Tocino / Cured Pork
Tocino is Spanish for bacon or cured meat. In the Philippines, it is a red sweet pork breakfast dish that you must dip in vinegar… 
Just as most bacons are reddish in color, I think in the old days this was a result of adding saltpeter or potassium nitrate or is it sodium nitrate to preserve the meat. We have gotten so used to reddish breakfast pork fare that we continue the tradition today mostly with red food coloring… On the same day I made tapang baka, I decided to make my first batch of tocino as well. Take some pork loin or boneless pork chops and slice thinly. For a kilo of pork add about 2-3 tablespoons of rock or kosher salt and 4-6 tablespoons of granulated white sugar. Press the salt/sugar mixture onto both sides of the meat and put this is a clean bowl to cure in the refrigerator for at least two days before frying or freezing for future use. Use more salt and sugar if necessary but keep the proportion the same (that means, more sugar than salt).
If you want the traditional red color you can either add saltpeter 
if you know how to use it safely or I tried a few drops of red food coloring diluted in two tablespoons of water and added that to the meat and mixed. Some recipes on the internet suggest paprika as an alternative coloring agent. The food coloring does nothing for the flavor but it is a visual thing for some folks. After a couple of days “curing” inside the refrigerator, just heat up a pan over high heat, add some vegetable oil and fry the tocino until it just caramelizes slightly on both sides. Comfort food in our home included fried beef tapa and or pork tocino with rice and egg. Vinegar served on the side is absolutely necessary. I also like this meal for dinner as well. Anywhere in the world, these two recipes can transport you back home for a fleeting moment. The smell in your kitchen will last a little longer!
My parents will bemoan the carcinogens in slightly burned/charred tocino — but I wouldn’t have mine any other way.
September 16th, 2005COMFORT FOOD!!! cured meat meant to cure the emptiness only food can fill….
September 16th, 2005hello marketman and everyone.
i just have noticed a growing community of marketmanila “commenters” (commentators?). What is nice about this blog is our little anonymous reactions and relations as we react to mr. marketman’s posts and the expected comments. This has become our own version of little personal blogs, a shout page, a grafitti wall which is so addictive specially for a non-blogger like me. i think it’s time to get to know each other without really posting our names. Being anonymous is nice. lemme start…
I’m a “blogeur”, a blog voyeur from Bacolod City. I’m newly married and I am assigned the cooking duties at home. My equipment include 1 rice cooker (wedding gift 1), a badly depreciated generic frying pan, one multipurpose kaserola for boiling pasta and cooking munggo, 1 whistling kettle (wedding gift 2), some cheap knives (wedding gift 3), an oven toaster (wedding gift of course).
I hope this is ok with you Marketman… hitching on your blog. hehehehe.
September 16th, 2005I love tocino but am concerned about the nitrates in preserved meats. This recipe is a better alternative (I’m not much into the pink tocino anyway, more that it’s tender and has that sweet/savory taste that is a perfect ride with the vinegar or achara). My only question is what does the salt/sugar cure doing to the meat to avoid spoilage? I figure that if you put any piece of meat in the refrigerator for a couple of days without salt or sugar you’ll soon see funky smells and colors. Interesting that salt just stops that from happening. I’ll probably do a wikipedia search today to find out more but just thought I’d ask.
September 16th, 2005I believe saltpeter has already been banned as a commercial food preservative. The safer alternative is Prague powder. There are also pre-mixed meat cures so you wouldn’t have to worry about properly measuring and weighing to keep the nitrites or nitrates at a safe level.
September 16th, 2005Wow. I never would have thought that making tocino could be so simple.
