a great word! The verb ‘liquidificar’ is not related to the verb ‘ficar’, but to the verb ‘fazer’ (i.e. to make liquid, or to turn liquid). Then, ‘liquidificador(a)’ just adds the suffix ‘-dor(a)’ to it. You’ll see many machines or tools with this ‘-dor’ suffix.
Obrigado por nos lembrares da varinha mágica 🙂
Is there a word for a toaster or a toaster oven?
Yes, of course! The word for toaster is “torradeira” and for a toaster oven it’s “forno de convecção” or “forno elétrico pequeno”. 🙂
This is great, now I have reached the point where I can improve my English as well 🙂
Really useful phrases for daily kitchen life.Every kitchen lovers must learn this especially expats.
Olá. This is a great page; lots of info. Muito Obrigada
Does “chávena” cover an espresso mug, or would that be called something else? …like ‘chávena de espresso’? Or does the context explain? Just thinking about having friends visit and I’m asking them do they want an espresso-size mug or a big american-size mug. LOL, picturing it, I’d probably hold both up and they can point.
Olá and thank you for your kind feedback.
Yes, we use “chávena” broadly. For us, by default, “chávena de café” or “chávena pequena” is espresso-sized, while “chávena de chá” or “chávena grande”, for example, would be larger. “Caneca” would be the largest size mug. Holding both (or the three of them) up is probably the easiest way out anyway! 🙂
A lot to learn but so very useful, thanks