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Adobong Puti (White Adobo with Vinegar, Garlic and Bay)

Adobong Puti (White Adobo with Vinegar, Garlic and Bay) reads richness 9.3, umami 8.1 and sourness 5.9 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Filipino main, about 1 hr 47 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 8.5 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 1.9 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 5.9 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 2.5 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 9.4 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 5.2 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Richness 9.3 · Umami 8.1 · Sourness 5.9 · Allium 4.9 · Salinity 4.0 · Warm Spice 2.1 · Smoke 2.0 · Sweetness 1.9 · Bitterness 1.6 · Heat 1.2 · Earthy 1.2 · Herbaceous 0.7

What's in it (9)

• pork belly — 1200 g
• vinegar — 250 g
• water — 250 g
• garlic — 60 g
• black peppercorns — 30 g
• bay leaf — 3 g
• salt — 10 g
• lard — 27 g
• onion — 150 g

Time & effort: about 1 hr 47 min · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 339.9 kcal, 6.1 g protein, 33.6 g fat, 2.5 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (8 steps)

1. Put the pork, vinegar, water, garlic, cracked peppercorns, bay leaves and salt in a heavy pot. Do not stir and do not cover for now.
2. Bring to a boil over high heat and let it boil hard, uncovered and untouched, for 10 minutes. Filipino cooks are taught not to stir vinegar until it has boiled off its raw sharpness, and it is a real rule rather than a superstition: stirring early drags the harsh acetic top note through the meat and it never quite leaves.
3. Reduce to a low simmer, cover, and cook 60 to 75 minutes, turning the pork once at the halfway point, until a fork slides into the meat without resistance and the skin is gelatinous.
4. This is the version with no soy sauce at all, and it is older than the brown adobo most people know. Soy arrived with Chinese trade and darkened the dish; adobong puti is what the vinegar-and-salt preservation method looked like before that, and it tastes sharper, cleaner and much more garlicky. Batangas cooks are the loudest defenders of it.
5. Lift the pork out with a slotted spoon and raise the heat under the liquid. Reduce it hard for 12 to 15 minutes until you have about 250 ml of thin, intensely sour, peppery sauce.
6. Heat the lard in a wide frying pan over medium-high heat and fry the drained pork cubes for 6 to 8 minutes, turning, until the edges are brown and crisp and some of the fat has rendered out. Add the onion for the last 3 minutes and let it soften and colour at the edges.
7. Pour the reduced sauce back over the pork in the pan and let it bubble and coat for 2 minutes. Taste: it should be aggressively sour, salty and hot with pepper, with no sweetness anywhere. Serve with a great deal of plain rice, which is the point of the sourness.
8. Substitutions: vegetable oil can stand in for the lard.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Shashlik — Russian
• Smothered Pork Neck Bones and Rice — Soul Food
• Collard Greens with Smoked Turkey and Pot Likker — Soul Food
• Lechona Tolimense — Colombian
• Karjalanpaisti (Karelian Hot Pot) — Finnish

Keep reading: what richness, umami, sourness mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.