I remember our cook using saltpeter back in the day… then at some point my aunt the kitchen whiz taught the cook how to do it using that prague powder, whatever it was. I think I’ll try your simple salt-n-sugar version one of these days…
September 17th, 2005lee, you are right, there seem to be about 50-60 readers who regularly comment. I cannot emphasize how encouraging that is… on any given day there are another 400+ unique visitors to the site but they are “lurkers” who care to remain anonymous. Only on really hot or interesting issues do they come out from the dark… I strongly encourage regulars to post comments as it adds a lot to the site. Btw, this tocino recipe is easy to alter to your personal tastes, add more sugar or salt as you like…
September 17th, 2005Mila, I am not a food scientist but here is my best shot at an answer to your question re: salt and preservation. Microbes and bacteria need water and a particular temperature to survive. Salt draws the water out of the cells and gets in the way of surface microbial growth. In the past, one could simply dry the meat in the sun/air and this would get the same result as just salt but you risked some bacteria hanging on if it wasn’t dry enough. Some hams such as prosciutto di Parma and San Daniele are cured only with salt and air-dried hanging in cool dry barns in Italy. The addition of salt or sodium chloride deprives the bacteria and molds of water. While you can do all of this curing at room temperature, I am certain I will do it wrong and poison myself silly so I put the meat into the refrigerator as a second defense against bacteria growth. Saltpeter or potassium nitrate is also used to preserve meats, it has the side effect of brigthening the meat color, hence the reddish bacon. Apparently around 1900, it was discovered that the potassium nitrate was partially converted to nitrite and this nitrite was the key to the process, thus saltpeter was banished and pure nitrite was added to meats instead. Nitrites also add a flavor component of its own, hence the meats that seem to have a different taste than just pure salt and sugar added. I hope this answers your question because if you want to go deeper, you have lost me…
September 18th, 2005hi me again, surely i will try your tocino recipe coz it seems so easyyy to make…. i always buy tocino from the supermarket here (uae) and the taste are really different from back home! my friend’s version is also tasty (with pineapple juice and a lot of things!)but she wouldn’t share her recipe with me?!? so if i do the marinating tonight, curing for a few days, then i will have a hearty “longsilog brunch” over the week-end! btw, thursday n friday is the weekend here! :)
September 18th, 2005Thanks MM, your reasoning is word for word what I found in several food science books. Anyway, I’m going to have to do a weekend of cured meats one day with the recipes you’ve posted. And a side of the healthier stuff like the cabbage dishes to offset all the meat!
September 18th, 2005ganyan lang pala ang mag gawa nang tocino salamat amigo, alam mo kaya ko di ko magawa noon dahil lahat nang recipe na nakita ko ay kailangan nang saltpeter yon pala preservative lang pala yon.
September 19th, 2005I love Radioactive Pink tocino but have avoided it because of the cancer scare. Thanks for this recipe, MM!
September 19th, 2005And if tocino meant bacon or cured meat, then what is tocino del cielo, the object of my swooning everytime I taste one?
I love tocino too, especially the fatty layer with the charred sugar clinging to it dearly.
Pampanga’s Best claims to have zero saltpeter (or salitre) in their meat products like tocino. I’m not sure what they substitute for it.
September 19th, 2005Buddy, good point on the tocino del cielo, that wickedly sweet concoction… anyone out there have a logical answer? Many folks today probably have banished saltpeter and use a commercial preservative (nitrite) of some kind. Frankly, it tastes pretty good with just salt and sugar… Gigi, a little bit of food color won’t do much harm if you like the pinkish tinge… if you eat red m&m’s, certain juice drinks and other reddish food products you are already ingesting red food color…Aleth, I didn’t know pork was easily accessible in the UAE… let me know if it turns out okay…
September 19th, 2005Buddy, check out the following link http://scentofgreenbananas.blogspot.com/2005/06/imbb-16-tocino-de-cielo.html for a good explanation for the name “bacon of heaven”…
September 19th, 2005yap, pork is available here in dubai, i will certainly let you know the outcome of my “trial” with your recipe… he he he . . already have “volunteer” coming over the week-end and even requested me to try both your tocino & tapa recipe!
September 20th, 2005I love tocino, but when we were younger my mom doesn’t let us have it very often because she said it’s full of food colour and preservatives. That’s probably why tocino doesn’t pop up in my head whenever I think of a list of cravings; it’s exciting how I chanced upon your site and discover how easy it is to make (sans the food colour of course). My question is, is it absolutely necessary to use rock salt instead of the usual table salt? If so, why? Thanks!
September 26th, 2005Jovs, table salt is generally iodized and I find that the iodine imparts a noticeable flavor to the end product. If you are in the U.S., use kosher salt available at any grocery. If you are in the Philippines, use rock salt from the markets or groceries. If you want some pink, a drop or two of red food color is all you need, dilute in a bit of water. If you eat a lot of packaged food you are already consuming lots of food color without your knowing it! Thanks for visiting the marketmanila website.
