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How did they cook without a grill? Not just what they cooked intrigues me, but how they did it. I acan look at recipes all day and try to understand them. But I was in person and was taught how to do this by my own family. I am a Culinary Arts major and this was an experience that I will never forget. Enjoy

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The way I was taught, was that you made a big hole in the ground and instead of piling the dirt in one pile, you would make a ring around the pit.

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You would gather all the wood that you needed and strategically place them in a circular foundation and climbing your way up to the top with smaller pieces. This is not the best picture but you get the basic shape of what I am describing.

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After you place the wood, you then pick the perfect stones to place around the wood. You would want the roundest and the least damaged rocks. Stack them until they are all in place around the wood and that there is no wood showing. Once again not the greatest picture but you get the jist of what I'm saying.

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After placing the wood and rock, you have created a chimney. You light the wood and as it burns and turns to ash and ember, you heat those rocks until they are a glowing red. That is you r heat source to last up to 8 hours or more.

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After the wood has burned and all your left with is rock and embers, you spread the rocks out to make a level surface so that the food will not fall or roll when placed in the Imu.

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When cooking in an Imu, you are basically cooking in an oven. But why is there more flavor than your everyday oven? The answer is the banana stumps. The stumps provide a sweet and smokey flavor and the sweat from the stumps evaporate into steam and that gets soaked into what ever you are cookin in the Imu.

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After placing the stumps down you then put banana leaves to help keep the food from the stones and to help keep it from burning.

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I cannot speak for other people but the Imu I was invited to help make we made Kalua pork, Lau Lau, Samoan Palusami, Sweet potatoes (puple), and Taro. I do not think it was traditional but man it sure was delicious. We used pork butt and flavored it with herbs and spices but mostly salt.

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Ater you have placed your food, you must put more banana leaves on top to capture any moisture from escaping. They are your lid to the imu.

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I was taught to put a burlap sack soaked in salt water over the banan leaves and then put a tarp over the top of that. Then you cover/tuck in the sides of the tarp with your dirt ring that you had put there from the beginning. This helps keep the heat and moisture in without drying out the food.

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After at least 8 hours of cooking, you take the dirt away from the edge of the tarp and you uncover the food from the tarp, sacks, and banana leaves from the top. Take all of your food out and prepare for the meal.