Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Stobá di Kabritu
The celebration stew of Curaçao: goat marinated in lime then slow-braised with onion, tomato, and Antillean spices until it falls from the bone.
Curaçaoan · medium · serves 6
prep 30 min · cook 150 min
~282 cal · 42g protein · 8g carbs · 8g fat · 2g fiber · 3g sugars · 4g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Stobá di kabritu, goat stew, is perhaps the best known dish of Curaçao and the wider Dutch Antilles, and the one that turns up almost without fail at weddings, communions, and other big family celebrations. Goats thrive on the dry, rocky islands where cattle cannot, so goat became the meat of feasts, and long slow braising turns the lean, flavourful meat butter-soft.
The meat is first rubbed with lime, salt, and a little vinegar, then browned and simmered for hours with onion, tomato, garlic, and warm Antillean seasonings, coloured a deep red by tomato paste and . Some cooks tuck in a few prunes or a spoon of capers, the sweet-and-savoury touch the Antilles love. It cooks down until the sauce is rich and the goat falls from the bone.
Stobá is comfort and occasion food at once, ladled over rice, funchi (cornmeal ), or tutu. At a Curaçao party, as the saying goes, everything is fine so long as there is kabritu on the menu.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
2 lbs goat meat, cut in pieces
2 lime, juiced
1 tbsp vinegar
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tomato, chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 tbsp ground ()
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground allspice
6 prunes (optional)
2 tbsp butter or oil
to taste salt
to taste black pepper
Instructions
1
Rub the goat with the lime juice, vinegar, salt, and pepper and let it marinate for at least 30 minutes, ideally a couple of hours.
✎ Chef’s note
Goat is lean and tastes much like lamb; the long braise is what turns it meltingly tender, so do not rush it.
2
Rinse and pat the meat dry, then brown it well on all sides in the butter or oil in a heavy pot.
3
Add the onion, garlic, red pepper, tomato, tomato paste, annatto, nutmeg, and allspice and cook a few minutes until fragrant.
4
Pour in enough water to cover the meat by a couple of inches, add the prunes if using, and bring to a boil.
5
Cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for about 2 to 2.5 hours until the goat is very tender, then uncover and reduce the sauce until thick. Serve over rice or with funchi.
Willemstad celebration tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Willemstad. Funchi is the cornmeal that goes under everything, stirred stiff and turned out of the pan, and Papiamento names most of the rest: stoba for the stews, karni stoba with beef, kabritu stoba with goat. The island is dry and small, so the sea, the salt cod trade and the Dutch pantry did the supplying.
🗺️
Curaçao. The ABC islands sit in the southern Caribbean dry zone and get around sixty centimetres of rain a year, which is closer to a desert than to the wet tropics further north. That is why so much of the pantry keeps or arrives by ship, hard Dutch cheese and salt cod among it, and why funchi, a stiff cornmeal, does the work of a starch that does not need irrigating.
🌍
North America. The most consequential technique on this continent is nixtamalisation, cooking maize with lime or wood ash. It loosens the skins, makes the dough that becomes tortillas and tamales, and frees up niacin the body cannot otherwise absorb, which is why maize spread around the world without the technique and took pellagra with it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Curaçao
Keshi YenaA shell of Edam or Gouda cheese stuffed with spiced chicken, olives, capers, and raisins, then baked until molten.
Arepa di PampunaSweet Curaçaoan pumpkin pancakes, spiced with cinnamon and anise and fried until lacy-edged, a Dutch-Caribbean morning treat.
KadushiA thick, green cactus soup with salted fish and okra, a truly local Curaçaoan dish born of the arid island.
Browse all Curaçao recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Curaçao meal
Awa di LamunchiDrink
Bolo PretuDessert
GuiamboLunch
Similar dishes from around the world
Curry GoatJamaica
Goat WaterSaint Kitts and Nevis
Trinidadian Curry GoatTrinidad & Tobago
CunilloAndorra
TukirTimor-Leste
Stuffat tal-Fenek (Rabbit Stew)Malta
Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Stobá di Kabritu?
The celebration stew of Curaçao: goat marinated in lime then slow-braised with onion, tomato, and Antillean spices until it falls from the bone.
Where does Stobá di Kabritu come from?
Stobá di Kabritu is a Curaçaoan dish from Willemstad, Curaçao.
Can Stobá di Kabritu be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Stobá di Kabritu recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Stobá di Kabritu safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Stobá di Kabritu take to make?
About 180 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 150 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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