September 26th, 2005Thank you marketman. I’m in OZ… ha ha… but I’ll definitely go hunt for rock salt, I’m sure it’s available here, it’s just that I haven’t noticed. And thank God we don’t eat a lot of packaged food… always freshly baked, freshly cooked - food from the wet market here! :) Anyway, thanks much.
September 27th, 2005This may be a silly question, but here goes. Is tocino another word for Spanish bacon? I mean, I know it’s a word for bacon in Spanish, but I am looking for the bacon that is used to wrap around figs. The bacon in bacon-wrapped figs in Spain (and in many European Spanish restaurants) is amazing, and I’ve search for Spanish bacon on the web for months now but have never come across anyone that sells it in America (I am in Canada), nor have I come across any recipes to cure it myself. So when I finally saw that tocino is spanish bacon, I started to wonder if perhaps I had been searching for the wrong thing. If anyone out thee is a lover of Spanish bacon and knows where to get it or how to make it, please let me know!
April 13th, 2006lise, not such a silly question. Yes, tocino in spanish means bacon or cured meat I suppose. In the Philippines, tocino refers to this pork preparation that is wickedly red and meant to approximate “bacon” from our colonizers way back when… Using any well cured bacon around figs works wonders…it is the saltiness and fat of the pork combined with the intesified sweetness of the fig that makes the combination fantastic. In the brilliant cookbook a Return to Cooking by Eric Ripert he describes such a recipe…
April 17th, 2006I will definitely try your recipe, I hope i’ll do it right.. I always crave for tocino here in the US. There are lots of tocino products here but they don’t taste good. Looking for original Pampanga’s best tocino here, bu no luck. Thanks for your recipe.
April 29th, 2006jen, I hope the recipe works for you. I don’t like the really red version of tocino but others do…food coloring does wonders when you let it…
April 29th, 2006im planning to sell tocinos in our place but i want to make it the natural way without those preservatives now what can you suggest so that my customers will surely love the taste?is there any difference if i use white sugar or brown sugar? what is the best one to use anyway?one thing more why they add pineapple juice is it necessary?Thanks and More power!
September 3rd, 2006lizzie, I haven’t tried this with pineapple juice but I suspect it is for the sweet/sour taste of the pineapple. I suppose the biggest thing to consider is the quality of your meat. If it is particularly tough you will have a problem so make sure you find a good supplier. Using preservatives was common before so that the tocino would last, it isn’t necessary if you are selling it fresh…
September 4th, 2006I am from Pampanga and tocino is a reegular business in Pampanga and our family makes it too. I have some secrets to tell you to come up with a delicious tocino on your table.
When boiling your tocino before frying add 2 tablespoon of vinegar (any kind) to your 1/2 cup of water, depending on the amount of your pork tocino to be cooked, let the water and vinegar evaporates then add some cooking oil.It will be better that a regular tocino.
September 27th, 2006jonathan, thanks for that tip…will try it the next time I cook tocino!
September 27th, 2006hi marketman! u said table salt or iodize salt imparts a noticeable flavor to the end product. what is the noticeable flavor when using table salt? is it good or not to use table salt? is sea salt good to use too? which salt makes more good tocino? can i use your recipe of tocino with chicken as well?
October 19th, 2006any changes in recipe when using chicken? thanks for the wonderful ideas here in your blog! it was really helpful esp. for me and i’m alot of people too out there abroad!
lemonade, table salt is typically iodized salt, which means it tastes like iodine. Rock salt or kosher salt does not have iodine so I find that it works better. Also, table salt is “more concentrated” than rock salt so you would use less. Look up when is a tablespoon of salt a tablespoon in my archive for a detailed discussion on salt. I suppose you could use chicken for the tocino recipe but frankly I haven’t made it that way yet…
October 19th, 2006please send a email of ingredients how to amke tocino
March 1st, 2007Michael, HELLO?!!! Did you read the post above. There is NOTHING more irritating than someone who asks for something that is right in front of their face…
March 1st, 2007hi there! i’m new to your site and cooking too! as a kid, i really loved tocino! even here in australia, my mum still buys it from a lady from pampanga. so delicious! if i used normal table salt instead of using rock or kosher salt, how will it affect the taste? and by using your chemical-free recipe, will the taste of tocino be the same as the original? thanks
March 7th, 2007Chrizelle, I strongly discourage use of table salt that is IODIZED. The iodine added to the salt leaves a metallic taste. If you live in Australia, finding rock/kosher/sea salt in the grocery should be relatively easy. Also, if you use finer salt like table salt, the proportions are very different as you can see from this post I wrote which may be of help to you. This is a really simple recipe to make…good luck!
