Hafis Muaddab, Khudrotun Nafisah
This ethno-gastronomic study examines how the sacred cooking of ingkung, a whole free-range chicken prepared for the Nyadran ritual, embodies moral discipline, ecological reciprocity, and ancestral reverence within a Javanese village community. Central to the ritual is a strict taboo prohibiting the tasting of the dish before it is offered and blessed at the ancestral grave. While ingkung in Javanese tradition is recognized as a symbol of gratitude and devotion, its preparation in the Nyadran context is grounded in specific protocols of purity, collective labor, and sensory discipline. The study draws on qualitative ethnography that includes field observation, interviews with women cooks and ritual leaders, and documentation of cooking and blessing practices. The findings show that preparing ingkung is not merely a culinary process but a moral and sensory practice of restraint, reverence for sacred order, and ecological attunement. The tasting taboo mediates the transformation of food from the ordinary to the sacred and culminates in communal redistribution during the blessing ceremony. Situating ingkung within wider debates on ethnic foodways, the moral economy, and Javanese cosmology, the study argues that such ritual food practices sustain intangible cultural heritage and reaffirm a sensory ecology of sacred taste. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.
State University of Malang, Malang, Indonesia; Darul Ulum University, Jombang, Indonesia; Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia
