Panaggawa na Deremen

(Deremen Black Rice Making, Paggawa ng Itim na Bigas)

Category: Intangible Cultural Heritage; Social Practices, Rituals and Festive Events; Cuisine/Culinary traditions

Deremen-making is a unique rice preparation in our country and even outside the country. Made from toasted then pounded immature rice of the glutinous variety, it is one of the main ingredients in making the famous black rice cakes known as "inlubi", the pop rice made from it called "gipang", and even "deremen ya latik " which are in high demand during All Saints' and All Souls' Day, when it is traditionally used as something by which the living remember their dear departed kin.

Deremen is one of the oldest and traditional food in Pangasinan during Undas. It was probably developed in the 1900s.

It is available after the rice harvesting season every once a year, which falls at the end of October and early November.

The deremen makers of Brgy. Amanperez, Bayambang are known for being the best producers. They are known even as far as La Union, Tarlac City and Baguio City.

To make deremen, the immature grains are picked stalk by stalk. The stalks are then held and the grains are put on fire, gathered, and then pounded using a wooden mortar and pestle. The glutinous rice variety, which comes all the way from the towns of Mangaldan, Calasiao, Sta. Barbara, Sual, and Mangatarem, or sourced from Bayambang, is not only made for deremen but also for other native foods that Pangasinan is popularly known for, like tupig, suman, latik (Pangasinan term for latik-topped biko), and many more.

Deremen is abundant during the harvest season not just in Bayambang but also in many parts of Pangasinan, as many farmers plant glutinous rice because it costs more than ordinary rice. It is said that Pangasinan’s deremen has already travelled to many places and even overseas, where it has taken different shapes and colors. It is even served to guests in classy hotels, and luckily, it has retained its name.

According to the Undas tradition, deremen is usually placed at the altar of every Catholic household as a food offering for the dead. Old folks say that before the deremen could ever get into the mouth of the living, the dead must get it first. This is why, as a tradition, the rice cake is placed at the altar as an 'atang' or offering before the saints, usually before people go to the cemetery to pay their respects to their dead loved ones. Upon their return from the cemetery, the living could then partake of the deremen at the dining table.

Aling Josie Baldelomar, 59 years old and one of the practitioners in making deremen ever since she was a child, lives in Amanperez, Bayambang. She said that making deremen is difficult as it goes through a tedious process of production. If you can’t follow the correct process in making deremen, it will just look like and taste like normal malagkit (sticky rice).

Procedure:

1. First, prepare all the materials needed: talyasi (large iron pan), bigao (winnowing basket made from woven skin of bamboo tubes), lasong (mortar), alo (wooden pestle) and of course the glutinous rice.
2. Soak the burnt glutinous rice grains in water for 13 hours then wash the glutinous rice three times.
3. Put the glutinous rice in the talyasi and place and cook it in the pugon (furnace-type stove). Make sure that the glutinous rice is perfectly cooked.
4. Next, pour at least three tabos or dippers of water for every one sack of glutinous rice and mix it for 5 minutes.
5. After mixing the water and the glutinous rice, leave it for 15 hours.
6. After 15 hours of making the glutinous rice soft, pound the glutinous rice in the mortar or go to the rice mill to separate the glutinous rice from the chaff.
7. Lastly, cook again the glutinous rice within 10 minutes. After that, the glutinous rice can now be called deremen.

Aling Josie said she has been making deremen since she was a child. To this day, she continues the business her ancestors taught her. Just like other producers in Amanperez, Aling Josie makes it a point to pass on her knowledge in making deremen to her children, other family members, friends and neighbors.

To the people of Amanperez, deremen-making offers brisk business to them, a good source of income to their families, thus the tradition is well alive and even thriving. The most common threat is natural hazard, particularly destructive storms or typhoons.

NAME OF PROFILER/MAPPER: Johua-Ver B. Pabito, Bayambang National High School, Senior High School
DATE PROFILED: September 23, 2018
TEACHER: Mr. Christopher Q. Gozum
KEY INFORMANT/S: Mrs. Josie Baldelomar, 59 years old, one of the deremen producers in Brgy. Amanperez
REFERENCE: Micua, L. (2017). Pangasinan’s ‘deremen’: Food for the living and the dead. Retrieved September 23, 2018 from http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1014217

(Editor's note: Some lines were lifted verbatim from the cited reference, so the need to rephrase.)