March 8th, 2007MM
Here in the philippines, it’s required n kasi that we use iodized rock or fine salt. haaay.. too hard to find good old rock salt these days. Any other processed meat recipes you might have? what’s your say with curing salt?
Keep it up
April 21st, 2007Chill, a quick trip to any nearby wet market should yield you some good old fashioned sea salt or rock salt that is not iodized. I just bought some in the Nasugbu market for PHP10 a kilo. They also have it in Manila markets as well. I have never used curing salt per se…just kosher salt for things like tapa or tocino…
April 21st, 2007hey guys!i’ve noticed that many of the questions are the same and repeatedly asked, i think you should follow the instruction use ROCK SALT ok….
June 24th, 2007anyway, i made my pork tapa just right now and tomorrow maybe i will make pork tocino because i really craving for it specially now that im pregnant, im very tired of eating korean food,just that i dont know how to make my favorite breakfast in a simple way, thanks a lot it makes a big difference in my dinning table.
Its nice i got hold of your website, my babes wants me to know how to make a home made tocino. Thanks a lot! I’ll try it.
July 1st, 2007tnx kau….i am really longing for tocino and i found this site very helpful…..
July 7th, 2007i never thought that making tocino is this easy… marketman.. you’re the best! your site is very helpful..
July 10th, 2007I am planning to start a small business at home and i am thinking about tocino. Can you help by sending me a simple tocino recipe and the simple/common names of the ingredients. I don’t know much of other ingredients aside from what i commonly have in my kitchen. thank you very much…
July 15th, 2007editha, did you read the post above??? The recipe is there and it doesn’t get simpler than that…
July 15th, 2007My version of making tocino is with pineapple juice. Before frying, boil it in a little water then add a little oil. I also use brown sugar, to answer one of the questions above, if its ok to use brown sugar.
July 25th, 2007thanx for the tip on how to make a tocino, I havent tried it yet but im sure it’l taste good.
July 28th, 2007hi, good day! im browsing the net for me to search for a simple recipes of tapa, tocino and other food that i can make for a small paglilibangan na business.then i ssae ur site and red comments bout foods, and u know pla how to make a tocino and tapa, can u help me to have this recipe, i wanna have an income xe khit pno, pra din sa pang araw araw and for my kids.thanx a lot, hope u can help me…..
July 29th, 2007Mishael, the recipe is described in the post above.
July 29th, 2007here is my simple recipe of tocino:
basic (dry) ingredients: brown sugar(wag yung masyadong dark), asin (ROCK SALT), paminta at pineapple juice (canned). of course dont forget the pork or chicken.
kailangan tikman nyo ang mixture ng dry ingredients nyo para makuha ang consistency ng alat at tamis. but its better kung lamang ng konti ang tamis ng asukal, but it will always depend on you. I like mine medyo matamis kesa maalat.
balutan nyo lang ang meat nung dry ingredients and put it in a container. and then pour some pineapple juice — make sure na nakalubog ang karne.
give it some time para sumipsip ng flavor at mag “cure” ang meat tapos pwede nyo ng iluto, better if you store it in the fridge until cooking time. I usually have it with spicy vinegar as a dip para hindi nakakasawa.
August 8th, 2007please send us recipe of how to make TOCINO by beef meat thanks a lot
August 13th, 2007MM,
August 28th, 2007What are the ingredients for tocino??? JK…lol. I read it already but just wanted to say thanks for the recipe and I’ll be sure to let you kow how it turns out. BTW, can you tell me what is the name and recipe of a filipino soup that has cabbage, beef, celery, and i don’t remember what else but it sort of smells like vinegar? I know that its usually ate with rice.
Thanks marketman for sharing your tocino recipe. God bless!
August 29th, 2007You MM is the answer to all my kitchen’s question! I am thinking of curing meats these days since fresh pork is rare here. I didn’t expect that making this is simple. :) You save me again.
