There is absolutely nothing like the taste of a Hawaiian pig roast. I've been trying to duplicate it as best I can. This is the latest attempt. In the past we've wrapped pork butts in banana leaves and have liked the results, but they have not come close to what you get at a luau. I stumbled upon an article recently in Cook's Country where they experimented with green tea to get the right flavor, so I figured I'd give it a try. I'd also done a number of google searches and many recipes suggested that the pig is wrapped in banana and tea leaves, so this kind of made sense. So, here are the basic ingredients:
The tea was some leftover given to us in China. I hope it wasn't too expensive :icon_blush:. This needed to be pulvarized:
I had two butts to work with. I did this one lightly with the tea. The other one was slathered thoroughly.
Wrapped up in banana leaves,
The other critical thing is the wood. The wood used in Hawaii is Kiawe, which actually is mesquite. Mesquite normally is not used here for smoking because it is very strong. The last time I was in Arizona, I filled my suitcase full of mesquite. It was just a matter of finding where I put it in my collection:
It was actually tucked in with some plum:
This went into the center of the Oval
and we loaded up the meat (since I had only two, I got the top rack):
After 18 hours, temps were into the 190*s and I decided to pull. Why so long? The banana leaves acted as an insulating layer. Next time, I won't wrap them so well and will kick up the heat a bit more.
After resting for a couple hours, I started pulling:
You can see it doesn't look bad. It actually tasted quite good too. I loved the mesquite on all the pork butts. It had a great flavor. It definitely is now my favorite wood for smoking butts. Unfortunately, although the flavor was good it just wasn't like I remembered.
The tea was some leftover given to us in China. I hope it wasn't too expensive :icon_blush:. This needed to be pulvarized:
I had two butts to work with. I did this one lightly with the tea. The other one was slathered thoroughly.
Wrapped up in banana leaves,
The other critical thing is the wood. The wood used in Hawaii is Kiawe, which actually is mesquite. Mesquite normally is not used here for smoking because it is very strong. The last time I was in Arizona, I filled my suitcase full of mesquite. It was just a matter of finding where I put it in my collection:
It was actually tucked in with some plum:
This went into the center of the Oval
and we loaded up the meat (since I had only two, I got the top rack):
After 18 hours, temps were into the 190*s and I decided to pull. Why so long? The banana leaves acted as an insulating layer. Next time, I won't wrap them so well and will kick up the heat a bit more.
After resting for a couple hours, I started pulling:
You can see it doesn't look bad. It actually tasted quite good too. I loved the mesquite on all the pork butts. It had a great flavor. It definitely is now my favorite wood for smoking butts. Unfortunately, although the flavor was good it just wasn't like I remembered.
