Pork Tocino – Sweet cured pork commonly served with garlic rice and egg.

 Pork Tocino: The Sweet, Sticky Heart of a Filipino Morning

 The smell of pork tocino cooking in a pan is really nice. It smells sweet. Has a lot of garlic in it. The smell is also a bit caramelized. When you smell pork tocino in the morning you know it is time for breakfast.

 

Pork tocino is very special in Filipino homes. Pork tocino is not something you eat. It makes you think of weekends when you are, at home. You have rice that is cooked fresh and eggs that are frying in the pan with the pork tocino. It is nice to slow down and have a meal before you start your day. Pork tocino is a part of that.

 

Tocino is something you usually find in tapsilog menus and roadside eateries.. The truth is, it started at home. This food is meant to be eaten in the morning shared with family and friends. It is something that people remember happily. You can have tocino with garlic rice and a fried egg. You can put it in a pandesal for a fast snack. Either way pork tocino is a food that people, in the Philippines really love to eat when they want something comforting.

 

A Short History of Pork Tocino

 

The word tocino comes from Spanish. It originally referred to cured pork.

 

Tocino was something that Filipinos learned about during the time when Spain was in charge of the Philippines.

 

People in the Philippines were taught how to cure and preserve meat using salt and sugar.

 

The Filipino people took this technique. Made it their own over time.

 

They used the method but they made tocino sweeter, which is different from the European version of tocino that is more savory.

 

The Filipino version of tocino is really sweet which is not, like the tocino at all.

 

Sugar was really important for curing. At first people used sugar from sugarcane. Then they made it more refined. Annatto, also known as atsuete is what gives tocino its cool red color. Garlic and vinegar help make the taste just right. What people ended up with was a way of making food that's very Filipino. This food is special because it is cured but still tender, sweet but not too sweet and rich but not too heavy. Tocino is. Tender, sugar makes it sweet but not too sweet and all the ingredients together make it rich, without being heavy.

 

People used to make tocino at home. They would cure the tocino for a few days. Then cook it slowly. Now you can buy tocino in stores.. A lot of families still like to make their own tocino. They think that homemade tocino is better because you can make it taste the way you like it. You can make it based on what you remember and what you like to eat. Many people think that homemade tocino is the best because you can adjust the flavor of the tocino to your taste.

 

So what makes authentic pork tocino special? It is the fact that authentic pork tocino is made from pork. The pork used to make authentic pork tocino is really important. Authentic pork tocino has a lot to do with the way the pork is prepared.

 

Authentic pork tocino is special because of the pork. The people who make authentic pork tocino use pork to make it.

 

* The pork in pork tocino is what people like about it

 

* Authentic pork tocino is special because it is made with pork

 

The thing that makes pork tocino special is the pork, in it. Authentic pork tocino is loved by people because of the pork.

 

Real pork tocino is not about the sweetness of the pork. It is, about getting the flavors and textures just right. The pork should be really tender. It has to have enough fat so it stays juicy. When you cook it the sweet part should turn into a caramelized glaze but it should not burn. You should be able to taste the garlic. It should not be too strong. And when you eat the dish it should make you want to have it with a lot of rice I mean a lot of pork tocino and rice together.

 

Making tocino takes time. If you rush the curing or cook it on high heat the meat will be dry or the sugar will be burnt. The key, to tocino is to be patient and pay attention to what you are doing. This is how Filipinos have always cooked. They do things by feel not by following a lot of rules.

 

Best and Authentic Pork Tocino Recipe

 

Ingredients

 

1 kg pork shoulder or pork belly, thinly sliced

 

¾ cup brown sugar

 

¼ cup pineapple juice (traditional tenderizer)

 

1 tablespoon vinegar

 

1 teaspoon salt

 

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

 

5 cloves garlic, finely minced

 

1 tablespoon annatto (atsuete) powder or annatto water

 

Optional: ½ teaspoon curing salt (for color and preservation)

 

Why These Ingredients Matter

 

Pork shoulder is really good because it has a balance of meat and fat. The same thing can be said for pork belly it also has a balance of meat and fat. So when it comes to pork shoulder or pork belly you get the balance of meat and fat.

 

Brown sugar. Turns into a sweet syrup more slowly than white sugar. This is because brown sugar caramelizes gently than white sugar. When you cook with sugar it caramelizes more gently, than white sugar, which is really nice.

