Bulalo (beef, bone marrow and vegetable soup)
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Filed under Mighty meaty; My recipes; beef, Comfort food, Filipino, Superb soups
This bulalo recipe was originally published in December 19, 2003. I am updating it because during our recent visit to Mahogany meat market in Tagaytay City, as I watched the butcher chop the whole beef shank that I had chosen, I realized that the secret to prevent the bone marrow from falling and liquefying in the broth was so obvious, and I wondered why I didn’t think of it before.
Bulalo can mean any of three things: 1) the marrow in the bone of the beef shank; 2) the cut of the beef, i.e., bone-in beef shank; or 3) the soup itself which consists of the bone-in beef shank and vegetables. The soup is a simple dish to prepare, really; but the flavorful broth and the texture of the meat makes it a treat.
If you intend to cook beef shank as bulalo, ask the butcher to chop the shank in such a way that you have one large piece with one end open — the chopped end — while the other end, the one where the leg had been cut off right on the joint, remains closed.
In classy restaurants, bulalo commands a high price. In the province of Batangas where selling beef and beef by-products is a major means of livelihood, roads are lined with restaurants and small eateries with bulalo as a specialty. In Makati City, there is a small eatery called Soseng’s–a sidewalk affair actually–where one finds yuppies and businessmen having a lunch of hot bulalo. Street parking is a common problem. There was one time when we had to park two streets away and wait for a vacant table for several minutes. That is how popular bulalo is among the Filipinos.
The recipe is on page 2.
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try putting si-bot in your bulalo, a japanese wild herb that blends and add a gud oozing taste in your bulalo.
if you add japanese wild herb hindi yan bulalo kundi buraro….were talking about pinoy cooking not japanese….mag suhi ka na lang uy…
Oooh, I new new twists to old dishes. I’ll look out for that one. Thanks.
tastes really good!but where can we can si-bot?got to try that one
everytime i cook bulalo I come back here… this is my electronic cookbook… lol
i’m still looking for it myself, jell.
mell, a toast to bulalo!
hi can u send me more classic menu,b-fast,lunch dinner dessert soup, drinks?salamat po
Agapito, there is a subscription service on the side panel. You can use that if you wish.
i want to take my hubby to sosengs this weekend… where is this exactly?
Dian Street, ice.
hi!
i want to cook bulalo batangas style…what are the ingredients?
pls help…..
anybody in there…………….
i didnt try it yet but im gonna do it soon. i hope you can have a sending part so i can send it to my sister abroad.
louellen, why not just send the URL? The “e-mail to a friend” function kasi is so prone to abuse by SPAMMERS.
this bulalo recipe seems to be yummy.i’m gonna give it a try over the weekend.
hi there! i was just browsing and i came accross on ur website by accident. I’m so glad i did for it was the best site ever. It brought back so many good yummy food memories back home. The best thing about this is so clear and easy to follow. Not to mention the pictures…. gosh…. what can i say, they’re so enticing! This definitely would mark in my favorites. Thank You Much!:wink:
I was looking for your bulalo recipe in google and happened to see a word for word copy of your recipe I thought you have a new site, do you?
julie, the only new site is pinoyfooftalk.com and the bulalo recipe was not reproduced there. however, i did find the content thief via google and sent a notice already. thanks for the tip.
wow what a pinoy foods, thxs for making that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Hi to edward,hannah,enna,emy and yani
Nakita ko po tong bulalo recipe mo sa isa pang site… Nagpaalam ba sayo?
http://domengxtreme.multiply.com/recipes
Cooking is also my passion and Bulalo is definitely a favorite. Eating too much of bulalo or bone marrow can be damaging to your heart and it’s a NO NO if you have high blood pressure. So be careful with your diet.
connie, have you tried putting corn on the cob? yung friend ko pg me handaan kami bulalo lagi daladala at nilalagyan nya ng corn. malinamnam yung soup.
with si-bot naman, narinig ko to sa mga chinese dishes. nilalagay nga nila to sa soup nila. ang lam ko nga e its an aprodisiac e, dunno if its true.
Happy Joy, daming magnanakaw sa Multiply.
Beng, in my nilagang baka, yes (which is basically the same except for the bone marrow).
I commented re: si-bot before but for some reason it wasn’t published. Si-bot is composed of 4 types of Chinese dried herbs and yes, it is an aphrodisiac, but really good and healthy kasi energizer siya. Pero with warning sa mga gusto mag-try ng si-bot, please wag gamitin if you are sick and trying to recover and if you have your monthly cycle.
