Many Filipinos say that there is no such thing as a universal adobo recipe, that the choices are as numerous as the islands in the Philippines.
While that statement may be somewhat correct, I think it is still possible to find a thread that unites such diverse Filipino options.
In a previous story Evaluating Sam Sifton's NYT Chicken Adobo Recipe, I found commonly used ingredients in the whole Philippines such as vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and peppercorns that serve as a base recipe. Other ingredients are added according to individual or regional taste.
A basic adobo recipe using the four ingredients is shown in the following link.
http://joyposadaswrites.blogspot.com/2015/11/evaluating-sam-siftons-nyt-chicken.html
It is worth noting, however, that certain provinces in the Philippines have a particular preference for the use of coconut milk (gata).
However, the statistical numbers presented in the previous Sam Sifton story indicate that the use of coconut milk is limited to a minority.
When I first kitchen-tested Amy Besa's recipe, I cooked the dish with a native Filipina who hailed from a province that used coconut milk. She told me that in these modern times, some people in her town skipped the use of coconut milk because they don't have the time to prepare it from scratch.
Of course, much of it depends on personal preference. It is perfectly okay to cook with coconut milk if it is desired. An example of adobo sa gata is Amy Besa's recipe.
https://joyposadaswrites.blogspot.com/2015/11/amy-besas-chicken-adobo-recipe-in-my.html
It also occurred to me and this is just my theory that the traditional Filipino adobo is almost certainly a one-pot dish. This means that all the ingredients are placed and cooked in a single pot. The meat does not leave the cooking vessel.
Why is this so?
In the first place, most of the adobo recipes I have found require that the meats are boiled and simmered in a metal or clay pot.
I have seen other cooking methods such as baking or broiling but they are not the usual cooking procedure. This is not to say that the dishes are not delicious. But I think these are more modern methodologies.
I have reason to believe that Filipinos traditionally cooked adobo in one pot only.
The picture above came from the home of Philippine national hero Jose Rizal who lived during the mid to late 1800s. His birthplace was in Calamba, Laguna and the above cookware was typical during his era.
http://joyposadaswrites.blogspot.com/2015/06/happy-birthday-jose-rizal.html
As you can see, the cooking gadgets in the past centuries were crude plus refrigeration was not yet available. That is probably one reason why vinegar, together with the oil and meat fat, was used to preserve the food.
The Philippines is also largely a rural country with a few pockets of developed cities.
I have personally visited some homes in the Mindanao countryside and have seen how they used wood or charcoal to cook dishes. There were no ovens. Food was cooked in a clay pot (palayok). I don't remember seeing any refrigerator. Up to this day, there are still areas in the country without the benefit of electricity.
So my conclusion is that the adobo dish probably evolved from that clay pot. If you ask me what I think is a traditional adobo dish, I would say that it was pan seared, boiled, simmered, and cooked with simple ingredients in a single pot.
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Richard Parcia is a Filipino who grew up in Negros (Visayas region) and South Luzon.
Upon reading the above story, he shared his experience observing the cooks prepare adobo in a palayok (clay pot) for daily consumption or for fiestas (particularly the night before the actual day called the vesperas).
Parcia recalls, "Vesperas, linked to the Catholic vigil night, is when the cooks prepare slow cooked stuff like dinuguan, adobo, humba, caldereta, etc."
"The key to very good Filipino food is in its glorious past. Not the fusion types nowadays. We used to cook our dishes fresh and long, just like what the French do with theirs until now."
He shares the following technique they used in cooking adobo over charcoal or wood.
Parcia recommended a certain type of charcoal (uling) called Agho. According to him, it is a place where the charcoal came from and also refers to the type of wood used. He says that Agho burns brighter and lasts longer.
"It's via single pot and cooked long. It never leaves the kalan (stove). The control mechanism is done by repositioning the charcoal or wood (from center position to leaving space in the middle as it cooks and kept warm until late night). This will bring the fat out which becomes valuable when reheating it the following day. The dish lasts for 3 days with every day changing its texture."
He talked about the twice or thrice cooked adobo. He said that it was important to keep the meat in the same pot to get the right results.
"That's why keeping it in the same palayok is important. On the third day, the pork, when reheated in the same palayok, will be practically fried in its own fat with natural succulence and full of flavor."