Btw, thanks also to jonathan for the tip. I used to boil it in water but not to improve taste but to avoid sticking to the pan. ;p It helps really..
September 16th, 2007no, this is not a post asking about tocino recipe. LoL
i wanted to ask where, if you know, i can buy kosher salt here. how is that different from our regular rock salt? i found some sea salt in santi’s, but are waaaayyy very expensive. the salt flakes are interesting though. i’m tempted to buy a bag for when i attempt to make salted butter caramel ice cream.
September 22nd, 2007Kindly send me good preservatives to make my tocino life’s longing even eithout freezing.thanks!
October 27th, 2007Can anyone help me where to buy Prague powder here in philippines? I’ve been to farmers market but no luck. Do I need to have permit for that? .. thanks
October 29th, 2007Hi Marketman.
November 13th, 2007How is it that in some tocino there is a sour taste. how they make it without any sour ingredients? They say it comes out during curing time. How is it done? Thanks
Cesar, maybe they add a little vinegar to the ingredients? Or worse, it is fermenting a bit? I don’t typically have sour tocino though…
November 13th, 2007halu marketman
November 14th, 2007kindly explain me why is it there are some bubbles on the marinade/sauce of my tocino when thawed out? which one is better putting my tocino in the chiller to avoid the bubbles or should i put ‘em in the freezer for longer shelf-life and to stop curing process?
glace, I have never experienced “bubbles” in the marinade, and I am not knowledgeable enough about food science to even guess. Make the stuff a few days before you want to use it. Deep freeze for any meat is not a good thing overall.
November 14th, 2007I just had Tocino for the first time last week - delicious!
November 28th, 2007Consider me addicted :)
very delicious food
December 13th, 2007Just wanted to ask you about this Santi’s bacon. Any idea on their claim that their bacon shrinks less and looks bigger and better shaped after cooking
December 13th, 2007Gil, sorry, I haven’t tried Santi’s bacon and couldn;t say if it shrinks less…
December 14th, 2007Marketman,
December 28th, 2007I didnt know that making tocino would be this simple , but Im definitely gonna try it . I’ll let you know the outcome:)
Hi MM:
May I ask about some tocinos from the supermarts having a gel-like marinade? Looks to me it is really gelatine they are using ,maybe like some form of preservative? Any idea what it rally is? And there is one brand of tocino i regularly buy because of the delicious taste but i noticed that once it is cooked, it shrinks as much as half amount before it was cooked. Parang puffed-up lang… Anyway, thanks for this simple recipe… my kids will love this just the same. It is obviously more safer to have which will keep me from being so suspicious of the contents all the time…:D Thanks again!
January 20th, 2008hi just want to ask if prague powder is safe? and if it is safe where we can buy it. Thanks
January 22nd, 2008lieka, I am not sure if prague powder is the same as saltpeter… but I haven’t used either in my tocino, though others seem to do so… Girlie, not sure what the gel-like marinade is? Maybe sugar with something? And perhpas the pork is brined or soaked in water to increase the weight? Not sure on any of this, just speculating, really.
January 22nd, 2008hi. what kind of container do you use to cure the meat in? does it matter? can i just use a ziplock bag or a hard plastic one like tupperware?
January 27th, 2008ana, yes, a ziplock or tupperware should do fine.
January 27th, 2008the salt and sugar will help preserve the meat because high amounts of salt/sugar can prevent the growth of certain microorganisms.
January 29th, 2008what is prague powder one of the main ingredients of tocino?
February 27th, 2008im interesting about tocino making..
hope you could help me to find out.
i love tocino.. that is my firts buisness that help me a lot…
March 2nd, 2008prague powder is a mixture of nitrites and salt. its a preservative so if you’re planning to use it, please make sure you put the right amount of the powder depending on the wt of meat or else you can poison someone. for those looking where they could buy this, you can try the nutrition foundation near Quezon Institute or Lemon Square Bldg along EDSA near Munoz Mkt.
March 5th, 2008What do you guys know about the Mama Sita tocino mix? It’s really easy to use but I wonder what’s in there, aside from “spices” as it states on the package. I need to cook for a fundraiser next week and was planning to go the Mama Sita route but I found your site while searching for recipes and I might use your recipe instead.Thanks
March 10th, 2008hello there.. marketman.. im currently here in hongkong.. and im planning to build a simple business..
