Kalua Pig for Labor Day

**pgvoutdoors** · 08-31-2008, 12:16 PM

Happy Labor Day weekend to everyone! I decided I wanted to do something special for today's meal so I opted for some Kalua Pork. Unfortunately I got pressed for time yesterday and wasn't able to prepare my cooking pit. So I did the next best thing, I cooked it in the oven. For you that haven't done this before, here's how it's done:

Ingredients:
6-8 lb. pork butt
Liquid Smoke
Hawaiian Salt (Kosher salt works fine)
Fresh ground Pepper
(2) Bananas (unpeeled)
(3) large corn stalks
(1) Large sweet Onion, cut into slices
(4) cloves of garlic, minced

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F)
2. Cut all the fat from the pork
3. Rub the pork with two tablespoons of liquid smoke
4. Mix (2) tbs of salt with the minced garlic. Rub over the pork.
5. Sprinkle pork with two tablespoons of pepper

Use a large roasting pan, the larger the better. Remove leaves from the corn stalks, cut stalks into 4-6 inch sections. Rinse stalks and leaves to remove dust. Place stalks in the bottom of the roasting pan and then layer half of the leaves on top of the stocks. Add two cups of water to roasting pan. Place pork on top of the leaves, cover the top with the sliced onions, place the two unpeeled bananas on top. Cover everything with the second half of the corn leaves. Seal the top of the roasting pan with a heavy sheet of aluminum foil. Be sure to get a tight seal.

Bake for (3) hours at 350 degrees then reduce heat to 300 degrees for (2) more hours.

When done, remove pork to a large mixing bowl. Shred pork by using two forks to pull apart. Taste, if more seasoning is required add more pepper and mix some salt with 1 tsp of liquid smoke plus 3 tbl of water and pore over the pork. mix well.

Sever on toasted Kaiser rolls.
Optional:
Top pork with a small amount of bar-b-q sauce and hot pepper cheese.

Well that's lunch for today.

**crashdive123** · 08-31-2008, 12:34 PM

Sounds delicious.

**nell67** · 08-31-2008, 12:34 PM

Sounds yummy PGV!

**BraggSurvivor** · 08-31-2008, 12:53 PM

Liquid smoke contains hundred of dangerous chemicals, some of which are known carcinogens....

Other than that, enjoy and post pics.

**Gray Wolf** · 08-31-2008, 04:41 PM

PGV, what time are you serving?

**pgvoutdoors** · 08-31-2008, 11:16 PM

Originally Posted by BraggSurvivor

Liquid smoke contains hundred of dangerous chemicals, some of which are known carcinogens....

Other than that, enjoy and post pics.

I don't smoke, drink, or use drugs so if I want to use smoke to flavor my food, I'll take that risk. I like my Barbecue, beacon, and grilled food. All taste best because of good old smoke. Liquid smoke is no different; just smoke captured in water, vinegar, and molasses. I'll bet more than a few million people got a good helping of smoke this labor day weekend. I'll be at it again tomorrow; grilling chicken "YUM!"

Enjoy your salads BraggSurvivor and have a great weekend!

**crashdive123** · 08-31-2008, 11:18 PM

You can always make your own liquid smoke.

**pgvoutdoors** · 08-31-2008, 11:19 PM

I've never tried, how do you do it?

**crashdive123** · 08-31-2008, 11:20 PM

Watched it on a Food Network show - let me do a search - don't want to leave a step out.

**pgvoutdoors** · 08-31-2008, 11:21 PM

O.K. let me know when you have some details, Thanks...

**crashdive123** · 08-31-2008, 11:38 PM

I didn't find it on the Food Network site, but found an account of it.....

All you have to do is build yourself a still. Break out a grill, a smoker, or an outdoor fireplace, anything that has a chimney on it, and extend that chimney with a piece of heat ventilation pipe from the hardware store. That's going to allow the smoke to cool off so that it will be easier to gather. Now I just use a little collar of foil at the bottom so that it'll seat and I put another piece of foil up at the top. And I top that with a bundt pan, perfect for liquid smoke collection.
Chuck in some burning charcoal and follow that with a couple of handfuls of well-soaked wood chips. Then, the actual distiller part. You're going to need to place a bowl that's a little narrower than the bundt pan on top. And you've got to prop it up for air flow with a couple of pieces of metal, I don't know, pencils, chopsticks, whatever. Then on top of that bowl place a bag—a zip top—full of ice. That is going to chill the bowl and that'll force condensation which will then run down—as you can see here—into the bundt pan for easy gathering. Now this is basically the same way that whiskey and bourbon are made.
Now about ten minutes later, you can come back, and you will notice that you've got probably about a tablespoon of liquid smoke accumulated in the bottom of the pan. Of course, the more wood you burn, the more liquid smoke you'll make. Yum.