Papaitan is a famous Ilocano soup dish mostly composed of cow or goat innards. The name of this dish was derived from the Filipino word “Pait”, which means “bitter”. The bitter taste of this soup comes from the bile. This is a bitter juice extracted by the liver and stored in the gallbladder to aid digestion.
Although this soup is popular, one needs to develop and acquired taste to enjoy it. Once an acquired taste has developed, you will surely appreciate this dish without minding its components.
The first time that I tried this dish was in a “kambingan”. It is a type of restaurant that specializes in goat dishes. I did not like Papaitan at first because of the bitter taste. I was told that it will taste better if I squeeze-in some calamansi; well, it did. It is also best when served really hot.
This recipe that we have here makes use of cow parts. I chose to cook cow parts mainly because of the availability of ingredients in my area. If in case goat parts are available in your part of the world, you can use the goat equivalent of the ingredients.
This dish can be considered a main dish and a pulutan. Here is a link that showcases all of our pulutan recipes. Cheers!
Try this Papaitang Baka recipe and let me know what you think.
Papaitan Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb ox tripe
- 1/2 lb cow’s small intestine
- 1/2 lb beef thinly sliced and chopped
- 1/2 lb cow’s heart
- 2 tbsp bile
- 2 thumbs ginger julienned
- 1 piece onion diced
- 6 cloves garlic crushed and chopped
- 8 cups water
- 4 to 6 pieces finger chilies
- 2 1/2 tablespoons salt
- 1/2 tablespoon ground black pepper
- 1 to 2 pieces lemon or 5 to 8 pieces calamansi
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
Instructions
- Heat a cooking pot and pour-in 4 cups of water and put-in 1 tablespoon salt. Bring to a boil.
- Put-in the ox tripe and small intestines and simmer until tender. This should take approximately 35 to 50 minutes.
- Turn off heat. Remove the tender ox tripe and small intestines then slice. Set aside. Discard the water.
- Heat a clean cooking pot and pour-in cooking oil.
- When the oil is hot enough, sauté garlic, onion, and ginger.
- Add the beef, heart, sliced intestines, and tripe then cook for about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add 1 1/2 tablespoon salt and ground black pepper then stir for a minute.
- Pour-in remaining 4 cups of water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 40 minutes (you may add more water if needed).
- Add bile then simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add the finger chilies and squeeze-in the lemon juice then simmer for 3 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and transfer to a serving bowl.
- Serve hot. Share and enjoy!
Onie says
hello! question po sa step 2:
“Put-in the ox tripe and small intestines and simmer until tender. This should take approximately 35 to 50 minutes.”
i-discard na po ung pinagpakuluan? kasi po sa step 8 nakalagay is put in ung remaining 4 cups of water. wala po sinabi na gamitin ung unang pinagpakuluan. thanks po!
Vanjo Merano says
Onie, yes the water used to boil the innards initially should be discarded. I was thinking that it was implied in step 3, but I will clearly state this to avoid confusion in the future.Thank you for asking.
Alvin Ahyong says
Hi just want to ask if you have a recipe book i can buy?
zety says
balat ng lemon can be an alternative para pumait if you cant find beef bile. once it is already cooked, remove the lemon para moderate lng yung bitterness nia.
haydee mendoza says
ang bile or apdo un po ang isang organ ng beef na mapait at yun ang importante na sahog para matawag na papaitan…pag bumili ka ng meat ng beef sa market ask mo lang din sa tindero kc they knows that…apdo for papaitan…
glenda says
thatS my favorite food..
erlinda meyer says
please can you make akay-akay para siyang bilobilo with red munggo inside, thanks in advance
abrian says
ano po ung bile? where do you get that from?
Aiye says
Miss ko yang lutu na yan!!!
rl says
we ilokanos usually use the greenlike enzymes from the small intestine of the goat and not the bile.expert cook call it segonda and primera (which depends on the concentration of the bitter taste).this makes the distinct taste of ilocano’s pinapaitan.
hungrynez says
exquisitely delicious specially on a cold rainy night!
bong says
Looks delicious. I am a fan of Ilokano Papaitan but I haven’t done this recipe yet. I will try this weekend. thank you.