Pre-Colonial Adobo This Adobo Is Cooked in Lard and It's the Best

Adobo is a favorite not only amongst Filipinos but even foreigners. It’s also prepared differently across every household. Joel Binamira shows us how it was made during pre-colonial times.

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Social Media:

[mtriumph]

This was how my Dad cooked adobo. No soy sauce, just peppercorns, couple of bay leaves, Ilocos sea salt, a bit of vinegar. Using only freshly butchered pork (native variety) resulted in flavors so unctuous yet sublime. The crunchy bits were highly coveted. Love this story. More of this kind. Salamat!

[LaszloFrancino]

This 'pre-colonial' method is how Cebuanos & some other Bisaya-speaking peoples cook adobo—even to this day. You ask a Cebuano an adobo and he/she will serve you exactly this. This is sometimes called adobong pina-ugá (dry adobo), to distinguish from the usual adobo, which we comically call 'adobaw' (short for 'adobo with sabaw'). This is the adobo I grew up with. I remember we also had what Mr. Joel mentioned, this adobo placed over steaming rice and wrapped in cut banana leaf for lunch. If the batch has leftovers, it is stored in a jar of oil and it will be good for days, even a week. Talk about ancient food preservation.

[lunatickgeo]

Goes to show that I still have things to learn, when I first saw the title I was like, "how can there be a pre-colonial adobo when we learned it from the Spaniards?" I didn't realize it was called adobo because the Spaniards SAW how it was cooked, not because they taught us how to cook it. I think of myself as a proud Pinoy and conscious of my colonial mentality and I underestimate how deep it actually goes. Thank you for the lesson!

[leeroberts]

From where I come from, my grandmother (1919 - 2010) would only cook adobo in a clay pot with a banana leaf underneath. Instead of peppercorn and bay leaf, she uses lemongrass or ginger, atsuete water (seeds marinated in hot water to perch the water for color and flavor), lots of garlic, salt and cane vinegar. That was the traditional way of cooking that was handed to her from at least two to three generations back then. If my great great grandmother died in the late 1800's (she was greater than a 100 when she passed away, then I may assume that the recipe was the original from the 1700's. Although I am not using a clay pot anymore but with cast iron enamel, we got to make sure that the pork has to be tender (with very minimal stirring) and crispy from the rendered fat of the recipe.

[marvinseanterry]

Ganito ako mag adobo dito sa bahay walang toyo. Pamana pa samin ng lolo ko yung recipe. Naging cook sya ng mga hapon nung kabataan nya. Sobrang dami nyang style ng luto na sobrang layo na sa mga modernong recipe. All natural ang mga ingredients. Sarap! RIP papa lolo. Bigla kitang na isip. :)

[windbreaker]

THIS was exactly how Lolo used to make it, what I grew up with. And because we didnt have refs then, he would let it cool a bit before transferring everything into a "tapayan" (earthen jar, similar to a demijohn/damajuana) where the lard would solidify and "keep" the pork for long storgage. He would then take out as many pieces as needed for a meal and brown them in hot oil, as you did here. Adobong puti would have all those salty, vinegary, garlicky, black peppery flavor that always went well with steaming rice, garlic fried rice, or hot pan de sal. Thank you so much for bringing this back. Im downloading this for future reference; i will be making my adobos this way from now on.

[makaldz]

This is how my mom prepares our "humba". She uses salt instead of soy sauce and I know the preparation by heart. She's from Siquijor and the tedious hours of slowcooking the "humba" is a signature way of how the Siquijodnons prepare it.

[iandenniscruz]

My kind of adobo, that is how we traditionally cook our adobo in Laguna, without soy sauce. I remember my late grandmother using the palayok in the "kalanan" using woodfire, her humba/paksiw, sinigang na baka, adobo, etc. ibang-iba ang lasa ng luto sa palayok. I'm inspired to go back to my roots, thanks to you sir :)

[budidinglives]

This is how my dad makes adobo (though not with lard, just with oil), but the method is slightly different. He said that this is how they make it in Albay. We have it a lot at home, and I think it’s the best adobo! Do yourself a favor and make adobo rice with the oil at the bottom of the pan. This method is to “salamog” the rice. Yum!

[onyourside]

Love the series! I dont think anyone has ever explored our culinary history. We want more!

[lucillemijares]

This is so interesting. It would be nice to have more shows like this— explaining the roots of our food and, in a way, explaining our past.

Maybe a short video on sinigang? Or other iconic pinoy dishes. Thank you FEATR! I enjoy watching your videos

[JadeChano]

more of these type of historical videos, please! born and raised FilAm, growing up back and forth from Philippines and the U.S., this is a great example of how I can stay rooted to our culture, our food. keep up the awesome work, manga kababayan!

[locavore_eats]

Living for this series so much!! So interesting learning about our culinary roots and comparing how these dishes have evolved over time 😋

[timboklolo]

This is really a pure PILIPINO blooded ADOBO, this is how we cook in the province.
Sir, you u are really heroically Promoting the real PILIPINO culture, not only the authentic PILIPINO cuisine but the original PILIPINO music which you use as background music to all of your video presentation.
MABUHAY PO KAYO..❤👌 🇵🇭

[yowhatsup]

I like how well he explained that without understanding the roots of a dish you can't justify what you're about to do (sort of upgrading the dish) later on. On point!

[lingj]

My grandma used to make adobo this way, sans the clay pot. I moved to the US and everyone talks about chicken adobo with the soy sauce, but to me, adobo will always be pork with little else but salt, lots of vinegar, peppercorn, and bay leaves.

[earlibre]

My dad makes adobo like this too! He came from Albay. He dont use lard though, just regular oil and he puts some twist on it like putting some spices (sometimes paprika, sometimes turmeric).

[CalMaile]

We still cook like this here in Cebu. "Adobo Pinakupsan"


Pinakupsan is a Visayan dish of sliced pork belly cut into smaller pieces and cooked over low heat. This slow cooking allows the fat to melt down and separate from the meat, leaving a shrunken, crispy pork slices similar to chicharon. The term “pinakupsan” is derived from the Cebuano word “kupos” which translates to “shrink”.

[tinyrhizgoesto]

Adobo sa asin!!!
This is how my father cooks his adobo (minus the lard, normally it's just oil 🤣) I can still remember the taste of it and the excitement that we had every Sunday cause it's the only day our father cooks it due to the longer time of cooking but this way of cooking adobo is my childhood, a real comfort food.

[retrotechpinas]

My lola is a pure blooded cebuana who migrated to a town in zamboanga back in the 1930s. That is how she cooks adobo including the cookware which we call kolon here. Salt, vinegar, garlic plus pork inside a kolon cooked over wood fire. Nothing else. I personally believe nothing beats adobo that is cooked inside a kolon. It tastes better. Adobo will also taste even better the longer you store it there. It will go unspoiled for at least a week. Days old adobo on hot rice with a bit of solidified oil mix altogether with a few drops of soy sauce. That is how we eat it. It's been ages since I tasted my lola's adobo. This video brought me back memory lane. Miss you lola!