Tocino Tidbits Kapampangan Style (Sweet Cured Pork)

March 7, 2020
Tocino Tidbits

Many moons ago, I used to have a small coffee shop called “The Mercury Carousel” on Padre Faura street, Ermita, Manila. The “Tocino Tidbits” was a popular dish. I cut up the meat into bite sized pieces so that I could weigh it properly (think costing) and saves one from cutting it up. I know that it’s more tedious but then I was also concerned about keeping my costs down. I served it with fried egg and garlic fried rice. Yummy!

Tocino with fried egg
Tocino tidbits with fried egg — a perfect combination.

Tocino Tidbits Kapampangan Style (Sweet Cured Pork)

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Tocino is sweet cured pork. Typically fried, serve this for breakfast with fried egg and garlic rice.

Ingredients

  • 1 kilo thinly sliced pork shoulder (kasim) with fat, skin removed - you need some fat to make it tender
  • 1 cup (200 grams) brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons coarse salt or less
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt peter (salitre) - optional or curing salt. Use 1/2 teaspoon Prague powder as another choice for salt peter.
  • ½ teaspoon MSG (vetsin) - optional
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce

Instructions

1

Place pork shoulder in freezer for 3 to 4 hours.

2

Using an electric slicer, slice pork shoulder, against the grain, into fillets then into 0.5 cm or ¼-inch pieces.

3

Place other ingredients in a large bowl.

4

Mix in pork and massage the pork in the mixture every half hour for 4 to 6 hours. (Use rubber gloves when doing this.)

5

Leave to marinate for 48 hours in refrigerator.

6

Pack into serving sizes of 100 grams (personal size) or 250 grams or 500 grams and freeze.

Cooking the Tocino Tidbits

7

Before cooking, thaw in refrigerator.

8

To cook, place ¼ cup cooking oil in frying pan, and heat to 160ºC or 320ºF.

9

Fry for 4 to 5 minutes, by tossing around in the pan till light golden brown.

10

Remove from pan and drain.

11

Serve hot with rice.

Notes

  • The secret to a good tocino is massaging the meat properly so that the pork thoroughly absorbs the marinade.
  • The commercial variety is loaded with liquid and really shrinks when you cook it. This one hardly shrinks and is tender.
  • The other secret is using pork shoulder (kasim); that part is more tender than the butt (pigue).

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