homemade tocino

category: breakfast

same as the homemade longganisa, i also decided to make homemade tocino just to be able to eat tocino without preservatives.

i used pork belly, readily available at the meatshop here in al ain, uae. the recipe calls for this boneless boston butt roast or any park of the pork with some marbling fat in it.

i just reduced the brown sugar into 2 cups instead of 3 and the salt into 2 tbsp. instead of 3; it still came out nice. i got the recipe from cooked from the heart from which i based my tocino.

ingredients:
1 kl. pork belly, sliced thinly

marinade:
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 cups brown sugar
2 tbsp. salt
2 tbsp. ground pepper
1 tbsp. garlic powder

procedure:
mix all the ingredients and pour over the thinly sliced pork belly.

mix the meat so it is well covered with the marinade. let it sit, covered, in the refrigerator for five days before cooking or freezing.

since we cannot consume 1kl of tocino in one eating, i bag small portions enough for the three of us everytime we wanted tocino using ziplock bags and freeze until needed.

cook:
to cook tocino, place desired amount of marinated pork meat in a small skillet with a cover. do not put additional water. the marinade that is still on the meat plus it’s own moisture will be enough to cook the meat. and since you presumably used a cut with a marbling of fat, you don’t need to add oil either.

put over medium heat and cover. let it cook until all the liquid has evaporated and the tocino starts to sizzle. keep stirring to keep it from burning. cook until it has caramelized and brownish red in color.

if you’re using a frozen packet, put it in the skillet and start out with low heat. when the meat has defrosted and separated, turn the heat up to medium and cook as above.