🇵🇭 The cattle breeds of the Philippines

Philippine cattle keep a small place in the country's food, which centres on rice, fish, pork and chicken. Beef reaches the table cured as tapa, stewed with bananas in pochero, or as oxtail in the peanut sauce of kare-kare. Corned beef and evaporated milk are American-era additions to the pantry.

• Tapa, cured beef, is listed among the country's most popular dishes.
• Kare-kare is an oxtail and vegetable stew in peanut sauce.
• Pochero stews beef with bananas in a tomato sauce.
• American rule introduced corned beef and evaporated milk as convenience foods.
• Pigs reached northern Luzon from Taiwan about 4500 to 4000 years ago.

Cattle in the Philippines

Cattle keep a modest place in Philippine food life, where the best-known dishes centre on rice, fish, pork and chicken. The animals traced through the archipelago's food history are pigs, which reached northern Luzon from Taiwan thousands of years ago, and chickens; cattle enter the story chiefly as beef on the plate. Beef is cured as tapa, braised as mechado, stewed with bananas in pochero, and set as oxtail in the peanut sauce of kare-kare. Sour sinigang broth can take meat or seafood. American colonial rule brought corned beef and evaporated milk, alongside Spanish-rooted meat stews such as kaldereta.

Milk, butter and beef

Beef is the cattle product this food tradition shows most clearly, and it reaches the table as cooked dishes. Tapa is cured beef, counted among the country's popular dishes. Mechado braises larded beef in soy and tomato sauce. Pochero stews beef with bananas, and afritada simmers beef or chicken with vegetables in tomato sauce. Kare-kare is an oxtail stew in peanut sauce, and kaldereta stews meat in tomato sauce with liver paste. Sour sinigang broth can take meat or seafood. Two American-era convenience foods endure: corned beef and evaporated milk.