Adobo
Also known as adobar, adobo paste, aliño (oil-based)
A Spanish seasoning-and-cure paste of pimentón, garlic, salt and oregano worked onto meat before drying or frying.
Adobo is the Spanish cure paste. Salt, pimentón, garlic and oregano, sometimes loosened with a little oil or vinegar, are worked into the surface of the meat. It seasons and colours while the salt begins drawing down water activity. It is the flavour signature behind chorizo and behind lomo adobado.
As a preservation method adobo leans on the salt and, for dried products, on the drying that follows. The paste itself does not preserve. It flavours, and through the pimentón it lends colour and a measure of antioxidant protection to the fat. A curesmith treats adobo as a salting-and-flavouring step, not a standalone hurdle.
The vinegar-led version shades into the marinade tradition, while the oil-led version is called aliño. For a dried lomo adobado the loin is salted and adobo'd, then air-dried; for fresh dishes the adobo'd meat is simply fried.