Mom served our favorite tinumis today with a very wet weather at the backdrop. Can there be anything more soothing than having your best comfort food in the middle of a chilly-rainy-sleep-encouraging day?
Tinumis is a favorite dish among Nueva Ecijanos where it is believed to have originated. It is closely similar to dinuguan, only it uses ground pork (as far as my Mom’s version is concerned) as opposed to dinuguan’s pork that is cut in chunks.
Growing up, I always looked forward to having this on our dining table. The distinct taste of pork blood, combined with the gratifying flavor of ground meat and the zing of the peppers and vinegar just left me pleasantly stuffed each and everytime I had it on my table then.
Now, fast forward to 2009, Mommy had me go back to those days. Her tinumis for lunch just made my day. Great weather, fantastic comfort food, good company, life is great.
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To do tinumis, you will need:
1 kilo ground pork (whole skin included, separated from meat)
200 gms Pork liver , chunked
3 cups pork blood
1 cup vinegar
1 tali tanglad (lemon grass)
8 pangsigang peppers
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 medium-sized onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
water
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1. Season pork and the pork balat with salt and pepper. Add garlic, onion and vinegar. Dump everything in a casserole. Don’t stir for the first 2 minutes or until vinegar is cooked. Bring to a simmer until vinegar seeps into the meat ensemble. Add water when necessary until the meat is cooked.
2. Midway into cooking, add liver, tanglad and peppers. Remove pork balat and cut into fine cubes. Throw back into the mixture.
3. Meantime, strain in pork blood onto the mixture. Coarsely chunk the blood left on the strainer and throw back into the mixture again. Continue simmering until meat is cooked. Serve hot.
The Eating Room 
Hi Karen,
How much of the pork blood do you need for this recipe? It’s not in the list of ingredients.
Thanks,
Helen
Hi, Helen!
Sorry ’bout that. You will need about 3 cups of pork blood for every kilo of ground pork.
I don’t recall a dinuguan made from ground pork. What I remember best is the dinuguan from Sevilla Sweets in San Miguel, Bulacan. As I child, we’d stop there all the time, on the way to Nueva Ecija. We get to eat the Dinuguan soured by Sampalok…so gooddddd!!!!!
There’s definitely no dinuguan with ground pork. Ground pork with pork blood with less sauce is called tinumis. It is, I believe, a concoction of the Nueva Eciajnos where my lolos and lolas are from. Try going to Ponciana’s here in Manila and try their tinumis, sarap! The owners of Ponciana’s are Nueva Ecijanos:)
“If the pork meat is NOT ground, it is never tinumis.” Sorry, I don’t agree. I am from Nueva Ecija twice over (my Mom and Dad) and we NEVER grind the meat. The pork is always cut (very matrabajo but the maids do it).
Another thing, I have watched my grandmother (born in 1896) when I was young. Vinegar was used but the main ingredient to make it sour was “kamias” which is seldom found, even in Manila; but we had a tree in the yard with lots of fruits.
What is “tali-tanglad?” Is that lemon grass?
Manolo- I think you are refering to dinuguan and I’m referring to tinumis. Dinuguan has a different pork cut in it, tinumis is ground pork with liver chunks. Thank you.
I think “tali- tanglad” means isang bungkos ng tanglad which is our native lemon grass.
Yes, it’s lemon grass. Gives off fantastic flavor. Thanks.
our tinumis is not ground, cut into small or bite size almost strip size. Our dinuguan here is the lamang loob ng baboy and M from Nueva Ecija too 🙂 Our family use sampaloc instead of suka, try it so good sarap tlga :)) I prefer more meat than taba…
hi caren i love tinumis! my father-in-law is from cabanatuan. i do remember it was coarsely ground meat. just to clarify…so i just mix and marinate the meat,skin,garlic,onion and vinegar together then dump them all in without making them gisa right? i will definitely try to cook this at home…thanks for sharing! 🙂
Also, the main difference between “tinumis” and “dinuguan” is the former is diced half-inch coagulated chicken blood and the latter is smashed into a sauce. We use chicken because it was always believed that pork blood was more dangerous (flat and ring worms, specially in the provinces where pigs eat off the ground).
My wife makes great tinumis but hates all the cutting. Also, she hates the hair growing out of the pig head parts (she’ll throw them out, a waste) so I help her by using tweezers and pulling the hair out.
We’re making again this weekend. Didn’t have enough last time because we gave too much away.
