Cane vinegar

Vinaigre de canne

What it is

Sukang Iloko is fermented from basi, the Ilocano sugarcane wine, in the same burnay clay jars used to age the wine itself, the juice having first been boiled down to a syrup. The Philippines runs on four native vinegars — cane, coconut, nipa and kaong palm — and an adobo made with each one tastes measurably different.

In the kitchen

Rounder and milder than rice or coconut vinegar, it goes into a Filipino adobo undiluted: pour it in and leave it unstirred for the first few minutes of simmering so the raw acetic edge boils off. In kinilaw it needs its acidity propped up with calamansi.

Goes with

Garlic Soy sauce Black pepper Pork Bay leaf Ginger

Same species

Chinese rock sugar Dark rum Demerara sugar Golden syrup Icing sugar Invert sugar

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