Kauai History and Food Preparation

In Hawaiian society, it was the task of the men to prepare food and meals. Food preparation involved a variety of cooking methods including broiling, boiling, and roasting. Even though Hawaiians lacked metal utensils or ceramic containers, they used wooden bowls, gourds, stones, and the drying power of the sun with great skill.

Broiling food using hot coals (ko’ala) was a common way to cook a small amount of food that did not warrant use of a larger earth oven. Food was cooked by being spread out flat on a level bed of coals, or it was warmed over or near a fire and periodically turned. Breadfruit and unripe bananas could be broiled this way in their skins. Other foods that needed protection from burning and were wrapped in ti leaves (laulau).

Hawaiians boiled foods by dropping heated stones into a container filled with water rather than applying heat to the outside of the container. Food was placed in a bowl with water and the stones then added, or food and hot stones were placed in the container in alternating layers with the water added last. Many foods were cooked this way including greens, the tops of new taro leaves, or the tender ends of sweet potato vines.

Roasting was achieved in an earthen oven (imu). The process of cooking in the imu was called kalua. The imu consisted of a shallow pit dug in the ground filled with kindling, larger pieces of wood, and fist-sized stones arranged on top. When the fire was spent, the hot rocks were spread to create an even floor, and then covered with a layer of grass or leaves to prevent scorching of the food. Taro, breadfruit, sweet potatoes and other foods were arranged over the stones and covered with more ti leaves. On top of all this, a last layer of old mats and kapa was laid. Whole chickens, fowl, and pig were cooked whole with hot stones added to the abdominal cavities.