 

Pineapple juice is really good at tenderizing meat. It does this without making the meat taste like pineapple. The pineapple juice helps to make the meat softer and easier to chew. It does not overpower the taste of the meat. Pineapple juice is a thing to use when you are cooking meat because it helps to make the meat taste better and feel softer, in your mouth.

 

Annatto gives food a color but it does not give it a special taste. Real tocino should always taste natural it should never have a taste. The color of tocino comes from annatto. The taste of real tocino is what matters. It should be natural, not artificial.

 

Cooking Process: From Cure to Caramelization

 

First we need to get the marinade ready for the food. This is an important step because the marinade is what gives the food a lot of flavor. To prepare the marinade we have to mix all the ingredients. The ingredients for the marinade include things, like oil and spices and herbs. We have to make sure we have all of these things before we start.

 

The marinade is a part of making the food taste good. So we need to take our time and do it right. We will use the marinade to make the food we are preparing. The food will sit in the marinade for a while. This will help it to taste really good.

 

To make this you will need a bowl. In the bowl put brown sugar, pineapple juice, vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic and annatto. Now stir the sugar, pineapple juice, vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic and annatto until the brown sugar dissolves. You will know it is ready when the brown sugar, pineapple juice, vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic and annatto mixture becomes syrupy.

 

This is the moment to taste the food not to see how it tastes when it is finished but to see if it is balanced. The food should be sweet. It should not be too sweet and you should be able to taste the garlic in the food.

 

Step 2: Cure the Pork

 

You need to add the sliced pork to the marinade. Then you have to massage the sliced pork well so that it is covered over. Every single piece of the sliced pork should have the marinade on it.

 

Now you put the sliced pork in a container that can be closed tightly.

 

The sliced pork has to be in the refrigerator for least 24 hours. It is even better if the sliced pork is in the refrigerator, for 2 to 3 days.

 

When you do this the pork gets to take in all the flavor. It becomes really soft. The color of the pork gets a lot darker on its own. The sugar starts to make it taste really good.

 

Step 3: Cook Low and Slow

 

Place the pork in a big pan. Add around half a cup of water to the pan. This is so the sugar in the pork does not burn too quickly. Now cover the pan. Let the marinated pork simmer, over medium heat.

 

When the water evaporates the pork is going to give up its fat. The sauce will get thicker. Now it is time to take the cover off the pan and let the tocino cook gently in its special sauce. You need to turn the tocino a lot so it cooks evenly.

 

This is where the tocino really becomes the tocino. The surface of the tocino starts to get darker the edges of the tocino start to caramelize and the kitchen fills up with that smell of the tocino.

 

Step 4: Finish and Rest

 

When the pork looks really shiny. Is a little crunchy, on the outside and it has a lot of color take it off the heat. The pork should rest for a minute before you serve the pork.

 

People, in the Philippines really love to eat Pork Tocino. Filipinos think Pork Tocino is a food. When Filipinos eat Pork Tocino they usually have it with rice.

 

Filipinos like to eat Pork Tocino for breakfast. Some Filipinos also eat Pork Tocino for lunch or dinner.

 

Pork Tocino is a food of many Filipinos. Filipinos enjoy eating Pork Tocino because it is sweet and salty.

 

Filipinos often serve Pork Tocino with eggs and tomatoes. Filipinos really like to eat Pork Tocino with their family and friends.

 

Pork tocino is not usually eaten by itself. It is part of a routine, with the food that people normally eat with pork tocino.

 

Sinangag (garlic rice) to soak up the glaze

 

Sunny-side-up egg with a runny yolk

 

Sliced tomatoes or atchara to cut through the sweetness

 

A lot of people, from the Philippines do not think that tocino is good just because it is sweet. They think tocino is good if it tastes good with rice. If you are eating tocino and you want rice before you finish that means you made the tocino correctly.

 

Why Pork Tocino Endures

 

In the world of food people are always looking for something.. Pork tocino is still the same. And that is a good thing. It does not try to follow the fads. Pork tocino does not need to be changed or updated. It is what it has always been: something that people know and love something that is a treat and something that is very special to each person who eats it. Pork tocino is familiar it is indulgent and it is deeply personal, to people who enjoy pork tocino.

 

Every family has their way of making tocino. Some people add a soy sauce to their tocino others add more garlic to their tocino. Some people like their tocino to be really dark others like their tocino to be soft. And that is what is so great, about tocino. It is okay to make it different. It is still tocino.

 

Pork tocino reminds us that the most meaningful food is not always elaborate. Sometimes, it is simply pork in a pan, sugar slowly melting, and time taken to cook it properly.