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C E L E B R A T I O N T I M E
Morcon
Pampanga
The old way of grinding meat is to
slice first then chop into small pieces.
Preparations during fiesta and other
celebrations include the sound of knives
mincing against the chopping board.
The resulting ground meat is used in
many dishes, as stuffing or as meat
loaf, readied days before the event.
The
morcon
of Pampanga is a meat
loaf. Pork is ground and mixed with
chopped Spanish sausage (
chorizo
Bilbao
),
including the lard it is packed
in. Its added richness is from the grated
quezo de bola as well as several eggs,
which binds the chopped meat pieces
together. The mixture is placed in a
wrapper and shaped as a roll.
The traditional wrapper for morcon
is the pig’s stomach lining, a thin white
piece, which is why it’s sometimes
called
panyo
(
handkerchief) but has
other names like
sinsal
and
ampella
.
The more modern kitchen uses
aluminium foil or cheesecloth instead.
The wrapped morcon is placed in a
pan, baked or steamed with chicken
broth. When cooled, the morcon can
be unwrapped, then sliced. But even
better, there will be gravy made from
the drippings cooked with chicken broth
and thickened with flour. In other places,
the morcon is called
embutido
.
That’s
just one example of Filipino dishes with
different names for the same food. But
the Pampanga morcon is decidedly the
richest version of any embutido, the
added sausage and cheese lingering
and appreciated.
Kalel says
Make the beef more
juicy and flavorful by
adding pork fat inside
the stuffing.