Hi, Molly. Yes, mix and marinate. No sauteing, Very similar to when you make adobo. Great to hear from you. The skin is actually the winning ingredient here. The taba when you finely cube it gives the fantastic taste. Do the chopping of the taba midway into cooking, when it’s tender enough already for cutting. Btw, Ponciana’s makes great tinumis maybe you can try it one time.
Don’t mean to start a controversy but the basic principle of cooking in the provinces is: nothing goes to waste–use everything and throw nothing away; use whatever ingredients are available (sampalok or kamias or more vinegar, but never kalamansi).
The acidic ingredients kill germs, bacteria, etc. This plus salt adds to preservation of foods without refrigeration.
There is a general way all these principles are used so variations are all acceptable. More than regionalism, my opinion is that the ingredients are dictated by what is available.
In Nueva Ecija (Gapan town fiesta is May 1) lechon is always included. Tinumis blood is pork. At home, chicken blood is fresher from having killed one, so chicken is used.
Just practical reasons for doing things. Peace!
hi ms. caren.. tinumis is one of my uncle’s favorite food because he’s from peñaranda, nueva ecija.. thanks for the recipe.. i’ll try cooking this for him..
Thanks, Joie! Hope to hear from you again soon!
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Tinumis: small slices of pork, konting taba and konting liver/sampalok or usbong ng sampalok, tapos ginigisa
dinuguan: ung lamang loob ng baboy or ng illechon n baboy/ suka ang gamit n pang asim d2, d2 d gingisa
That’s the pagkakaiba ng tinumis at dinuguan, no way n nging ground pork xia ever d2 s Munoz haha. I never encountered that cguro iba iba lng tlga per location parang luto ng tamad yan pag giniling mo lng basta hahaha lalo n s mga resto cguro na mabilisan *kidding
try niyo ang sarap 🙂
kya lng cguro ng evolved into suka kz minsan need p mghanap ng sampalok whereas ang suka anjan yan lagi s kusina pro ang tlgang pang asim ng tinumis sampalok.
Hi, Malu. In Italy, spaghetti is never made with sugar. I hope you don’t put sugar in your spaghetti and call it “spaghetti”. Magagalit ang mga Italiano. Without us realizing it, whether consciously or not, we create versions-to make our lives simpler and easier.
Still in Italian cookery, they usually labor into making fresh pasta. Back here at home, we don’t do that, but we never call “tamad” those who use the commercially available pasta shells.
Italians normally make their own tomato sauce as opposed to the mass-produced tomato sauce that we usually use in our pasta dishes. But do we want that in our kitchen? Do you have the time? I guess “tamad” to do that won’t be the politically correct term, maybe “practical”.
Hope you got my point.
I rest my case. Thanks for dropping by my site:)
ang tinumis na nakagisnan ko sa Gapan, Nueva Ecija ay ground pork at parang sinampalukan. Matagal na akong hindi nakakatikim nito pero alam ko ay masarap ito.
magluluto ako ngayon ng tinumis pero paano ang ginagawa sa lemon grass? pinuputol ba siya? napansin kong ang lemon grass ay matigas, paano bang i-prepare ang lemon grass? Sorry first time ko itong magluto ng tinumis.
Hi, Angela! Mas maganda kung pukpukin ang bandang dulo ng tangkay para magpakawala ito ng lasa ng lemon grass. Ihalo mo lang habang pinapalambot ang karne. Good luck!
Hi! This is the first time I encountered a Tinumis recipe in the internet. I am native Novo Ecijano and I grew up eating Tinumis. As far as I know, just like adobo, there are million ways of cooking adobo..there’s no right or wrong. As far as I know, Tinumis can be either ground pork or finely chopped pork with liver, sauteed in garlic, onions and patis….with either vinegar (when you want it oily dry) or camias or sampaloc young leaves (if you want tinumis with sabaw). On special occasions, that we have a whole pig lechon, we will use the innards of the pig in making tinumis. My style of cooking is..I will find a recipe, then I will tweak it and make it my own. That’s why I prefer cooking than baking. In baking you have to be precise but in cooking, you can improvise and do whatever you prefer. Kanya kanya lang style yan.
tinumis in bulacan especialli ni our place Bustos is made of boiled pig’s innards chopped finely sauted then pour blood then chili and vinegar cooked until dries up. dinuguan is either pork meat with fat or innards then we also have suwam made of pigs innards with ginger (no suka)
may alam po ba kaung nagluluto pa ng tinumis?
Hi, Erica! None that I know of:(