How to Cook a Pig Undeground

Stones will stay hot for hours, so never touch them without heat-resistant gloves.

The method of cooking pig underground has been used by many cultures throughout the world. It is still used today in New Zealand, Hawaii and several Polynesian cultures. Cooking a pig underground involves digging a hole, or cooking pit, then using firewood to heat stones, on which you will cook the pig for several hours. Before you begin, ask your butcher for a whole, treated pig, and check to make sure there aren't any local laws that would prevent you from digging a fire pit in your yard.

Things You'll Need

• Shovel
• Firewood
• Sandstones
• Rag
• Lighter fluid
• Lighter
• Knife
• Salt
• Grill tongs
• Butcher's twine
• 4 sq. ft. chicken wire
• Banana leaves
• Banana trunks
• Burlap sacks
• Heat-resistant gloves

Instructions

1. Dig a hole that is 2 feet deep and 5 feet in length. The hole needs to be long enough to accommodate the size of your pig.

2. Add a layer of firewood on the bottom of the pit. Use slow-burning firewood since you will be cooking for several hours and will not be able to add more firewood during the cooking process.

3. Insert a stick that is four inches in diameter in the center of the firewood, sticking upward and tie a lighter fluid-soaked rag around the top of the stick.

4. Lay a layer of sandstone on top of the firewood.

5. Remove the stick and light the rag. There will be a hole in the stone and firewood where the stick was. Guide the stick (which is now an oversized lighter) into the hole and light the firewood that is surrounding the hole. The firewood will catch there, spread to the other firewood and eventually heat the stones. Discard the stick and rag after you have lit the firewood.

6. Wait twenty to thirty minutes for the fire to heat up the stones. While you are waiting for the stones to heat, you can prepare your pig for cooking.

7. Make slits in the pig between its shoulders, from its ribs to backbone and up to its head. Do not cut all the way through the pigs skin, however. Rub one handful of salt into each slit and rub four handfuls of salt in the inside of the abdomen.

8. Pick up three or four hot stones with grill tongs and place them inside of the pigs abdomen. If you can fit more stones in the abdomen, do so.

9. Tie the pigs four legs together tightly with butchers twine.

10. Line a 4 sq. ft. piece of chicken wire with banana leaves; then put the pig on top of the banana leaves.

11. Lay banana trunks flat onto the hot stones and then place the chicken wire with the pig and banana leaves on top of the banana trunks. Ask an assistant or several assistants to help you lift the chicken wire and pig carefully onto the banana trunks.

12. Cover the pig with burlap sacks, then fill in the pit with the earth that you dug out to make the pit.

13. Cook the pig for three hours. When the time has passed, carefully remove each item with a shovel and grill tongs.

Tips & Warnings

• An underground pit is very hot. The stones are also very hot. Use grill tongs and heat resistant gloves when working near the pit. When you remove the burlap sacks, be very careful because steam will also rise up out of the pit, which could burn you if it directly hits your skin.

References

• Primitive Ways; Imu - Hawaiian Underground Oven; Dino Labiste; 2005
• Pig On A Stick: Cooking a Whole Pig Hawaiian Kalua Style