Experiment 13: Chicken Adobo

Prelab:
I woke up pretty early this morning so that I'd be able to cook adobo for breakfast before anyone had a chance to petition their requests.

Date Performed: Dec. 4, 2009

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, small
5 small cloves of garlic
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup white vinegar
100 ml water
1 bay leaf
pepper
25 g quickmelt cheese (about 1/16 of a slice)

Preparation:
Put all ingredients except the cheese in a pot and set to a boil under medium fire. When it boils, set to low fire and let it simmer for about 85 -90 minutes. Around 45 minutes, place the cheese to melt. Stir occasionally.

Post-lab:
I wanted to try doing this because it's the most criticized dish ever in the history of our family and our extended families.

The obvious mistake was too much soy sauce. I realized it was salty when I added the cheese.
Like they always say, too much saltiness is harder to repair than bland taste.
In the cookbook, it says 1/2 :1/2. Ma mere wrote 1/4 : 1/4 beside it, and according to her, it means that the written note on the side is the correct one.

But the reason why I did it 1 : 1 was because grand mere R told me it's about 1 cup. The 1 cup might work if people who like it salty were eating it. But for health-conscious people with hypertension, I had better cut down the salt!

Next, the water I added (100 ml is approximately 1/3 cup of water) results to too much soup. You can't expect the water to evaporate that much even if you simmer it long!
Ma mere says I shouldn't add water at all (that is, according to grand mere G), while grand mere R says I should add a little water. But how little is little???

I wasn't able to taste the cheese, which means that the "optional ingredient" I read online does little to the flavor. But maybe if I did it at 1/4 : 1/4 it would have worked.

The color isn't quite right at 1/4 : 1/4, and it is always results to too much soup.
If they want it even more bland, I'll go for 1/8 : 1/8. That way, there'd be less soup.