Adaptive Fidelity and the Culinary Continuity of Brongkos in Javanese Food Heritage

Abstract

This study examines how brongkos, a traditional Javanese stew associated with Yogyakarta and Central Java, maintains its culinary identity while undergoing historical, social, and presentational change. Using a qualitative descriptive design, the research combines textual analysis of Serat Centhini, a review of historical, gastronomic, scientific, and heritage sources, and a confirmatory interview with K.P. Budayaningrat, a cultural practitioner knowledgeable about Javanese culinary traditions. The findings show that the identity of brongkos does not depend on a completely fixed recipe. Variations may occur in meat cuts, tofu types, vegetables, cooking equipment, portion sizes, and serving formats. Nevertheless, the dish remains recognisable through a stable culinary structure consisting of kluwak, coconut milk, prolonged cooking, dark colour, tender ingredients, aromatic spices, and a balanced combination of savoury, mildly sweet, earthy, and spicy flavours. Historical references in Serat Centhini demonstrate that brongkos was consumed in everyday meals, guest receptions, and communal celebrations in the early nineteenth century. Its later circulation through palace narratives, colonial dining, food stalls, tourism, and contemporary dining further reveals its capacity to move across social contexts. The study proposes adaptive fidelity as a framework for understanding this continuity. Adaptive fidelity refers to the ability of a traditional dish to accommodate changes in supplementary ingredients, technology, presentation, and service while preserving its constitutive sensory and procedural relationships. The study concludes that the safeguarding of brongkos requires not rigid standardisation but the continued transmission of its culinary grammar through households, practitioners, food businesses, cultural experts, and educational institutions.