Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 9, Number 3, 1 March 1992 — Hawaiian Health Horizons [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiian Health Horizons

Tradiitional cooking - imu style

by Maleolm Naea Chun Program Specialist Office of Hawaiian Health Department of Health Traditional or native diets have sparked a lot of interest lately. In the course of these discussions, we are also rediscovering the methods of cooking that our ancestors used, whieh may be just as important a dec.ision as what we eat. We know that most foods were fresh and cooked immediately as storage posed a problem until refrigeration was introduced. Early written native accounts say that men did most of the cooking, although there were some occasions in whieh women tended the cooking. There were several ways food could he cooked: broiling on an open flame (ko'ala), roasting on embers (pulehu or lawalu), boiling in a wooden calabash using hot rocks (hakui or puholo), and oven steaming or baking (kalua or oma). The most frequent method was to kalua, whieh was done in imu or umu (underground ovens). Early Native Hawaiian scholar David Malo described this in his writings as an arduous, daily task for men because they had to make and tend two imu; one for men and the other for the women . The imu is an earthen pit lined with glowing hot rocks and non-poisonous vegetation whieh protects the food from soil and provides moisture during the cooking process. The food is contained in this wrapper and set on the glowing hot rocks. Pigs and other whole animals were filled with hot rocks to further the eooking process. Then, the imu is covered with more vegetation and soil to seal it. This steam-pressure-like cooking ean take up to several hours, depending upon the type and quantity of food. Imu cooked foods may be popular because the foods are moist and soft as opposed to broiling and roasting whieh may dry out tubers and meats. Imu cooked foods today are mostly feast foods that Native Hawaiians did not eat daily in large quantities, such as pork (pua'a) or salted fish whieh would have required 365 pigs, for every day of the year. Without refrigeration, such an eating habit would have been expensive in labor and resources. Even when

resources were abundant Native Hawaiians in traditional times did not feast to such excesses. According to Malo, even the court of a high chief sometimes went without adequate food supplies and people starved. Today, health conscious cooks know the value of self-contained steaming as a way of retaining important food nutrients and keeping meats lean and moist. Those who want to maintain the cultural practice of imu-style eooking should consider both modern slow cooking, but also have a small backyard imu that could eook smaller and less fatty foods such as ehiekens and turkeys, tubers and green vegetables. Commercial use of imu-style cooking has certain guidelines, particularly in regards to the method of cooking in the ground. These basic state requirements eall to mind the use of eommon sense in the preparation of any type of food. These are the five points of consideration:

1. Location: the imu should be free from anything that might contaminate it, be it sewers, drainage or dust. 2. Construction: not unlike a swimming pool, a modern, commercial imu should be lined with some heat resistant, non-absorbent and eleanable material. It should have a drain and drain line system for cleaning of the imu, and like a pool, it should be protected from weather and contamination. 3 Approved kitchen: meets all applicable provisions of the Public Health Regulations, Chapter 1-A. 4, whieh relate to a food preparation kitchen. 4. Sanitary facilities: running hot and cold water and proper disposal of waste and garbage as required. 5. Other facilities and operations: the use of cooking materials, whether they be organic (ti and banana leaves) or canvas, wood for the fire "shall not be capable of contaminating foods tnvir rocirinoc nnr nf imr»artinn ann

obnoxious odors or flavors. Also the "use of wire mesh or other fencing materials in direct contact with food is prohibited." These requirements are to ensure public safety and were not intended to ban this cultural practice. In fact, the state recently intervened to protect this cultural practice when federal inspectors closed down the commercial practice of imu cooking. It appeared the federal inspectors could not conceive that cooking in an underground oven could be sanitary or how important a cultural practice imu cooking is. Those who engage in backyard imu cooking should seriously consider the above factors in planning and using their imu, although it rnay not be necessary to create a "swimming pool" model. But it is important to keep things elean and safe.

Traditional Hawalian imu cooklng. Photo courtesv Btshop Museum