Having been to a couple of luaus now this effectively recreates the taste as well as you can without burying a pig in your back yard. We used a low sodium soy sauce which was fine as their is more than enough salt in the recipe. We cooked a 4 lb butt in the slow cooker for about 8 hours steaming with the cabbage for the last 30 minutes. The result was great. I served it with Guam styled fried rice so it was a real gut buster feast. While buns or rolls are somewhat traditional as a low glutein household we don't feel they are required. in fact the first time I served this with hot dog buns the bread was ignored entirely as everyone was perfectly full with pork cabbage rice and vegetables. while not anyone's idea of a health nut dinner this is certainly a good option if you want a breadless meal.
This was pretty good. I followed the recipe exactly, except I used low sodium soy sauce and a bag of shredded red cabbage. I also added ~1/2 cup of water to the crock pot. It was a bit salty, so next time I will cut back on the kosher salt, and increase the pepper, ginger and liquid smoke.
I followed the recipe, but added 1/2-1 cup of chicken broth and discovered that was totally unnecessary as it was a little soupy. It was still delicious, but I, too, would cut the salt down a little next time (I also used low sodium soy sauce). The next night I reheated some (it makes A LOT!) of the meat in a pan so it got a little crispy and made burritos. Super yummy!
Excellent Kalua Pork. Thanks for the recipe Mei. I chose this recipe over others because it called for ginger worcestershire and some soy sauce vs. just salt and liquid smoke which I feel flavored the roast much better. I also used medium grain Hawaiian Alaea Sea Salt. If you do use a granule salt like I did whether it be Kosher or Hawaiian assure that you first crush it with a mortar and pestle and cut the salt back if you don't like your meat very salty. I also served the pork over a bed of the steamed cabbage leaves just as it was served to us at "Feast at Lele" Luau in Maui last month. I would recommend this for two reasons. First this is a lot of pork and since there were lots of left over s I wanted my cabbage steamed fresh when eating it again not soggy as it would be when you reheat it with the cabbage mixed in. Second I also added Mexican spices (Chili powder cumin garlic powder onion powder cayenne pepper. etc..) and made some delicious shredded pork tacos for lunch one day. I will be making this recipe again many times in the future.
Omit the salt!! Double the rest of the ingredients (except the pepper) and it is smokey and savory. A nice alternative to BBQ!
When we got back from Maui I wanted to make some authentic Hawaiian food and found this recipe. All I can say is "Yummy!" It was like bringing a little bit of paradise home with us! My son's wedding is Hawaiian themed and he and his fiance' asked me to cook up a huge bunch of Kalua pork for the reception. I've done two crock pots worth so far and need to do one more. this is great served on rolls.
**EDIT** I have to take back everything I said about this dish!! We had this as leftovers a day later and it was completely different after 24 hours. You could taste the ginger (athough I still think it needs a touch more than what's called for,) and the 1-1/2 tbsp of salt was perfect after I shredded the meat. I served it as mini-sliders on Hawaiian rolls, with a touch of hickory smoke BBQ sauce, the cabbage, and a slice of swiss cheese... Delicious Hawaiian goodness! Amazing after cooling down and sitting in the fridge for a few hours. Can you tell I loved this?? :) **EDIT**
Having lived in Memphis, Tn for the last 30 years and eating pork shoulder at seemingly almost every gathering, work luncheon, etc., I was excited about making this and was hoping for more of a Hawaiian flare, but that was not the case. You can't really taste the ginger at all but you can definitely taste the salt which I cut down to 1 and 1/2 tablespoons . The salt should probably be cut down to 1 tablespoon and the amount of ginger should be increased. The roast did cook beautifully in the crock pot (and once I shredded it the salty taste subsided quite a bit.) The best part of the dish for me was the cabbage which I shredded and just threw on top of the roast for the last hour of cooking. The cabbage soaked up the flavor of the roast quite well. I spooned it out before shredding the roast and saved it in a separate container to stay crisp. Thanks for the post.
Loved this! My boyfriend who grew up on Oahu could not stop raving about how amazing this was!
Tried this exactly as stated in the recipe. It was wonderful. Reminded us so much of what we used to eat when we lived in Hawaii. It was a little salty but that's how I remember it. We served it with white sticky rice. The family wants it again.:)
The tenderness was great and the flavor profile was good but severely lacking in volume. I would at least double all the ingredients. I also would leave out the cabbage.
