What Happened When I Reduced the Sour Ingredient?
During my first attempt with a ground pork adobo recipe, I found it too sour. After decreasing the vinegar during my second try, it was better, but for now, I will stick to my favorite recipes for adobo and ground pork: chicken adobo, pork ribs adobo, and ginger minced pork.
Below are some links to more details, including photos:
My Story
I was planning to cook chicken adobo and since I had leftover ground pork to use up, I decided to add it to the pot. After coming up with that idea, I was curious on whether ground pork adobo even existed, so I went on a search.
Inspiring Recipe
I found out that ground pork adobo is a thing, as shown in the Pork Giniling recipe from the blog, HeaRty.PH!
First Try
To test this recipe, I only had to purchase the ground pork and a potato.
Ingredients to Use
Of the 10 ingredients in the recipe, I only made one substitute. Instead of olive oil, I used avocado oil for its higher smoke point. Also, though the photo below shows rainbow peppercorns on the label, the jar actually contains black peppercorn.
Starting with 1.14 pounds of pork (0.517 kilo), I increased the remaining ingredients as follows:
- 3 tablespoons + 1/3 teaspoon + 1/8 teaspoon of oil
- 1 potato
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 cup + 3/4 teaspoon + 1/8 teaspoon of soy sauce
- 1/2 cup + 3/4 teaspoon + 1/8 teaspoon of vinegar
- 1/2 tablespoon of ground black pepper
- 4 bay leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon of pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup + 1/3 teaspoon of water
Steps to Prepare
All the steps in the instructions of the recipe were straightforward, so there was no need to make any changes to them.
Time to Eat
Here’s a bowl of the pork giniling for dinner.
Recipe Rating
Below were the results of the recipe after the first try:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1️⃣0️⃣* | 🤏 | 💰💰 | 🙂 |
Though the potatoes were soft, the dish was unfortunately overpowered by the acidity.
Second Try
For the second attempt, I just wanted to tone down some of the tartness in the sauce.
Ingredients to Use
By halving the amount of vinegar, I was hoping to temper some of the tangy flavor in the pork giniling. As a result, for 1.12 pounds of pork (0.508 kilo), I used the following measurements for the remaining ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons + 1/4 teaspoon of oil
- 1 potato
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 cup + 1/3 teaspoon of soy sauce
- 1/4 cup + 1/8 teaspoon of vinegar
- 1/2 tablespoon of ground black pepper
- 4 bay leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon of pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup + 1/8 teaspoon of water
Steps to Prepare
Because I was multitasking while sautéing the garlic during my first attempt, I burned some pieces. Though the burnt bits of garlic didn’t impact the taste of the dish, I wanted to make it a goal to avoid this during the second round by not doing anything else while cooking the garlic.
Time to Eat
As compared to the first try, I definitely ended up with less burnt garlic!
Recipe Rating
Below are the results of the recipe from the second attempt:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1️⃣0️⃣* | 🤏 | 💰💰 | 🤔 |
Because the dish was less sour this time, I noticed the dish was saltier. Also, some of the diced potatoes didn’t fully soften.
Since I seem to favor salty and savory flavors, over sour ones, I will likely not reference this recipe again.
However, if I wanted a similar dish, I would do the following:
Continuous Improvement
- Try the Adobong Giniling recipe from the same blog since the same amount of soy sauce and vinegar are used to season more ingredients, so the overall dish might be less salty and sour.
Having experienced this and other recipes, I realized that I need to do the following:
Lesson for Dumber Self
- Learn how much of an ingredient will likely be enough for a dish, so it won’t end up too salty, sour, etc.
What will you do now?
Next Step for You
- Try the recipe, Pork Giniling, from the blog, HeaRty.PH!?
- Share your favorite pork giniling recipe?
- Read another post on this site? (Go to the menu at the top of the page.)