Pork Humba

Pork Humba is beloved Filipino pork dish known for being slow cooked in a rich, savory-sweet sauce, made of pineapple juice, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, onions, bay leaves, pepper, black beans, and banana blossoms. A delicacy enjoyed at parties, gatherings, or even on days when you’re craving for something home-cooked and absolutely delicious. This pork pata humba Bisaya recipe is best partnered with loads of hot steaming rice. Yum!

Pork Humba is a rich flavorful dish that some often compare to adobo. The leading difference between the two – ” Humba vs Adobo ” is that Humba is sweeter and usually has additional ingredients like banana blossoms and fermented salted black beans. This gives it it’s distinct Visayan twist. The Humba meaning traces back to eating this as a celebratory dish in the Southern part of the Philippines. The Humba origin is said to have Chinese Influences with the dish being similar to ” Hong ba ” a Fujian braised pork delicacy.

Humba Recipe Ingredients

• Pork belly (or kasim) – best choice of meat since it has a good amount of fat and lean meat ratio. This helps avoid the meat from drying out quickly.
• Garlic and Onion – to enhance the flavor and aroma.
• Pineapple juice – adds a tart sweetness and helps tenderize the meat. Helping it absorb more of the sauce.
• Soy sauce – for color and strong umami taste.
• Vinegar – for sourness and helps remove any foul taste the pork may have.
• Sugar – for sweetness and to balance the flavors.
• Dried bay leaves – to deepen the flavor of the dish.
• Pepper – to taste.
• Banana blossoms – adds fiber and texture.
• Black beans – black beans for humba adds an intense savory, salty-umami flavor.
• Water – for simmering.

How to Make Pork Humba ?

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo pork belly (or kasim)
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium onion
• 240 ml pineapple juice
• ½ cup soy sauce
• ¼ cup vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 3 to 4 pieces dried bay leaves
• Pepper to taste
• 1 bunch of banana blossoms
• 2 tablespoons of black beans
• 1 to 2 cups of water

Directions:

1. Prepare the pork belly and cut them into serving portions. Add them to a heated pan (no oil) and then sear for a few minutes. Flip them to cook the other side. When the meat has browned and the oil has been rendered, set them aside.

2. Remove some of the oil from the pan. Add the garlic and onions and saute for a few minutes. Add the seared pork belly back to the pan and saute them altogether.

3. Pour the pineapple juice and the soy sauce. Add some black pepper, sugar, dried bay leaves, and banana blossoms.

4. Pour 1 to 2 cups of water to help cook the meat. (Add more if needed). Cover the pan and let it simmer for 45 to 60 minutes or until the pork is tender. Stir in between cooking to prevent burning.

5. After an hour, add the vinegar. Do not stir for 3 minutes. Wait for the raw taste of the vinegar to evaporate before stirring. Then, add the black beans. Cover again and let it cook for a few minutes until the sauce has been reduced. Turn the heat off.

6. Transfer the pork humba to a serving plate. Enjoy this together with a big bowl of hot steaming rice. Yum!

Questions :

• Pork Humba Calories

A serving of this can have around 300 calories.

• Additional Pork Humba ingredients ?
  • While this pork with banana blossom recipe is delicious as is. You can also give it a bit of a kick by adding a handful or red and or green chillies together with the black beans to turn this into a Spicy Humba Recipe.
  • How about some “Pork Humba with Peanuts” ? Adding a tablespoon or 2 of peanut butter during the simmering stage will help bring out the nuttiness. You can also garnish the meat with crushed peanuts to give it more texure.
  • If you like it sweet and really tender, you can try making “Coke Humba“. To make this humba with coke recipe; Just replace the pineapple juice from the recipe list and use an equal amount of coke.
  • Humba Recipe Bisaya with Sprite – How to cook Pork Humba with Sprite? Similar to coke, if you prefer Sprite you can replace it with equal amounts of pineapple juice. Using carbonated drinks tenderizes the meat as well as keep it juicy.
  • Pork Humba Chinese style – How to cook Chinese humba? Simply add spices like star anise, cloves, and a teaspoon or so of 5 spice powder. You can also omit the other spices and just add 1 – 2 teaspoon of 5 spice powder.

