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Meat from Philippines

Tocino (Philippines)tocino

Thin slices of pork are mixed with salt, curing salt, a lot of sugar, anise wine, garlic and often pineapple juice and red colouring, then cured for a day or two in the fridge before frying; the government sheet also allows hours at room temperature, which is the riskier choice. It is a sweet cure, not a true ferment, though lactic bacteria have been reported in it.

Fully documentedMeat7.3 days – 4.1 months

Recipe

Tocino (Philippines), a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Original uploaded by Kguirnela (Transfered by Diádoco ), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceAmounts are for 1 kg of pork in the pure tocino recipe of the Bureau of Animal Industry's Animal Products Development Center, as reproduced by the Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Training Institute; it yields 1.25 kg.
Pork ham (pigue) or picnic (kasim), or cuts with some fat1000 g[ati-bai]
Refined salt12 g (1 tablespoon)[ati-bai]
Curing salt½ teaspoonAbout 2 g. The sheet prints 20 g here, which looks like a misprint, because its sausage recipes give 2.0 g for the same ½ teaspoon. Do not use 20 g; curing salt contains nitrite, which is poisonous in excess.[ati-bai]
Phosphate3.0 g, dissolved in 62.5 g water[ati-bai]
Refined sugar90–120 g (9–12 tablespoons)[ati-bai]
Anisado wine24 g (2 tablespoons)[ati-bai]
Pineapple juice64 g (¼ cup)[ati-bai]
Garlic, chopped11 g (1 tablespoon)[ati-bai]
Monosodium glutamate2.0 g[ati-bai]
Food colourAs desired[ati-bai]

Total time across the recorded steps: 7.3 days – 4.1 months

Start
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What changes: The pork is trimmed and cut into thin slices

Step 1 of 4
Trim and slice the pork
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: thin pork slices.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Thin slices of pork are mixed with salt, curing salt, a lot of sugar, anise wine, garlic and often pineapple juice and red colouring, then cured for a day or two in the fridge before frying; the government sheet also allows hours at room temperature, which is the riskier choice. It is a sweet cure, not a true ferment, though lactic bacteria have been reported in it. Made in 4 steps over 7.3 days – 4.1 months. The longest step, pack and keep cold, takes 7 days – 4 months (Department of Agriculture). Salt is 1.2 % (Department of Agriculture).

Key numbers
Main step7 days – 4 monthsReported[ati-bai]Pack and keep cold
Salt1.2 %Reported[ati-bai]Mix with the curing mix and seasonings

What makes this one different

Tocino is cured with a lot of sugar for only hours to a couple of days and then fried, so it is a sweet cure rather than a ferment. Longganisa is a Filipino pork sausage.

Related ferments

Safety

Tocino is cooked before eating, but cooking does not undo every mistake in the cure. The government sheet allows 8–10 hours at room temperature or 1–2 days in the fridge. Use the fridge. CDC says never to leave perishable food out for more than 2 hours, or 1 hour above 32 °C, because bacteria multiply quickly. Staphylococcus aureus can make a toxin in held food, and cooking does not destroy that toxin. Curing salt is also dangerous when overused, because too much nitrite stops the blood carrying oxygen and can kill. The sheet prints 20 g of curing salt for this recipe, while its other recipes give 2.0 g for the same ½ teaspoon, and it does not say how strong its curing salt is. After curing, keep the pork in the fridge for up to a week or frozen for 2–4 months.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Tocino is the Spanish word for bacon. Kapampangan cooks call it pindang.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [ati-bai] Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Training Institute (Cordillera), How to make fresh native sausage and pure tocino, from the Bureau of Animal Industry Animal Products Development Centergov
  2. [tamang2016] Tamang J.P., Watanabe K., Holzapfel W.H. 2016, Review, diversity of microorganisms in global fermented foods and beverages, Frontiers in Microbiology 7:377paper
  3. [wp] Wikipedia, Tocino (name and Kapampangan variant only)wiki
  4. [cdc-food-safety] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Food Poisoninggov
  5. [cdc-staph] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, About Staph Food Poisoninggov
  6. [cdc-nitrite] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2002, Methemoglobinemia following unintentional ingestion of sodium nitrite, New York, 2002, MMWR 51(29)gov