March 13th, 2008my father runs a pig farm and he’s having problems in terms of dispaching his hogs.. im planing of taking his pigs and build a canteen busness and selling cured meats(tocino,etc.) at the same time.. but i hav no knowldge about meat processing.. can you please send me information about how to make tocino or any recipe i can cook or sell?? and can i ask how long is the shelf life of a cured meat?
noemie, it would be hard to start a meat based business without any knowledge to begin with… perhaps a quick course on food preparation? I do have a simple recipe for tocino above but nothing commercial in nature.
March 14th, 2008mr marketman!
March 27th, 2008i salute you for all the patience you have in YOU in replying to all these quieries, may the question be for real or just for making “kulit”…anyways, your site, i think will be a very big help. i have not tried any of your recipes yet, but this wkend i will try your tocino thing since its my son’s favorite ulam ever since, lalo na when we were still there in the philippines… yan lagi request nya baon sa school for his lunch… god bless you po esp your site… for sure madami ka pang matutulungan… pag nagawa ko na po ito, i’ll leave you my comment…
mas masarap ang tocino kung lalagyan mo ng konting spice na chile powder.
April 2nd, 2008Hi Marketman,
Good Day!
This is Mr. Mark Ancog of Cebu City. While browsing the net for tocino ingredients, i came up on a site wherein phosphate and prague powder are among the ingredients. Being new to both ingredients, I am curious on their uses.
Hoping for an answer, I decided to ask for help on this site for I think that you are also in line in entrepreneurship and perhaps you have encountered these ingrdients. I am fervently and ardently hoping for a positive response regarding the matter..
Thank you..
Truly yours,
April 28th, 2008Mark Ancog
What do you mean by prague powder in Cebuano?
May 2nd, 2008hi marketman!
im a fan to this site and i would like to share with you my products, our home made business like tocino, longaniza, corned beef, luncheon meat, native chorizo, skinless chorizo, bacon and fiesta ham during christmas season and also we have cooked ham. for orders you can contact me at 09295040032 or to this site im always opening this site before my friendster or my yahoomail. we are based here in cebu and i can assure you that you guys will love it…
May 13th, 2008Any idea if air/sun drying the tocino using your recipe ABOVE on thin slices of pork will yield to the chinese pork tapa/jerky (sans the MSG and other preservatives) that are often available in chinese groceries? Thanks…
May 20th, 2008praque powder is a pink powder used to cure preserved meats like tocino & longganisa. it fixes the color of the meat &
May 21st, 2008gives a pronounced effect on the flavor. SPICES & FOODMIX
HOUSE calls it curing salt. u can buy it in their store located at 107 E Rodriguez Sr. Ave. Q.C.
Good day, additonal to your suggestions, may i suggest to those who want to try making tocino to massage the meat with those ingredients. it would penetrate deeply the meat and become more juicy when cooked. tyvm
June 19th, 2008Hi there…I’m in American Samoa,and planning to have a small business, like tocino, longganisa making,but my problem is how can I buy and where can I buy the ingredients for the tocino,if its in the Phils.what store do I go and where.The Samoans love to eat filipino foods, so I wanna try this.We can buy some ingredients for the tocino here but not all the ingredients,no saltpeter,no prague powder,or its there any substitutes for that.Or can you please give me a simple recipe of tocino and longganisa.Thanks and have a good day.
June 25th, 2008What wine should I use for the tocino? My teacher told me before to use Mallorca but I cant find it here abroad… HELP ME PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
July 16th, 2008Hi there, how can I make my tocino looks like that of pampanga’s best, you know that “pasty”(best description I can give) and shiny texture. Anyone please!
July 27th, 2008we tried this recipe and the beef tapa recipe and found both too salty. we were wondering if the use of sea salt (vs kosher or rock salt as indicated) made the difference. any info would be appreciated.
July 30th, 2008jon, its actually not so much the type of salt, it is the weight of the salt used. Now that I have received a few comments, I think the variety and density of different salts affects the amount that should be put in. Let me look for my post on the salt, and put a link here. Try the same recipe with 1/2 the salt and experiment from there with whatever salt you use. DO NOT by any means use iodized salt or the table salts as they are finer grained and as such, more of it goes into the same measuring cup…
July 30th, 2008