Traditional Food: Etag (Dried and salted pork/meat)

Etag (igorot) or Innasin (iloko) – An Igorot food that is preserved small slab of meat (esp. pork) made through salt-treating, sun-drying; and/or smoking. Its color is partly dark brown with noticeable whitish yellow fat color. It comes from different varieties depending on the methods used. There are three methods of making etag which are discussed in the procedures. Its savory and salty taste made it a good seasoning ingredient for some foods.

Ingredients and Materials

1. 1 kl of pork, sliced into 1-inch thick slabs, it should have no bones, and must have 20% to 80% fat per slab
2. 1/5 to 1/4 kl of salt
3. a large bowl
4. Gusi (earthen jar) or any container enough for the meat
5. a stick or straw, use to pierce the slabs for hanging
6. firewoods (optional)

Procedures

1. Treating it with salt. The morning is the best time to start, particularly during summer, spring or any day that do not rain, however, there is still a way to make etag during rainy season which is the smoking procedure. So, place the meat into the bowl, press or squeeze it lightly and then pour out the extracted liquid from the bottom of the bowl, if there is any. Take out one slice and rub salt on its surface, be sure to salt inside the fissures before you return it back to the container. Do the same with the other slabs. When done, close the container airtight and set it aside for 24 hours. Do not refrigerate it.

2. After 24 hours and on… As I’ve said, it is better to start working on it in the morning so that after 24 hours, it would be another good morning (in a place with 24 hour day-night cycle) for you , perfect for the sun-soaking.After 24 hours, the procedure splits into three methods: a. sun-soaking, b. smoking, and c. is the combination of a & b.

a. Sun-soaking: Find a good place where you can soak the slabs in the sun. The Cordillerans pierced the slabs at the ends with stick (it looks like hanged laundries side by side) or with straw and hang them at a high place where carnivorous land animals could not reach. The others just put them on a clean flat surface, and they just turn the slabs regularly to sun-dry all the sides.

When the sun sets, put them back inside the container. Do not get them wet, it will hinder the curing process. If there ain’t been any interruption (i.e rain) then you can do this in three days, else you have to add more time of curing under the sun to complete the 3-day sun-soaking.

b. Smoking: The outcome of this would be a brother to the smoked meat, but etag is too salty which made it a good salting agent for other food preparations. To start with it, find a safe and shaded place where you can create just a small fire using the firewoods (be sure you woun’t be violating the fire code of your country or location). You should avoid using the resinous kind of wood like the pine tree because it would stick wicked soot on the meat and embitter your food. After creating a fire (small smoky fire), place or hang the slabs above the fire. Remember that your objective is only to smoke and not to roast or burn the meat, so you may place the meat where it could be reached by the smoke but couldn’t be reached by the radiant heat. Do this for 30 minutes everyday for 1 week. Put back the slabs into the container after each session.

c. Combination: This is just doing both methods a the same time. Just choose a place where a wind couldn’t distract the smoking procedure. Smoke them for 1 hour while they’re being soaked in the sun, or you may do it your own way as long as they get smoked and sun-dried. Who knows, you can actually create the best etag in the world. Do these everyday for 3 days.

3. Keeping or storing the etag. After the days of curing, the etags are ready to be consumed. But if you want to store them for future consumption then it’s fine, you have made them to be preserved for a long long time. I’ve heard that the oldest etag that ever eaten was five years old (ahrgkk!), but the old folks said that etag after 6 months and up should not be eaten and to be discarded.

4. How to consume etag. Of course, you make etag for your immediate consumption. The simpliest way to consume it is by eating it plainly. Wash it to lessen its saltiness, then cook it in any way you like, then eat it with rice. As an ingredient, these can be added to many kind of dishes ranging from pinikpikan to chopsuey. The Highlanders chop them into small pieces and add them to their vegetable saute.

Food: Beverage - How to make Bubod (Wine Yeast)

Bubod is the main ingredient of the traditional cordilleran beverage or alcoholic drink like the rice wine. It is a white to brown oval disc-shape hardened starch powder that contain the fermenter – the yeast.

Ingredients and materials:

1 kl of kintuman (a violet red rice of the Cordillera) or any sticky rice.

7-10 pieces of 5-inch tall ‘ung-gwad’ herb, i forgot its english name (whole plant) or you may use the aniseed plant or any other edible herbal plant that have the yeast.

