Asadong Matua is a Filipino Kapampangan dish of whole pork rump slowly simmered in tomatoes, soy sauce, vinegar and spices. Cooked similarly to the Pork Asado but using different ingredients.

If you think of Asado, you will easily associate it with the filling of that siopao you ate last night, sweet and savoury but this type of Asado is not. Asadong Matua is so different with that normal ones, the only thing that remained was the cooking method where a whole pork rump or shoulder (kasim) is slowly simmered in sauce and that’s about it. The normal asado is cooked in sugar, soy sauce and, star anise or five spice which probably have a Chinese influence, this Kapampangan version on the other hand is cooked in Tomato Sauce and calamansi.

This is not your daily dinner type of dish, in Pampanga they serve this on special occasions like birthdays, graduations, fiestas or weddings, it is prepared a day in advance to let the flavours seep through but apart from that the cooking process is quite simple. In its most basic form a whole piece of pork is cooked in tomatoes and calamansi juice, but each household have its secret ingredient to make it more special like adding liver spread, cheese, coke, chorizo, pickles or all of the above.

I was trying to get more information about this dish’s history but to my luck it all pointed out to heirloom recipes of different household without any leads. But if you do now please let us know so we can document it here for people to know. By the way Asadong Matua is also called Kapampangan Asado, Asadong Pasko, Asadong Barrio and Abo-abo.

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