Kalua Pork - PKB style

[Potkettleblack]

They announced a luau themed pot luck at work, and, remembering my time in Hawaii, the luau pig seemed a good, low carb option. The other idea was spam cauliflower fried rice, and I didn’t think I could get, much less maintain, the proper wok hei to meet my standards, so it had to be the pork.

Dry brine with APL’s Four Seasons. Four days, a week, I dunno. I don’t carry a stopwatch.

The flavor of kalua pork is from kiawe wood, which is related to mesquite. So, a tube of BBQrs Delight Mesquite Flavor Wood on the grill next to the pork. The rest of the flavor comes from banana leaves. So, given that pellets are not that strong for flavor, I went unwrapped until the stall, then wrapped with banana leaves. Total Grilla time was 11 hours. From the Grilla, straight to a pleated vacuum seal, a shock, and the fridge. That was Saturday.

Today, brought to work, Sous Vide to heat up, arrange the plating with fresh banana leaves. Then the cooked banana leaves. Then pull the bone, then pull the pork.

It was a huge hit.

[Polarbear777]

Very nice!

[Jerod Broussard]

Forget "eat your greens," just eat what's in the greens!

[Frozen Smoke]

Very nice job! Never seen banana leaves in any stores around here.

[Frozen Smoke]

Yikes! $9 a lb. for nanna leaves? For $9 a lb. it needs to come from a cow or a pig and taste really good!

[Potkettleblack]

I live in a neighborhood with a lot of Mexican folks. Found em for $2.50 a pack in the frozen aisle of the mid sized neighborhood grocery. Asian supermarkets probably have em as well. Goya brand. O boya.

[ColonialDawg]

Frozen isle of my local Wal-Mart has them.

[RonB]

I could see someone going bananananas over this.

[Polarbear777]

Just leaves it alone will ya?

[Potkettleblack]

My coworkers said this had a lot of appeal, but making it was no skin off my teeth.

[MBMorgan]

Very nice!

[BBQ_Steve-O]

I love kalua pork... but the Joule in the cooler? You just solved a big problem for me! Thanks, brother!! What was you cooking temp?

[Potkettleblack]

I think it was 225-275 on the Grilla. After the wrap, I punched it up to 250 then 275. It never did get to 203. For retherm, 135 then 140, but 135 would have been fine.

[BBQ_Steve-O]

Nice. Thanks!

[gcdmd]

That's beautiful, PKB. Years ago I made javelina meat palatable by wrapping it in banana leaves and slow cooking it in my old oil drum grill/smoker.

Me ke aloha pau ole.

[customtrim]

I will sell you some

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/the-pit-mastery-program/slaws-salads-amp-other-veggies/477583-show-us-your-herb-garden/page3

[BBQ_Steve-O]

Very cool! I'm impressed!!!

[gcdmd]

I have a couple of small stands of dwarf banana trees. The leaves are broad but not very long. To make them more malleable you can blanch, steam or nuke them for a few seconds. I haven't tried grilling or smoking them. I learned the nuking trick from an old Syrian lady who taught my wife and me how to make stuffed grape leaves.

I haven't tried freezing the leaves, either, but that might work.

[Potkettleblack]

Since these were nicely folded in the frozen section, I’d bet they were steam blanched where they came from before folding and freezing. But cryoblanching seems like it would work for the home user.

[Sweaty Paul]

Gorgeous

[fzxdoc]

Great cook and great writeup too, Potkettleblack . Sounds like you're giving your Grilla a good workout. It's always fun to hear how folks use their new toys.

How long did that heat up take?

Kathryn

[fzxdoc]

Thanks, Potkettleblack , for the additional info. I guess I don't understand the safety aspect of SV reheating, since it basically keeps the food in the 40° to 140° range for a long time. I guess it's no different than SVing the pork the first time around at 135° though.

K.

Kathryn

[Potkettleblack]

The only difference would be that I'd already effectively pasteurized the food with the initial cook. I could have pulled it directly off the grill, and vac sealed flat and reheated pretty quickly, but that would have opened it to more bacteria, which I think is always a concern with pulled meats. Or should be.

Thrice through the zone. One traditional, one shock, one sous. I think I was okay.

[fzxdoc]

Potkettleblack, I can't seem to find anything that addresses safety issues with Sous Vide Reheating. Chef Steps just says "do it!".

[Potkettleblack]

fzxdoc Needed more room for discussion.
First, I think the Chef Steps folks are a wee bit to the cowboy side of food safety for my taste. Or at least when I'm wearing my food safety police hat.
Second, if Baldwin wasn't worried about it in SVR, I'm not overly concerned.

Last: I was following pretty much the best Norm King practices:

http://sousvideresources.com/2016/07/25/food-safety-what-you-should-know/

I didn't sous vide this to start. I took it to about 198 internal, IIRC. Maybe only 195*. So, by any USDA inspector, dead on the outside and inside. But, vac'd while still hot preserved the large portion of that dead on the inside and outside. Since I only really touched the leaves, I didn't contaminate the pork by handling it between the grill and the bag. Literally seconds, as I bagged it right off the grill and had it vac'd within a minute or so, then into the shock. took it all the way down to cold to touch and firm to pinch. Dunno if that was 40* internal, but, as a government employee (not in the USDA, mind you), good enough for government work. I think, at the end of the day, autolysis was a bigger concern than pathogenic contamination, but I don't think I was holding it in the autolysis zone anywhere near long enough to get there.

Another Norm post. https://lipavi.com/sous-vide-tempera...me-the-basics/

AKA: How I learned to relax and not have explosive episodes every now and again.

[EdF]

Some of us do have those explosive tendencies!

[Potkettleblack]

I've done it to myself. I don't cook <129 anymore and I've put away my dry age kit until I can put it in the real fridge... Oooo... we have a real fridge at work... I suspect they'd be upset if I commandeered a portion of it for dry aging with the SteakAger.

[fzxdoc]

Wow those are two really good articles, Potkettleblack . Thank you so much for the links. I'm not so concerned about cooking Sous Vide, since as Norm King says in his article, those safety practices are well established. But I've never been able to wrap my brain around the saftey of reheating with sous vide, as it is not held long enough for pasturization. Chef Steps recommends reheating anything, (flash chilled previously or not) with sous vide.

I'm going to take this discussion to the sous vide section where I should have started it in the first place.

Kathryn