Pork Adobo Recipe With Sinamak

IMAGE Jeffrey G. Tan

What makes pork adobo so delicious? The classic version of this ulam Pinoy recipe is a combination of succulent pork pieces, soy sauce, black peppercorns, a few dried bay leaves or laurel, lots of garlic, and a generous amount of vinegar. It's the vinegar that makes this preservation method, which is also a cooking method, delicious. 

That's why vinegar is an important ingredient in adobo. The vinegar not only preserves the meat for longer storage but also flavors it. The result of cooking meat in vinegar is a tamer yet still tangy flavor that is unique to the vinegar. When soy sauce is added, instead of just plain salt as in the case of adobong puti, to balance out the sharpness of the ingredient, the resulting dish is the dish many of us know as a adobo. 

In the case of this pork adobo recipe, the vinegar used is what makes it so delicious as well as unique. Sinamak, a spiced vinegar from Iloilo, is cane vinegar seasoned with various spices including siling labuyo. It's actually the same vinegar used in the marinade of Bacolod's famous chicken inasal. 

So just imagine how delicious this adobong baboy recipe is if you're a fan of chicken inasal. Those same tangy and spicy flavors infuse the pork as it simmers and becomes tender. Since the pork pieces in this recipe include a good portion of the pata, you'll create sticky, gelatinous pork pieces when you're ready to serve. 

Hungry yet?