Dinuguan (pronounced: dinougouane) ia a tasty Filipino stew usually made with pork offal (most commonly the intestines but also lungs, kidneys,e ars, hear and snout) and/or meat simmered in a rich and spicy sauce made of pork blood, garlic, chili, and vinegar.
The term ‘dinuguan’ comes from the word ‘dugo’, which means ‘blood’ in Tagalog, so the literal translation would be “to cook with blood”. However, this dish is translated and referred to as pork blood stew or blood pudding stew.
Depending on the region’s dialect, this dish is known by various names. Dinuguan is called sinugaok in Batangas, zinagan in Ibanag, twik intawis, tid-tad in Kapampangan, dinardaraan Ilocano, dugo-dugo in Cebuano, rugodugo in Waray, sampayna or champayna in northern Mindanao, and tinumis in Bulacan and the region of nueva Ecija. Another name for dinuguan is ‘meat with chocolate’ or even ‘chocolate soup’.
This dish is quite similar to black pudding. It may be closer in appearance and preparation to the Polish soup Czernina or to an even older Spartan dish known as melas zomos (black soup), whose main ingredients were pork, vinegar, and blood.
Dinuguan can also be served without offal, using only choice cuts of pork. In Batangas, this version is known as sinungaok. It can also be prepared using beef or chicken, with the latter variant being known as dinuguang manok (‘chicken dinuguan’).
Dinuguan is usually served with white rice of a Filipino rice cake called puto. Northern Luzon versions of the dish, namely Ilocano dinardaraan and Ibanad zinagan, are often drier, topped with fried pork intestines. The Itawis of Cagayan also have a pork-based version that contains larger pieces of meat and more fat, which they call twik.
The most important ingredient in the Dinuguan recipe is obviously the (pig’s) blood, which is used in many other Asian cuisines as, either in the form of coagulated blood use to supplement the meat, or as a mixture for the broth itself, as is the case with Dinuguan.
