Kaong palm vinegar, also known as irok palm vinegar or arengga palm vinegar, is a traditional

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to eth ...

made from the

sap Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separ ...

of the kaong sugar palm (''

Arenga pinnata ''Arenga pinnata'' (syn. ''Arenga saccharifera'') is an economically important feather palm native to tropical Asia, from eastern India east to Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines in the east. Common names include sugar palm, areng palm (al ...

''). It is one of the four main types of vinegars in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, along with

coconut vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to et ...

cane vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to eth ...

, and

nipa palm vinegar Nipa palm vinegar, also known as ''sukang sasâ'' or ''sukang nipa'', is a traditional Filipino vinegar made from the sap of the nipa palm (''Nypa fruticans''). It is one of the four main types of vinegars in the Philippines, along with coconu ...

. It is usually sold under the generic label of "palm vinegar".

Names

Kaong palm vinegar is also known as ''sukang kaong'' or ''sukang irok'', from ''kaong'' and ''irok'', the native

name for ''

''; and ''sukâ'' (with the Tagalog

enclitic In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...

suffix ''-ng'') means "vinegar". It is also sometimes known as ''sukang tubâ'', from ''

tubâ Tubâ () is a Filipino alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm trees. During the Spanish colonial period, tubâ was introduced to Guam, the Marianas, and Mexico via the Manila Galleons. They remain popular in Mexico ...

'', the general term for

palm toddy Palm wine, known by several local names, is an alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm tree such as the palmyra, date palms, and coconut palms. It is known by various names in different regions and is common in vari ...

produced from various palm trees in the Philippines, including coconut, buri palm (''

Corypha elata ''Corypha utan'', the cabbage palm, buri palm or gebang palm, is a species of palm native to Asia and Oceania. Description It grows up to tall, and, on the York Peninsula of Queensland, up to 1.5 meters (4' 11") thick (exceeded only by Boras ...

''), and nipa palm (''

Nypa fruticans ''Nypa fruticans'', commonly known as the nipa palm (or simply nipa, from ms, nipah) or mangrove palm, is a species of palm native to the coastlines and estuarine habitats of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the only palm considered adapt ...

'').

Traditional production

Kaong sugar palms (''

'') are solitary monoecious palm trees usually found in riverbanks and ravines throughout Southeast Asia. They are used widely in

maritime Southeast Asia Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor. Maritime Southeast Asia is sometimes also referred to as Island Southeast Asia, Insular Southeast Asia or Oceanic Sout ...

for various products. In the Philippines, they are most commonly harvested for their fibers, leaves, fruits and their sap, which is used in the production of ''tubâ'' (

) in addition to vinegar. The palms become sexually mature and start producing large fruit and flower clusters at ten to twelve years, but sometimes they can flower as early as five to six years. They are difficult to farm and their propagation usually relies heavily on local wild populations of

Asian palm civet The Asian palm civet (''Paradoxurus hermaphroditus''), also called common palm civet, toddy cat and musang, is a viverrid native to South and Southeast Asia. Since 2008, it is IUCN Red Listed as Least Concern as it accommodates to a broad rang ...

s (''musang'' or ''alamid''), which spread the seeds after eating the fruit. Sap can only be harvested from mature palms, as they are collected from the stalks of the male

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

s. The flowers take a few months to develop. Before they are ready, the harvesters (''mangangarit'') climb the trees and shake the stalks daily to induce the flow of sap. Once the flowers bloom, the stalk is cut and a collecting container (usually bamboo) is placed over it. Harvesters climb the trees daily to collect the sap. They transfer it to special bamboo containers slung along one shoulder known as ''tukil''. The sap are then poured into large earthen

fermenting Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food p ...

jars called ''

tapayan ''Tapayan'' or ''tempayan'' (also known as ''balanga'', ''belanga'', or ''banga'') are large wide-mouthed earthenware or stoneware jars found in various Austronesian cultures in island Southeast Asia. Their various functions include fermenting ...

''. The sap relies on wild yeast to turn the sugars into

ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl group linked to a ...

. This turns the sap into a traditional

called ''

''. Leaving it to ferment further, however, allows ''

Acetobacter ''Acetobacter'' is a genus of acetic acid bacteria. Acetic acid bacteria are characterized by the ability to convert ethanol to acetic acid in the presence of oxygen. Of these, the genus ''Acetobacter'' is distinguished by the ability to oxidize ...

'' from the air to oxidise the ethanol to acetic acid. It is harvested once the level of acidity reaches four or five percent. The length of time it takes to produce nipa palm vinegar ranges from three to four weeks, though it is faster if a starter culture of yeast is used.

Modern production

Modern mass production of kaong palm vinegars add additional steps to the traditional process to standardize the acidity and sugar levels. The vinegar fermented in ''tapayan'' jars are

pasteurized Pasteurization American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), or pasteurisation is a process of food preservation in which packaged and non-packaged foods (such as milk and fruit juices) are treated with mi ...

and then stored in food-grade plastic drums. They are allowed to age further for two months to three years before being bottled. Kaong palm vinegars contain

benzoic acid Benzoic acid is a white (or colorless) solid organic compound with the formula , whose structure consists of a benzene ring () with a carboxyl () substituent. It is the simplest aromatic carboxylic acid. The name is derived from gum benzoin, ...

calcium Calcium is a chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar t ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ta ...

potassium Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin ''kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmosph ...

sodium Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable ...

Culinary use

Kaong palm vinegar tend to be sweeter and is the least sour among traditional Filipino vinegars. Like other types of vinegars, kaong palm vinegar is used primarily in dipping sauces (''sawsawan''). It can also be used in

salad dressing A salad dressing is a sauce for salads. Used on virtually all '' leafy salads'', dressings may also be used in making salads of beans (such as three bean salad), noodle or pasta salads and antipasti, and forms of potato salad. Salad dressing ...

s as well as an ingredient in various dishes.

Other countries

Similar vinegars are made in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

from the kaong palm. But since kaong palm vinegar is a by-product of alcohol fermentation, it is not as widespread as in the Philippines and is restricted to Christian communities like in central and northern Sulawesi. Most kaong palm in Indonesia and Malaysia are cultivated for their fruits and fiber, as well as sugar ( jaggery) production.

References