American · Hawaiian · main

Laulau (Pork and Butterfish in Luau Leaves)

Laulau (Pork and Butterfish in Luau Leaves) reads richness 6.2, umami 6.1 and salinity 5.9 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a American · Hawaiian main, about 6 hr 20 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Richness 6.2 · Umami 6.1 · Salinity 5.9 · Sweetness 3.6 · Marine & Briny 2.5 · Funk & Ferment 2.4 · Allium 1.8 · Warm Spice 1.6 · Heat 1.0 · Earthy 0.9 · Bitterness 0.7 · Sourness 0.7

What's in it (10)

Time & effort: about 6 hr 20 min (4 hr 55 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 67.4 kcal, 5.9 g protein, 4.4 g fat, 0.7 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (9 steps)

  1. Laulau is Native Hawaiian cooking and it belongs to the pre-contact tradition of the imu, the underground oven — parcels of food wrapped in leaves and buried on hot stones for hours. This is the stovetop version, which is what most families make now, but the logic is unchanged: the taro leaves are both the wrapper and a vegetable, and their long, slow, wet cooking is what makes them edible at all.
  2. This is the one non-negotiable safety point in the recipe. Raw taro leaves contain needle-shaped calcium oxalate crystals that cause severe burning and swelling in the mouth and throat. They are destroyed only by long cooking — at least three hours of moist heat. There is no shortcut, no soaking method, and no acceptable substitute: spinach and collard leaves are sometimes used in mainland imitations and they produce something that is not laulau. Luau leaves are sold frozen or fresh in Hawaii and in Pacific and Filipino groceries on the mainland, often under the Filipino name gabi or dahon ng gabi.
  3. Ti leaves are the outer wrapper and are not eaten — they are the parcel, and they keep the whole thing together in the steam. Shave the raised spine down the back of each so it will fold without splitting. Rinse the luau leaves and pull away the stems and thick central veins, which never soften.
  4. Toss the pork with the alaea salt, shoyu and black pepper and let it stand 15 minutes. Alaea salt is Hawaiian sea salt mixed with a red volcanic clay that gives it iron and a mild earthiness; it is worth having and it is what the dish traditionally uses.
  5. Soak the salted butterfish in cold water 1 hour to draw out some of the salt, then drain. Salted butterfish is black cod cured in salt and sold in tubs at Hawaiian fish counters; it is oily enough that it bastes the pork from inside the parcel.
  6. Build each parcel: stack 8 to 10 luau leaves in your palm, shiny side down, put a piece of pork, a piece of butterfish, a few slices of onion and a dab of pork fat in the centre, then fold the leaves over the filling in a tight bundle. Set the bundle on two crossed ti leaves and fold them over, tucking the ends underneath, then tie with the leaf tips or kitchen twine.
  7. Stand the parcels in a steamer above the water, cover tightly, and steam 4 hours, topping the water up every hour so it never runs dry. Four hours sounds like a lot and it is the minimum; the leaves must go from bright green to a dark, soft, almost spinach-like mass with no trace of scratchiness.
  8. Let them rest 10 minutes, then open at the table. Serve with rice and poi.
  9. Substitutions: coconut oil can stand in for the pork fat.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.