Hey y'all, I've been jonesin' to get my grill on at The Blues Casa with some tocino for a good while. I had never made the stuff myself but really enjoyed the hell out of the marinaded porky "red meat" as my Filipino amigo's called it. That was several years ago in Alaska whence last I had it and my friend Manolo would never divulge the recipe. Can't say as I blame him, the stuff is pure gold!
This is one of the very few times that I will admit that I put in some research (yeah, screw you JayT) to discover the secret of making this incredible meat.
In Spain, tocino is literally translated to mean "bacon". The Spanish influence in the Philippines runs deep but combined with heavy doses of Asian influences, the cuisine has evolved into something very unique. I discovered many recipes for tocino, some authentic, some not so, and many bastard wannabe's. The basics are thus. Thin sliced pork shoulder/butt, salt, sugar, and a coloring ingredient to give the meat a very delicious looking red appearance. Many authentic recipes however, do omit the coloring agent. Some coloring agents used are FD 40 Red food coloring, beet powder/juice, achiote, or in some abominable recipe's, ketchup. I don't care for the fake coloring stuff and was leaning towards beet juice but from what I did know about my friends recipe, they used artificial food coloring and wanting to achieve a result as close as I could to what I knew tocino to be, I succumbed to the temptation to use it. Some older recipes used salt peter or pink salt to cure the meat. I was having none of that crap!
Now here's the dealio with the pork shoulder/butt. It's got a heap of fat and if you try to slice the meat thin, its just going to be a big mess and fall all apart. What you want to do is stick the meat in the freezer for a good hour or two and then slice it. Much easier. You'll still have some meat that falls apart but the end result will leave you with much steakier looking pieces. Unfortunately, I didn't do that. Last week I went to the local TryNSave(Kroger) and spoke with the meat dpt. manager and asked if they could slice me up a pork shoulder. No problem. A couple days later I go back to have the deed done and asked the dude at the counter to hook me up. "Sorry man but we can't slice pork." "WTF? Are you kidding? Just the other day your manager said no worries on anything I want!" Another dude working behind the counter shows up. "Yeah man, we can't do sliced pork because of the bone in shoulder." At this point I was getting a little peeved and said something to the effect of "there's a new cutting tool on the market you should look into. It's called a BANDSAW!!! Go back in the freezer, grab me a 4-6 shoulder and slice it up!! Charge extra, I don't care!!" They both look at me like I just came from outer space. Finally one of them sheepishly goes in the back for a spell and comes back and says "uhm, sir, I don't have any frozen shoulders." Now at this point, the little pea in my noggin' was spinning pretty hard but rather than get mad, I decided to feck with this guy. "Okay, wait here for a sec." I run over to the pork section and grab a 4 pound packaged shoulder, obviously thawed out. "Dude, take this over to the band saw and slice it up." "But sir, that's gonna' slice up into a big mess, are you sure..." "Two words amigo, BAND SAW. I don't care if the meat falls apart." Let me just say that while the result of the slicing is not what I had set out for, the mental mind feck I put on that schmo as he was hating life cutting that shoulder on the band saw was worth it. Fat and pork flying everywhere, but in the end, I got at least partially what I wanted along with a good laugh. Next time I'll do my own slicing.
So here's what I got...
4 # bone in pork shoulder, thin sliced no less than 1/8" or more than 1/4"
2 cups white cane sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt
3 cups water
FD 40 red food coloring
In a large stainless steel bowl, I combined the water, sugar, salt and food coloring and whisked until everything was dissolved. I then added the sliced meat and mixed until incorporated. Then I covered the whole thing in plastic wrap and into the fridge for 4-5 days.
Look at that color!
I stirred meat and marinade each day. By day 2, almost all of the liquid had been absorbed into the meat. Yesterday, the 4th day, I decided it was ready and to vac pack it up. 1 pack for the grill, and the others for the freezer for later use.
Last night, under the light of The Blues Porch, I fired up ye' olde' gas grill and slapped the porkage on. Sure the pieces were on the small side but the alcohol in my noggin' was tellin' me to be like Honey Badger, and Honey Badger, he don't care!
Now the most important thing is to grill the meat without burning it but also to push the envelope and take it right to the edge to just get a good caramelization going on it. Don't walk away from it though or you'll screw the pooch and have just a bunch of overcooked blackened meat.
As you can see, I made the mistake of going for a fresh brewhaha but I got lucky and only one piece got a bit over charred.
And this is just how I remember the meat turning out at Manolo's house years ago. AWESOME!
The foreelz test would come in the tasting and have mercy! It did not disappoint. I nailed it!
Tender, sweet, a touch salty, and the light char...there was some serious umami voodoo going on here. My plan for this meat was for taco's but I couldn't stop fisting it into my mouth! Even missylou got some. We were both in heaven!!
Now research has revealed that Filipino tocino is generally served for breakfast along with garlic rice and eggs. My Filipino friends never ate it that way. It was usually a late night affair, often after midnight, hanging around Manolo's grill on his back porch, adult beverages in hand. He'd grill the meat and we'd slap it on warm flour tortilla's schmeared with cream cheese and minced green onions. It was one of the best damn 'thangs I have ever eaten!
I know on THP we have several Filipino's and folks from Hawaii that have experience with this stuff. I had pm'd PinoyPride about making the tocino and this is inspired a bit by him. Thanks brah! Your comments are appreciated.
