[RECIPE] Make Your Own Kalua Pig
Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:55 am
In honor of Food I Could Eat Every Day #3, Kalua Pig, I present:
Make Your Own Kalua Pig! At Home! In Your Oven!
This is one of the simplest recipes you'll ever come across, and one of the easiest things to make, and the results are so scrumptious that I think it must have the highest "awesomeness-to-difficulty" ratio this side of getting Thai food delivered.
There are many recipes for this on the internet, and since it is so simple, they are all virtually identical, with the exception of cooking times/temps. So is this one, which includes the cooking times which worked for me yesterday, and yielded near-perfect kalua pig.
This is a perfect recipe for a lazy Sunday when you just wanna hang out around the house, cook a delicious meal, and just drink yourself silly while waiting for it to finish!
INGREDIENTS
--------------
- 1 pork butt/shoulder, 3-4 pounds. Should have a decent bit amount of fat/marbling.
- Liquid Smoke (recommend Wright brand, as it is just smoke and water, and doesn't have a lot of horseshit like soy sauce and molasses in it.)
- Coarse grained salt (sea/kosher).
DIRECTIONS
-------------
1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Wash/pat dry the pork.
3. Score the pork deeply on all sides with a knife. By the time you're done scoring it should start to look like a horror movie victim, or perhaps roadkill.
4. Place pork on a large sheet of aluminum foil.
5. Rub pork on all sides with smoke and salt. Recommend about 1/2 tablespoon of each per pound. So, four pound butt (heheh), 2 tbsps each smoke and salt. Whatever, the goal here is to get that sucker rubbed all oven and in the scores real nice.
6. Wrap pork tightly in the aluminum foil.
7. Place pork in a roasting pan.
8. Fill bottom of roasting pan with 1/2-3/4" of water, and another tablespoon of smoke.
9. Cover pan with more aluminum foil.
10. Place pan in preheated oven for FIVE HOURS.
11. Transfer wrapped pork to another pan, and open 'er up, letting the cooked pork and juices collect in the pan.
12. Using two forks, shred the hell out of the pork by pulling away in opposite directions.
13. Season with additional salt/roasting pan juices if necessary (may not be necessary, so taste first.)
That's it! Serve with one or more of rice, cabbage, macaroni salad for a traditional Hawaiian plate lunch! Or just shove it straight from the shredding pan into your face, hunched over the kitchen counter! Now who's the pig??
Make Your Own Kalua Pig! At Home! In Your Oven!
This is one of the simplest recipes you'll ever come across, and one of the easiest things to make, and the results are so scrumptious that I think it must have the highest "awesomeness-to-difficulty" ratio this side of getting Thai food delivered.
There are many recipes for this on the internet, and since it is so simple, they are all virtually identical, with the exception of cooking times/temps. So is this one, which includes the cooking times which worked for me yesterday, and yielded near-perfect kalua pig.
This is a perfect recipe for a lazy Sunday when you just wanna hang out around the house, cook a delicious meal, and just drink yourself silly while waiting for it to finish!
INGREDIENTS
--------------
- 1 pork butt/shoulder, 3-4 pounds. Should have a decent bit amount of fat/marbling.
- Liquid Smoke (recommend Wright brand, as it is just smoke and water, and doesn't have a lot of horseshit like soy sauce and molasses in it.)
- Coarse grained salt (sea/kosher).
DIRECTIONS
-------------
1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Wash/pat dry the pork.
3. Score the pork deeply on all sides with a knife. By the time you're done scoring it should start to look like a horror movie victim, or perhaps roadkill.
4. Place pork on a large sheet of aluminum foil.
5. Rub pork on all sides with smoke and salt. Recommend about 1/2 tablespoon of each per pound. So, four pound butt (heheh), 2 tbsps each smoke and salt. Whatever, the goal here is to get that sucker rubbed all oven and in the scores real nice.
6. Wrap pork tightly in the aluminum foil.
7. Place pork in a roasting pan.
8. Fill bottom of roasting pan with 1/2-3/4" of water, and another tablespoon of smoke.
9. Cover pan with more aluminum foil.
10. Place pan in preheated oven for FIVE HOURS.
11. Transfer wrapped pork to another pan, and open 'er up, letting the cooked pork and juices collect in the pan.
12. Using two forks, shred the hell out of the pork by pulling away in opposite directions.
13. Season with additional salt/roasting pan juices if necessary (may not be necessary, so taste first.)
That's it! Serve with one or more of rice, cabbage, macaroni salad for a traditional Hawaiian plate lunch! Or just shove it straight from the shredding pan into your face, hunched over the kitchen counter! Now who's the pig??
