Cooking food under the ground, Hawai’i Style

[Mark_Thompson]

Made an imu the other night, for no real reason besides ’tis the season.

-Dug a big hole, filled with newspaper, stacked firewood, rocks.

-Let it burn down until the rocks are glowing red.

-Covered rocks with banana stumps and leaves to keep food from burning.

-Put food in, about ten pork butts, plus some taro, breadfruit, chicken.

-Covered food with ti leaves, banana leaves, wet canvas tarp, thick plastic tarp. Covered edges of tarp with dirt.

-Let whole thing slow cook/steam/simmer overnight.

-Uncovered, shredded pork and chicken, removed bones, big fat clumps etc.

A fun exhausting process, especially once you factor in all the beer drinking.

6C3105CF-DAFB-4201-8310-743136DBDEA4.jpeg

1A618CC6-33B7-4110-831C-C053684391CD.jpeg

DBF75990-21E7-49A1-8250-0ACA5266FE19.jpeg

5E8314B5-6B56-48EE-93F5-391DFCA67680.jpeg

91B18414-59A7-486B-9079-0B1EBFFE39E2.jpeg

FA4AE1D2-338D-454A-A77C-0B1509888BDE.jpeg

6B93727A-E619-46D3-9514-A9198E7B60C3.jpeg

9EE5A3D8-7660-44CB-9780-63CAC8AE9C84.jpeg

[worth1]

I've cooked brisket under ground before.
Slathered with spices and sauce..
Wrapped in cheese cloth and outside wrapped in aluminum foil.
Surrounded with hot coals and covered up with soil.
Walked away and came back hours later.
Did this all the time in Austin back way back in the 80's.
Great way to cook brisket or pork.

[bower]

Those look like a special kind of rocks and a perfect size and shape. Are they picked specially for the job?
Our rocks here are more angular shapes, when they spend time in the fire they split apart and usually turned red on the split face instead of unburnt purple. Lots of rounded rocks on the beach though. Good place for a fire!

[svalli]

We did similar thing couple of times when we lived in Wisconsin.The company where I and my husband worked had all the time transferred employees working from company's other locations, so we had many Finnish families come and go through the years. We used to have have some parties for the Finns couple of times a year and one of those was that pit barbecue on our yard.

The guys dug a hole and lined it with stones. Then a fire was burnt there through the night and the guys camped on our yard. Luckily we lived in a rural area, so the neighbors were hopefully not disturbed by that. My task was to wake up early in the morning and remove the hot coals from the pit and put meats wrapped in moist kitchen towels and aluminium foil in the pit. Then it was covered with the coals and a layer of sand. In the following afternoon families of the campers came for dinner and for some reason the fire watchers, were not really hungry

[worth1]

Those look like a special kind of rocks and a perfect size and shape. Are they picked specially for the job?
Our rocks here are more angular shapes, when they spend time in the fire they split apart and usually turned red on the split face instead of unburnt purple. Lots of rounded rocks on the beach though. Good place for a fire!

Those look like volcanic lava rocks tumbled on the shore or a river.
Ours like that are hard millions of years old rocks that might explode in a hor fire.
I've seen some blow up and go over a hundred feet in the air larger than bowling balls.
Glowing in the darkness of the night.
This from burning windrows of trees dozed down.
Very spectacular.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

@svalli; there's a sizable Finnish presence in northern Iron County, WI, where they measure snow in feet!

Heck, there's even Little Finland!

http://www.littlefinland.org/

The Gotch

[Mark_Thompson]

Those look like a special kind of rocks and a perfect size and shape. Are they picked specially for the job?
Our rocks here are more angular shapes, when they spend time in the fire they split apart and usually turned red on the split face instead of unburnt purple. Lots of rounded rocks on the beach though. Good place for a fire!

They are special rocks. The vast majority of our rocks also explode. We all learn the lesson as kids when we try to make a campfire ring like you see in the movies, then 20 minutes later they all blow up into little jagged projectiles aiming for your eyes. So yup, important to choose the right ones!

[peebee]

Looks like some pretty ono kalua pork you made there Mark

[Mark_Thompson]

Looks like some pretty ono kalua pork you made there Mark

Now you’re speaking my language!

[MissS]

What a splendid thing to do for the holidays. Now if I can just find myself some banana leaves...

[worth1]

Two words.
Cochinita pibil.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochinita_pibil

[Mark_Thompson]

Two words.
Cochinita pibil.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochinita_pibil

From Wikipedia
On June 30, 2021, a small group of purists protested outside the National Palace in Mexico City. Many have expressed their taste for mayonnaise as an ingredient to a cochinita sandwich or "torta" in Spanish, one of the most popular snacks in Yucatán, and apparently, this is a total sacrilege for many Yucatecan, who claim that this dish should be eaten only with the bread (typically a type of baguette), marinated onions, and habanero pepper.

Ahahaha, I’m sorry purists, but every sandwich is better with mayo!

[worth1]

What a splendid thing to do for the holidays. Now if I can just find myself some banana leaves...

There's a wild banana grove down the road from me.

[worth1]

Two words.
Cochinita pibil.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochinita_pibil

From Wikipedia
On June 30, 2021, a small group of purists protested outside the National Palace in Mexico City. Many have expressed their taste for mayonnaise as an ingredient to a cochinita sandwich or "torta" in Spanish, one of the most popular snacks in Yucatán, and apparently, this is a total sacrilege for many Yucatecan, who claim that this dish should be eaten only with the bread (typically a type of baguette), marinated onions, and habanero pepper.

Ahahaha, I’m sorry purists, but every sandwich is better with mayo!

I think that is a new addition to Wikipedia.
I also think the mayonnaise would be a good addition but you simply must do the habanero and pickled red onion.
My preference and more authentic would be a corn tortilla taco.
If the recipe is as old as one person said.
I would have to be done with the small wild pig like creature they have in the area not the imported one.
Namely the Peccary which was used for food in that area.
Not the domestic European pig they use today.
They are pesky little critters for sure.
At least the ones in West Texas were.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peccary