No shishi wawa meat here. No ketchup. None of that fake crap. I think I came pretty damn close to the straight up real deal Filipino tocino. The only things I would do different would be to slice my own meat, and to use beet juice rather than artificial food coloring. Other than that...
TOCINO ROCKS!!!
This is one of the very few times that I will admit that I put in some research (yeah, screw you JayT) to discover the secret of making this incredible meat.
In Spain, tocino is literally translated to mean "bacon". The Spanish influence in the Philippines runs deep but combined with heavy doses of Asian influences, the cuisine has evolved into something very unique. I discovered many recipes for tocino, some authentic, some not so, and many bastard wannabe's. The basics are thus. Thin sliced pork shoulder/butt, salt, sugar, and a coloring ingredient to give the meat a very delicious looking red appearance. Many authentic recipes however, do omit the coloring agent. Some coloring agents used are FD 40 Red food coloring, beet powder/juice, achiote, or in some abominable recipe's, ketchup. I don't care for the fake coloring stuff and was leaning towards beet juice but from what I did know about my friends recipe, they used artificial food coloring and wanting to achieve a result as close as I could to what I knew tocino to be, I succumbed to the temptation to use it. Some older recipes used salt peter or pink salt to cure the meat. I was having none of that crap!
Now here's the dealio with the pork shoulder/butt. It's got a heap of fat and if you try to slice the meat thin, its just going to be a big mess and fall all apart. What you want to do is stick the meat in the freezer for a good hour or two and then slice it. Much easier. You'll still have some meat that falls apart but the end result will leave you with much steakier looking pieces. Unfortunately, I didn't do that. Last week I went to the local TryNSave(Kroger) and spoke with the meat dpt. manager and asked if they could slice me up a pork shoulder. No problem. A couple days later I go back to have the deed done and asked the dude at the counter to hook me up. "Sorry man but we can't slice pork." "WTF? Are you kidding? Just the other day your manager said no worries on anything I want!" Another dude working behind the counter shows up. "Yeah man, we can't do sliced pork because of the bone in shoulder." At this point I was getting a little peeved and said something to the effect of "there's a new cutting tool on the market you should look into. It's called a BANDSAW!!! Go back in the freezer, grab me a 4-6 shoulder and slice it up!! Charge extra, I don't care!!" They both look at me like I just came from outer space. Finally one of them sheepishly goes in the back for a spell and comes back and says "uhm, sir, I don't have any frozen shoulders." Now at this point, the little pea in my noggin' was spinning pretty hard but rather than get mad, I decided to feck with this guy. "Okay, wait here for a sec." I run over to the pork section and grab a 4 pound packaged shoulder, obviously thawed out. "Dude, take this over to the band saw and slice it up." "But sir, that's gonna' slice up into a big mess, are you sure..." "Two words amigo, BAND SAW. I don't care if the meat falls apart." Let me just say that while the result of the slicing is not what I had set out for, the mental mind feck I put on that schmo as he was hating life cutting that shoulder on the band saw was worth it. Fat and pork flying everywhere, but in the end, I got at least partially what I wanted along with a good laugh. Next time I'll do my own slicing.
So here's what I got...
4 # bone in pork shoulder, thin sliced no less than 1/8" or more than 1/4"
2 cups white cane sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt
3 cups water
FD 40 red food coloring
In a large stainless steel bowl, I combined the water, sugar, salt and food coloring and whisked until everything was dissolved. I then added the sliced meat and mixed until incorporated. Then I covered the whole thing in plastic wrap and into the fridge for 4-5 days.
Look at that color!
I stirred meat and marinade each day. By day 2, almost all of the liquid had been absorbed into the meat. Yesterday, the 4th day, I decided it was ready and to vac pack it up. 1 pack for the grill, and the others for the freezer for later use.
Last night, under the light of The Blues Porch, I fired up ye' olde' gas grill and slapped the porkage on. Sure the pieces were on the small side but the alcohol in my noggin' was tellin' me to be like Honey Badger, and Honey Badger, he don't care!
Now the most important thing is to grill the meat without burning it but also to push the envelope and take it right to the edge to just get a good caramelization going on it. Don't walk away from it though or you'll screw the pooch and have just a bunch of overcooked blackened meat.
As you can see, I made the mistake of going for a fresh brewhaha but I got lucky and only one piece got a bit over charred.
And this is just how I remember the meat turning out at Manolo's house years ago. AWESOME!
The foreelz test would come in the tasting and have mercy! It did not disappoint. I nailed it!
Tender, sweet, a touch salty, and the light char...there was some serious umami voodoo going on here. My plan for this meat was for taco's but I couldn't stop fisting it into my mouth! Even missylou got some. We were both in heaven!!
Now research has revealed that Filipino tocino is generally served for breakfast along with garlic rice and eggs. My Filipino friends never ate it that way. It was usually a late night affair, often after midnight, hanging around Manolo's grill on his back porch, adult beverages in hand. He'd grill the meat and we'd slap it on warm flour tortilla's schmeared with cream cheese and minced green onions. It was one of the best damn 'thangs I have ever eaten!
I know on THP we have several Filipino's and folks from Hawaii that have experience with this stuff. I had pm'd PinoyPride about making the tocino and this is inspired a bit by him. Thanks brah! Your comments are appreciated.
No shishi wawa meat here. No ketchup. None of that fake crap. I think I came pretty damn close to the straight up real deal Filipino tocino. The only things I would do different would be to slice my own meat, and to use beet juice rather than artificial food coloring. Other than that...
TOCINO ROCKS!!!
