Kalua Pig is probably one of the more popular Hawaiian foods that you’ve probably tasted. At every luau, pulling the pig from the imu, or underground stove, is an event to itself. When the imu is opened, the smell of the kiawe wood fills the air, and it just waters your mouth. And once you’ve tasted it, a well-made pig, of course, you’ll want more.
The word Kalua Pua’a means “to cook undergound (in an imu)” Kalua by itself means pit or sinkhole. So, Kalua Pig, can mean “to cook a pig in the ground.” But, Kalua Pig is rarely made underground, especially in restaurants or in local households. And not to discredit the ancient method, but there’s nothing special about cooking in an imu. Scientifically, cooking in an imu doesn’t add much smoke flavor. There’s zero convection of smoke because food is tightly packed. And to add, there’s not a stable source of smoke being created as it’s heated by river rocks – and there’s no smoke created by burning rock. In most cases, liquid smoke is added to a salt brine to create the effect that it’s been smoked. But if you look carefully at Kalua Pig, the shreds of pork have no pink in them, meaning there was no smoke ring, thus more than likely no smoke.
Cooking in an imu at Polynesian Cultural Center
So what’s the best way to make Kalua Pig? Well, I have to say, my way, which isn’t really my way, but your standard bbq way of making pulled pork.
YOU’LL NEED:
- A smoker (preferably standard offset)
- A food thermometer
- Mesquite Wood (we have a Hawaiian Version called Kiawe)
- Pork Butt/Shoulder
- Heavy-Duty Tin Foil
- Kosher Salt
- Sea Salt
- Apple Cider Vinegar
The offset smoker is much better than an imu
DIRECTIONS:
Kalua Pig is nothing more than a good piece of smoked tender pulled pork, carefully seasoned with a brine made of sea salt. If you know how to smoke a piece of Pork Butt/Shoulder, all you have to do is make a salt brine, and slowly season it to your preferred taste, teaspoon by teaspoon. For those of you who don’t know how to smoke, I’ll quickly outline what to do:
- Salt your Pork Butt/Shoulder with Kosher Salt. It’s okay to go a little liberal here as you are dealing with a very big piece of meat.
- Throw it in your smoker. By the way, the best way to get the most smoke in your meat is through a wood fire only standard offset smoker. You can use any type of smoker (vault, komodo, reverse flow), but nothing compares to the old traditional standard offset.
- You can put a pan of water in here if to keep your smoke moist. This is equivalent to putting banana husk in an imu.
- Cook at around 250 to 275 degrees until the internal temperature of your pork butt/shoulder reaches around 180 degrees. Your meat should have a nice black bark on there, which by the way, is not burnt meat. If the bark starts getting too hard before 180, that means your fire was a bit too hot and you probably want to wrap your meat earlier
- After 3 hours, you should start spraying your pork butt with a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water every 30 to 45 minutes
- Do expect your pork to stall its temperature at around 150 and then at 160. Be patient and keep cooking. You will be cooking anywhere from 10 to 12 hours.
- Start checking your bark around 2 hours after your pork stalls. If it gets too tough, then start to wrap. I would suggest going as far as you can without wrapping so you can get the most smoke.
- Wrap your pork butt/shoulder with aluminum foil at around 180 degrees, throw it into the oven at 275 degrees, and cook till it reaches 203 degrees. If your thermometer doesn’t poke into your pork like butter you may need to cook it longer.
- Pull it out, and let the pork rest maybe 10 minutes. It honestly doesn’t matter if you let it rest for a long time or not as we are most likely using the drippings.
- Open your pork/butt making sure you dump it into a big bowl for you to shred. Taste the drippings. If the drippings are not bitter, throw it in the bowl. If it’s bitter, throw it in the trash.
- Shred your pork with two forks. It should shred easily.
- Create a very small amount of salt brine on the side using: water, just a splash of oil, and sea salt. It should be a little salty to taste. Slowly AND I MEAN REAL SLOW, teaspoon by teaspoon, flavor your pig… Don’t go overboard or else you’ll ruin it rather quickly.
And that’s my kalua pig. It’s very colorful! You can see the pink shreds, which are from the smoke ring. The black is from the tasty bark.
You won’t get that in an imu.
On a side note – for my family, my kalua pig is just another dish that I create from a huge piece of shredded pork shoulder/butt. For me, I just throw my smoked pork into gallon zip lock bags and season them how I want throughout the week. I can make a pull pork sandwich if I combine the pork with bbq sauce. I can make a local favorite, roast pork plate, by combining it with store-bought brown gravy. And if I want kalua pig, I just add salt. Most of the time, I don’t even make a brine, I just add a few splashes of water, grind some rock salt over it, and throw it in the micro – and it tastes great.
So why is this version better than imu style Kalua pig? Well, it’s a lot better looking, and it’s a lot more moist, naturally smokey, and tastier. Plus you’re not adding liquid smoke, which seriously sucks to high heaven. That stuff just taste awful.
Now, if you don’t have a smoker, you can steam your pork butt/shoulder until it reaches an internal temperature of 203 degrees, shred it and then brine with sea salt and some liquid smoke. It’ll come out okay, but not as good as smoking it in an offset.
Steve Young
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