How to Cook/Prepare The Perfect (Pork) Tocino

Tender, juicy, and glazed tocino without the burn (go ahead and click on the photo to see a closer and bigger look at it). My husband loves this so much that he can eat as much as 3 chops even if he is not really a big eater.

I am not talking about a recipe. Rather, I am talking about the method that I have been using to cook pork tocino to perfection (according to my standards, that is). This is my method on how to cook tocino without burning them and without turning my pan into a burnt mess. (If you want to know the recipe from DOST teknotulong website, I pasted it down below, so scroll down some more. But please be aware that I have not tried it.)

Method:
Whether or not you use your own recipe, maybe you will like this method as well. I still am using my Mama Sita tocino mix (I got tons of them since my husband expressed loving this pork "casino" -- he could not remember the right term).

I marinate 8 pork chops using 2 packets at least overnight to 1 day, keeping them in the chiller bin of my fridge, with frequent turning. Then I place them all, including the marinade, in a big saucepan, cover and boil. As soon as it boils, I turn down the heat to #2 or #3 and simmer for about 25 minutes. About 5 minutes before simmering ends, I heat up the oven on broil (hi), place the griddle on the rack at the upper third of the oven. I spray with just a little bit of oil to prevent the chops from sticking, then I dish out the chops and place them on the griddle. While waiting for the surface to dry up a bit, I reduce the sauce on the saucepan by boiling further on high until it is almost like runny sauce (If it is too thick and sticky already, it will be harder to brush on the chops and it might not be enough). I watch this carefully because it can easily burn. The resulting sauce has enough fat drippings so I still create the same effect as when I fry them in some oil, especially when the excess water finally evaporates while I broil.

Then I brush this sauce on top of the chops,

broil for about 1-2 minutes or until Isee the tops bubbly and the sugar is caramelizing, which makes the chops appear glazed, and the fatty parts kinda turn like charred.

Then I flip over and do the same on the other side.

This way, you get a nice browning, nice glaze, without scorching and without making it taste burnt! I guarantee you can proudly serve this to any fussy American meat-eater like my husband. (If you serve some burnt tocino, be prepared to have most of it thrown away. I have done so in the past, and it does not feel good to see my husband eat a few tiny pieces, with the scorched parts left on his plate, even if the meat underneath is still good. It even feels worse when I myself have to admit that it is unpalatable. I used to cook tocino on stovetop with conduction burner instead of flame, and it is hard to control the heat, especially if I want indirect low heat like when cooking tocino or rice. It is impossible not to burn because I cannot place my pan away from the heat; it is always in direct contact. If you have flame burners, it is more possible not to burn tocino even when cooked on saucepan alone, but browning every piece equally is better achieved through broiling.)

Now if you use chicken breast, butterfly the breast so it is thinner, cook for only about 15 minutes before broiling since chicken cooks faster than pork.

Sarap talaga ng tocino!

Now for the PORK TOCINO RECIPE from DOST Teknotulong website:
TOSINO (SALTED PORK)

Materials (see Procedure below for amounts):
Pork
Salt
Sugar
Salitre

Utensils:
Kitchen knife
Bowl with cover
Measuring spoon

Procedure:

1. Slice pork into 1 cm. thickness.

2. For every kg. of meat, mix the following ingredients and rub on both sides of the pork;11/2 tbsp. salt, 4-5 tbsp. sugar, 1/3 tsp. Salitre.

3. Place salted pork in a clean covered container and keep in a cool place or in a refrigerator for 3-5 days.

4. Wash a little and cook. Tocino will last for 1/2 month when kept in a refrigerator.

A Simple Roast Pork

It seems like chicken...haha! But this is a roast cut of pork, with spine and some ribs at one side (I don't exactly know what you call that kind of cut). I was looking at my freezer and was wondering what to prep for supper. I saw this roast cut...though there were several ligaments and fascia, the cut was very lean.

Very simple to prepare, all I added was kosher salt and freshly milled gourmet pepper. Straight from the freezer, I baked it at 350 deg F in that same roasting pan showed in the pic, which is the same material as my boiling water canner. The first 2 hours I exposed it, then I added the veggies (broccoli spears and zucchini) and baked covered for another hour.

Hubby at first frowned upon seeing it was mostly "red" pork meat (I am not sure what part of pork would be "white," although I have been seeing ads about pork being the "other white meat"), but he tried it anyway, and was surprisingly delighted at the very good flavor of the tender meat that he ate a full meal after all. My kids loved it (no surprise there! They are my #1 fans.)

Freezers Full of Meat

At this time of the year, my freezers are full. My MIL raises chickens and pigs for us all. My BIL and his wife took over the cows, and every year we have one slaughtered for our year-supply of beef.

pork freezer

beef freezer

Upright freezers seem better for access to the different cuts of beef and pork. Organization is so much easier to maintain. The slaughterhouse prepacked our beef for us. I did the packing of our pork, using the FoodSaver. I had to freeze some of them before I ran them through the machine, to lessen the fluid (which makes it harder to actually seal).

chicken and misc freezer

On the other hand, since we mostly use whole chicken, either roasted whole, or eventually cut up, I just packed most of them whole in big bags and chucked them in the chest freezer. I only had several bags of chicken necks, gizzards, and feet, which are easy enough to locate and access. I use the wire basket and the side "pocket" as containers for miscellaneous items like lamburger, lamb shanks, and veggies.

My MIL has chicken layers to continuously supply us with the freshest eggs. Sometimes I use eggs freshly laid for baking rolls, or for scrambled eggs.

It's quite an expensive season during this time of the year for us, with all these preparation for food, the Holidays, the winter heating using firewood and some oil, and of course, taxes, but we do prepare ahead for these.

Is it cheaper to raise your own foods? No. About the same as when you buy them from the grocery store, or maybe even more expensive. But the peace of mind knowing where our food came from, what lives they lived, the care they got, the lack of antibiotic and steroid load...PRICELESS. Someday, I hope to learn how to raise them, too...

Oh please don't ask me to play with the word organic...I would rather say, wholesome. Organic to me means C as in carbon (the basic building block of life, along with H for hydrogen, O for oxygen, and N for nitrogen).