We’ve tried our hand at preserving fruits and vegetables, and it was only a matter of time until we would move on to meat. One traditional method we learned for making foodstuffs keep a little longer is making adobo. This ‘national dish’ has essential ingredients that are also used for food preservation such as salt and vinegar, and is just as good eaten fresh off the stove, or the next day after the flavors have had more time to become well-acquainted with one another. Adobo can even be stored up as a sort of preserve in a jar, as seen by the literal ‘adobo sa garapon’ traditionally made as a way to keep meat for a future rainy day.
We first learned of ‘adobo sa garapon’ while reading the Adobo Book compiled by Reynaldo Alejandro and Nancy Reyes-Lumen. This style of making and keeping adobo was contributed by a Bicolana who shared her fond reminiscences of eating ‘adobo sa garapon’ over hot rice during the typhoon season. As it turns out, there are no specific proportions for this recipe, but there are some essential ingredients that must go into the pot.
Making Basic Adobo sa Garapon
Combine fresh pork meat with whole garlic, whole black peppercorns, and bay leaves. Boil everything together with water, vinegar, and salt till the meat is tender and the fat is rendered to a liquified state. Scrape the bottom of the pot to make sure all the fat is incorporated. Store the adobo in sterilized jars/garapon with all the fat. When cooled, the fat should make a layer above all the meat.
Team Glasses Specifics and Tweaks for Adobo sa Garapon
The Meat: We were able to acquire some native pig meat from Benguet, specifically choosing the kasim (shoulder) and lomo (loin) cuts for this adventure. Belly or liempo cut is excellent for making a very fatty adobo, but leaner parts may also be used as a matter of taste. We made sure to cut the pork into cubes for easier handling.
If pork isn’t available or preferred, adobo sa garapon may be made with eggs, chicken, beef, fish and seafood, or even some other protein. The challenge with using lean proteins is having enough fat to render, so it may be necessary to add extra vegetable oils or lard for the fat component.
The Vinegar: Native vinegar is said to be the best for adobo, but the question was which one? We chose red cane vinegar for our dish, because of its relatively mild flavor. Other options would have been the famed sukang Paombong or sukang tuba, which would each impart specific flavors to the adobo. Apple cider vinegar is also a known alternative to local vinegars. More delicate flavors and lighter meats (such as seafood) may be paired with milder vinegars such as rice vinegar or sweet wine vinegars. We would never dream of making adobo sa garapon with our favorite sukang Iloko (a dark cane vinegar) or even balsamic vinegar, since those two have a way of dominating dishes especially when steeped or marinated.
Garlic: We used the large garlic variant for this batch of adobo. Our personal favorite though would be the tiny bawang from Illocos, which is sadly not as easy to find or handle.
Salt: Rock salt is best for this type of cooking. It may be possible to try other kinds of colored salt, but their more subtle flavors may be overwhelmed or masked by the vinegar and meat.
Peppercorns: We used a mix of black and pink peppercorns for this adobo sa garapon. Pink peppercorns taste similar to black peppercorns, but have a subtle fruity tinge to them.
We used a 1:1 ratio for vinegar and water in the pot, and boiled everything till the sharpness of vinegar could no longer be smelled and everything had simmered down to this oily, sticky goodness. For our other batches of adobo sa garapon, we decided to experiment with some add-ins that are found in other adobo iterations nationwide, but aren’t always found in the jar.
Team Glasses Add Ins:
Soy Sauce: Most adobo served up in Metro Manila uses some form of soy sauce for color and additional saltiness. Soy sauce can be added in as part of the vinegar and water mixture. For this version we first boiled the pork to render most of the fat, separate the pork (while reserving all the liquified fat), and then fry it with a little oil and soy sauce. Then once more fat had been rendered, we poured all the liquified fat back into the pan to simmer and reduce to a thick consistency.
Mirin: One of our favorite ingredients for many dishes is mirin, a sweet Japanese rice wine. To incorporate mirin into the adobo, we added it towards the end of cooking just to help deglaze the pan and scrape the delicious brown bits from the bottom. Other wines may also be used, bearing in mind the best wines to pair with different meats or proteins; for example, a strong red would not be as ideal when making this with fish. Other alcohols such as rum or beer can also be used, but are probably better off as a marinade for the meat prior to combining with salt and other spices.
Chili Pepper/Oil: For a little extra kick in one iteration, we added in some chopped chili we already had preserved in oil. We used this when frying the pork (similar to our soy sauce version) for a little extra crispiness. Chili flakes can also be used in lieu of fresh chili.
Star Anise and Five Spice: Some other adobos have a strong Chinese influence with the use of spices such as star anise or the famous ‘five spice’ blend. There are several ways to incorporate these spices: star anise can be combined with the peppercorns and garlic when boiling the pork, or it can be added in if frying the meat towards the end. Five spice is best added if frying the meat before finishing the adobo.
All of these adobo sa garapon versions can be stored in a larder or in a refrigerator to optimize shelf life. Just like other adobos, this is best served over a mound of piping hot rice. Alternatively, it can be served with some bread on the side, or incorporated into other dishes requiring flavorful animal fats.
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