I am married to a Chinese, and I have cooked si-bot twice already in the past month with chicken naman, but I’m sure this tasty bulalo will work with it just as well…
(sana ma-publish na ito this time)
Thanks!
try nyu din po pakulo nyu yun meat hanggang lumabot with at least 6-7 pcs thumbsized ginger (wag nyu hiwain yun ginger ilagay nyu ng buo) paglumambot n yun meat lgay nyo ng salt or patis yun desired nyo alat tpos lagay nyu din ng bunch of spring onions simmer for 1min..serve nyo n ehehe…(pede nyu lagyan ng petchay kung gusto nyo may gulay..yun lng po happy eating and cooking…
thanks po ng marami.dami ko natutunan sa inyo.GOD .BLESS
from what I know, sibut is a chinese herb. we use it a lot on our dishes. we usually buy it in ongpin. but may mga nkikita din ako sa groceries.
Sibot is available at Cherry. Spice section. I use sibot in my korean beef stew. Maybe i’ll try it with bulalo.
Now that you mention it. I still have a pack if sibot somewhere. And I like your idea of using it for bulalo.
Oh bulalo. Reading this article and seeing the pic make my mouth water. I get the shakes. Ooohhh.
hi there! Just to let you know when cooking with sibot, don’t mix it with other veggie ingredients, its just have to be plain sibot soup for the beef bulalo, native chicken, and the black chicken also. And that should be wrap in small cloth except for the red small ingredients there. Pang labas lang ng lasa or flavor. Happy eating…
Ms. Connie, ah ok, so that’s how we can preserve the precious, precious bone marrow? Thanks. Everytime I have bulalo in front of me and the bone marrow is oozing out of the bone, nakakalimutan ko na mataas nga pala ang bp ko, hehe.
We used to live in Vito Cruz and would often eat at Soseng’s. It’s always worth a visit.
Speedy and I used to go to Soseng’s when we were still both working in Makati. Miss Soseng’s and Suzukin.
Hi Connie,
So do I need prop up the bulalo while in the pot to keep the marrow from spilling out the open end? I’ve tried cooking bulalo once before and ended up with an empty bone and several shriveled pieces of marrow floating around
I’m eager to try with this cut and hopefully get a more satisfying “harvest” of marrow!
I don’t know if I just missed it but have you done a bulalo recipe that calls for cutting the bone in the middle lengthwise and “grilling” the marrow (a different kind of bulalo steak perhaps)? I’ve seen photos of the dish from Filipino restaurants (Pepato? not sure though) and was curious.
Regards,
Tessa
The marrow won’t fall off if the cooking method is dry. For the soup, simmering will create very little agitation and that helps keep the marrow inside the bone. AVOID STIRRING and keep the heat very low.
No, I haven’t tried grilling. There are about 6 bulalo recipes in the archive though.
Thankyou for your wonderful website! My Mum is from the Philippines but I never learned Tagalog so it makes learning to cook Filipino food from her recipe books quite difficult. I absolutely love bulalo and I’m glad my boyfriend is a Kiwi and finds the marrow gross – more for me, hehe.
Our daughters belong to the “health-conscious” generation and find bone marrow gross as well. More for me and my husband hehehe
Hi Miss Connie,
Generally, when you say that the recipe requires an onion, do you use white onions or the purple ones? what’s the default?
White.
hay!!! miss ko na bulalo, kaya lang bihara lang ako matyempo ng bone marrow sa grocery
When my friends and bought 1/4 cow to split between our families, I requested to keep the soup bones. No one wanted or even thought about to ask. So now, we have lots of bone with marrow! And if the cow is organic, does that make the marrow less gross? lol I don’t care. I’ll eat anything Filipino!
to ala-e,
that’s so funny about buraro..can’t stop laughing!
talaga naman, as a co-worker at the UN once told me, “the hardest word in the Engrish ranguage is rorripop!”
Hi! I’m kinda scared to use my pressure cooker coz it might blow up in my face. can you describe how to use one safely? i heard that we can save time and gasul when you use that to soften beef. also, are pressure cookers used only for soup dishes or pwede rin sa mga adobo (ie. konting liquid ingredients lang?) i hate tough meat! maybe you can enlighten us with a blog entry on pressure cookers, what it is used for and how to use it properly with pics!! thanks so much.
My pressure cooker’s been out of commission for some time now. My best advice is for you to read the manufacturer’s manual carefully.
Have you ever used Meat Tenderizers like papain, bromelain, etc…,, thesis kc nmin,, beef bulalo ang component…
Nope.
Would You Think they might affect the cooking hours of beef bulalo and so with the traditional taste of it?
It’s your thesis. Why don’t you try using meat tenderizers and find out the answers to your questions?
I LOVE TO COOK BULALO ITS MY FAVORITO!!!