1/2 cup of sliced ginger

1 liter of water

Mixing container for the ingredients

Clean glass container

Grain grinder

Wide baking pan

Procedures

1. Pulverize the rice using the grain grinder, then put the powdered rice into the container.
2. Crush the plants and the ginger with the grinder to break them into small pieces, spare the juice too.
3. Put the crushed plants and the juice into the container and add water then mix all the ingredients until it became a sticky paste.
4. With your plams, take a handful of the paste and form an oval disc shape or ball and place it on the clean pan. Repeat the step until finished with the paste.
5. Dry under the sun to harden the soft wet bubod balls before keeping them in a closed container for future use.

Bubod crumbs and balls courtesy of DOST, Philippines

Organic Food: Vegetable Sauté - Sayote (Fruit)

Ingredients:

- 1 kl sayote fruits
- ¼ kl pork or etag (at least 50% fat and 0% bone)
- salt
- msg or sugar for seasoning

Procedure:

1. Peel the sayote and cut them crosswise in halves, the halves to be made chunks each with thickness of half cm and with width depend on the size of the sayote.

2. Chop the pork or etag and fry until half cooked, do not forget the stirring.
3. At this time, the oil must already been extracted and boiling, add the sayote chunks/slices and then stir once in a while.
4. This sauté is best when sayote is half cooked. Before setting it aside for serving, add the seasoning and stir well.

Most (or some) Highlanders enjoy this sauté with rice for the meal.

Traditional Food: Liquor - Tapey vars: Tapuy, Tapuey - (The Igorot Rice Wine)

TAPEY (The Igorot ricewine) – Is the famous alcoholic beverage of the Igorots. It is a wine made from rice. Traditionally, it is used or offered by the Igorots for libation during public feasts, thanksgivings or other activities. It is also served when someone host meeting or gathering at his house or at other place like the Dap-ay. But then and now, anyone can really make tapey to be consumed personally by the person anytime.

It could be consumed best on the 4th-6th day of brewing when it is still sweet. Do not allow children to drink any amount of it, instead, give them fruit juices or milk drinks. Also, do not booze on it because it can give a real heavy hangover. Consume it in sobriety for the good health.

Ingredients and Materials:

- 1/2 lb of bubod (a whitish disc-shaped mass of yeasted starch that is commonly sold in the northern Philippines)
- 1 kl of rice (preferably the sticky or glutinous variety. Igorots prefer the kintuman – a violet red sticky rice usually cultivated in the northern Philippines)
- l lit. of drinking water
- 1 big clean banana leaf or a clean flat surface – to be used where to spread the rice for cooling and curing
- a gusi (clay jar) or any container except soft plastic – enough to contain the cooked rice
- a ladle
- rice cooker or cooking container

Procedures

PREPARATION: In the preparation and curing of tapey, some old folks who are being reputed as good tapey makers usually choose the time between midnight and dusk to start it. they said there should be no any distraction in order not to disturb the spirit of the tapey. Of course, there must also be a lesser chance of spreading other bacteria on the tapey when you are alone in the kitchen or anywhere else where you do the prepration for brewing.

COOK THE RICE: Now that you have made all the materials and ingredients ready, wash the rice and cook it with the 1 liter of drinking water. While waiting for the rice to be half-cooked, you can have a free time to drink a cup of the tapey that you’ve previously created ahihi :D Always check the rice, and then set it aside after the boiling water or the bubbles have already gone, this means the rice is ready to be made tapey.

CURE THE RICE: Lay the banana leaf upside down on a flat surface and use the ladle to spread the hot newly cooked rice on top of it so that the rice would be about 1 inch thick. Cool it down first before crushing and crumbing the bubod all over the top of the rice.

PREPARE FOR FERMENTATION: After the bubod curing, use the ladle to put the rice into the gusi or container (brewing container). Cover it with 2 to 3 plies of torn banana leaf or a clean piece of cloth and seal it with a rubber band or a garter. Do not cover it tightly with a hard cap else the cap or the container will break as the fermentation goes.

BREWING: Store or hide the brew in a warm and safe place or in a moderately temperatured place, and let the time do the rest of the process.

SWEET TASTE OF LABOR: At the fourth day after you brew your famous ricewine, you should go back to your brewing place to have a good drink of the sweet ricewine you have just made. Note that it should taste sweet, if not, then you must have stumbled on another kind of ricewine.

The tapey have two parts, the liquid which is called the ricewine and the solid or the mash which is called the winerice. Both can be consumed at the same time, but you can also extract the ricewine and discard the solid mass. Take note also that its taste changes with time. Again, if you want to preserve it for a long time, do not seal the container airtight because the cap or container will break.