When I was growing up, my dad always used food-grade kosher rock salt for our bird. When I couldn’t find any locally, we used coarse sea salt instead. We rubbed handfuls of it inside the turkey, all over the skin and just under the skin as well, followed by the application of liquid smoke. Although it seems apparent, let me just affirm that this is not a recipe for those who must limit their sodium intake. Hawaiians like their food salty.
We placed the bird on a rack in a roasting pan and sealed it with foil. Near the end of its five hours in the oven, my house began to smell savory, smoky and, oddly enough, like bacon.
“That’s how you know it’s done,” Dad said.
Even after long roasting under cover, the turkey’s skin was golden brown and crisp in places. (Some Hawaiians eat the incredibly salty skin, but I don’t.) The meat fell easily from the bone, as it should. We let things cool down, then got to work shredding it to pieces.
Memories of all the time spent as a turkey shredder/helper in my parents’ kitchen came back as I worked with two forks, creating separate piles of dark meat and light meat.
Meanwhile, Dad had scooped out the lovely juices from the roasting pan and heated them in a pot on the stove, adding water and liquid smoke to achieve the right balance. We poured the two or three cups of the sauce all over our shredded turkey and took a bite. It had the same deep, smoky-salty flavor we remembered. The sauce is key: You want your turkey to be very moist with it.
Speaking of balance, kalua turkey must be served with short-grain rice to offset its saltiness. Hawaiians pair the main dish with a mild macaroni salad or coleslaw, but I love mine with the zingy dressing and won-ton crunch of my grandma’s Chinese chicken salad.
As the island locals say, it’s “ono”: Hawaiian for “delicious.”
RECIPE:
Kalua Turkey
More Thanksgiving stories from the Food section:
From California, the lighter side of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving in Maryland happens in — and around — the hearth
Secrets to a perfect pie crust
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