• Can you make Pinoy recipe pork humba with other parts of the pork or other meats ?
  • Pork Shoulder Humba Recipe – Using the shoulder will take longer. While you can ask for these to be chopped into smaller parts. Do note that it can take 1 hour and 30 minutes to 2 hours to simmer. This is becasue it takes time to break down the connective tissues.
  • Pork Hock Humba Recipe – Another version of the Visayan humba, this time using ‘pork knuckle’ or ‘ham hock’. Similar to the Pork Shoulder, it will take longer than when using the pork belly. For this, you can also use a pressure cooker to lessen the time to around 30 to 45 minutes.
  • Spare Ribs Humba – While the humba main ingredients uses non-bone in cuts, using those with the bone intact is also possible. Though for these, similar to the tougher cuts above, it will take a longer time to tenderize.
  • Beef Humba Recipe – quite different to the pork humba ingredients and procedure. The usual choice of beef cut for humba is the fattier cuts like beef belly, but you can also use the brisket. For this, it’s best to marinade it overnight then simmer with just enough water to cover the beef. Letting it simmer for 30 minutes at a time, adding more water as needed until tender.
  • Chicken Humba Recipe – to show how humble the humba Bisaya is. It can also be replaced with chicken. Simple add in the whole or chopped parts of the chicken as you do the pork belly. The only difference is the cooking time which may only take 30 – 45 minutes. Check every 20 minutes by poking the middle of the chicken. The juices that come out should be clear not pink.
  • Lechon Humba – another way to enjoy this humba Filipino recipe is by using premade meats which lessens the cooking time by a lot. For example, saute the chopped lechon pieces with the aromatics without adding more oil. Following the steps after then simmering for just 10 – 15 minutes as the meat is already cooked. Do note that you might need to reduce how much liquids and seasonings you have to add. This depends on how much meat you have on hand.

• What to pair with this Braised Pork Belly Humba recipe ?
  You can turn this into a Humba Pao recipe just by placing the humba in between steamed buns similar to siopao. But if you do not have this on hand you can also enjoy it in between regular bread or pandesal. But most people enjoy this dish over rice.

Try our other Filipino Braised Pork Recipe :

Soy sauce-based dishes in the Philippines is actually quite amazing. With just a very little tweak with either an ingredients or a process in the cooking, one dish is now unique to another dish. For example, the simple adobo is made into bistek by substituting vinegar with calamansi extract. Also, there can be defining ingredients which will easily tell you which is which. For example, you can easily identify pork steak if you see that a dish has a lot of onion rings on top. For the filipino humba , that one defining ingredient would be the dried banana blossoms.

Just like other dishes, pork humba is cooked differently throughout the country. This pork humba recipe is the one I inherited from my lola. Pork humba is almost similar to adobo, but uses two types of souring agent, namely vinegar and pineapple juice, and is also sweeter in taste.

We usually prepare pork humba using liempo during regular family lunches. But for special occasions, we usually used the pata part for that nanunuot na sarap to the bones. There is no other partner for this pork humba rather than some hot steaming rice. If you wanna know how to make pork humba, read and follow the simple steps below. Yum!

Making some pork humba is actually easier than you imagine. This dish can be prepared in around an hour. Start by slicing your pork belly. You can also try this recipe with other pork cuts (try it with the pata ones!). Sear them first to add more flavors to the dish and to render some meaty oil. Saute the aromatics together and then add the seasonings. The seasonings most essential for a dish to be humba are pineapple juice, soy sauce, sugar, dried bay leaves, and banana blossoms. Other versions add some tahore or crushed fermented tofu but that is totally optional.

The last steps would be simmering the meat in the sauce until tender. The last two ingredients to add are the vinegar and the black beans for contrasting sour and salty flavors. I really love my pork humba as a rice topper in my big bowl of hot rice. We hope you give this recipe a try!

Paano Magluto ng Pork Humba

Pork Humba Recipe Tagalog

Mga Sangkap:

• 1 kilo pork belly (or kasim)
• 5 butil ng bawang
• 1 sibuyas
• 240 ml ng pineapple juice
• ½ tasa ng toyo
• ¼ tasa ng suka
• 1 kutsara ng asukal
• 3 to 4 piraso ng dahon ng laurel
• Paminta
• 1 bugkos ng bulaklak ng saging
• 2 kutsara ng tausi
• 1 to 2 tasa ng tubig

Paano lutuin:

1. Ihanda ang pork belly at hiwain ito sa serving size. Ilagay ang belly sa mainit na kawali at iprito bahagya nang ilang minuto. Baliktarin at lutuin ang kabilang side. Kapag nagmantika na, isantabi muna ito sa isang lalagyan.
2. Bawasan ang mantika sa kawali. Ilagay ang bawang at sibuyas, at gisahin ito nang ilang minuto. Ibalik ang pork belly at gisahin itong mabuti.
3. Ibuhos ang pineapple juice at toyo. Sunod na ilagay ang paminta, asukal, dahon ng laurel, at bulaklak ng saging.
4. Lagyan ng 1 hanggang 2 tasa ng tubig para mas maluto ang pork belly (dagdagan kung kinakailangan). Takpan ang kawali para hindi masunog.
5. Pagkatapos ng isang oras, ilagay ang suka. Wag muna itong haluin ng 3 minuto. Hintaying mawala ang matapang na amoy ng suka bago haluin. Sunod na idagdag ang tausi at takpan hanggang maluto. Patayin ang apoy.
6. Ilipat ang pork humba  sa serving plate. Enjoyin ito kasama ng malaking bowl ng mainit na kanin. Yum!