Before you wrap
Lau lau is the most labor-intensive traditional Hawaiian dish, and the result earns the work.
Pork and butterfish wrapped in taro leaves, wrapped again in ti leaves, steamed for 4 hours. The taro leaves become a spinach-like layer that integrates with the meat; the salt-cured butterfish gives the dish its richness. This is luau food, special-occasion food, and food worth doing right at least once.
Lau lau is one of the foundational dishes of traditional Hawaiian cuisine, alongside kalua pig, lomi lomi salmon, poi, and haupia. The name comes from the Hawaiian word for leaf: lau. The dish is named for what wraps it. The taro leaves cook into the protein and become part of the dish; the ti leaves are decorative and protective and get removed before eating.
If you are at a luau in Hawaii, lau lau is on the buffet line. If you are at Helena's Hawaiian Food in Honolulu, it is on the regular menu and the wait is worth it. The dish is alive, served the same way it has been served for generations, and it is one of the few traditional Hawaiian foods that mainland approximations cannot really do — the leaves are the constraint, and you cannot improvise around them.
What lau lau actually is
Three components, wrapped in two layers, steamed for hours.
- The protein: Pork shoulder, salt-cured butterfish (Hawaii's sablefish), and sometimes chicken or beef. The pork-and-butterfish version is the most traditional.
- The taro leaves (luau): Bright green, heart-shaped, the size of a hand. They cook down to a tender, spinach-like layer that integrates with the meat. This is the part that has to be cooked through.
- The ti leaves: Long, narrow, glossy. They wrap the bundle and protect it during cooking. They are not eaten; they get removed.
The whole thing is tied closed with kitchen twine or a strip of ti leaf and steamed for 3 to 4 hours over a low rolling boil. The result is a dense bundle of pork, fish, and tender greens, intensely seasoned by the salt cure on the butterfish and the Hawaiian salt on the pork. No other seasoning needed.
The taro-leaf rule
Taro leaves contain calcium oxalate, a natural compound found in many plants in the aroid family (taro is in the same family as elephant ear and dieffenbachia). Raw or undercooked taro leaves cause an itchy mouth feeling and, in larger quantities, throat irritation. Long cooking — the 4-hour steam — neutralizes the calcium oxalate completely.
This is why lau lau cannot be shortcutted. Steaming for 90 minutes might leave the pork undercooked and might leave residual oxalate in the leaves. Pressure-cooker shortcuts work (90 to 120 minutes at high pressure), but the traditional Hawaiian timing is 3 to 4 hours of steam, and there is a reason for it.
If you have ever eaten lau lau and felt an itchy or scratchy throat afterward, the leaves were undercooked. A properly cooked lau lau has a tender, spinach-like leaf texture and zero throat sensation. Cook it long enough.
Sourcing the ingredients
Fresh taro leaves. The hardest ingredient to source on the mainland. In Hawaii, every Asian market and most supermarkets stock them year-round. On the mainland, look in Filipino, Vietnamese, or Pacific-Islander groceries in larger cities. Frozen taro leaves are sold in specialty stores; they work but require thorough cooking. Spinach is not a real substitute — the dish becomes something else entirely.
Salted butterfish. Sold pre-salted at Hawaii grocery stores under the label “butterfish” (which means salted sablefish in this context, not the Atlantic butterfish). Look in vacuum-sealed packages in the seafood section. Mainland substitute: fresh sablefish or black cod with a 12-hour salt cure (rub with kosher salt, refrigerate uncovered overnight, rinse, pat dry).
Ti leaves. Easier to find frozen than taro leaves; many mainland Asian and Latin grocers stock frozen ti leaves. Hawaii Foodland sells fresh ti year-round.
Pork shoulder. Bone-in or boneless, cut into 4-oz chunks. Boston butt is what you want; the marbling holds up to long steaming.
Hawaiian salt. Coarse alaea (red Hawaiian salt) is the traditional choice. Coarse sea salt with a pinch of paprika is an acceptable substitute. The salt is the only seasoning on the pork; the butterfish is already salted from the cure.
The wrapping technique
Build the bundle in layers. Ti leaves on the bottom in a cross pattern, slightly overlapping. Taro leaves stacked on top of the ti leaves, forming a cup. Pork and butterfish in the center. Fold the taro leaves up over the protein, then fold the ti leaves around the taro bundle. Tie with twine or a strip of ti leaf.
The finished bundle is about the size of a softball, dense and tight. A loose wrap will fall apart during steaming; a tight wrap holds the dish together and keeps the steam locked in.
Steaming setup
A large bamboo steamer over a wok works for 6 bundles. A stovetop pasta pot with a steamer insert also works for 4 to 6 bundles. The constraint: the bundles need space between them so steam can circulate, and they should not touch the water.
Water at a low rolling boil for 4 hours. Check the water level every hour; if it gets low, top up with hot water from another kettle (cold water shocks the steam). Do not let the steamer go dry — the bundles will burn through the ti-leaf wrapper.
Serving lau lau
The traditional Hawaiian luau plate:
- One lau lau bundle, ti leaves removed
- Two scoops of white rice
- A small mound of poi (or two scoops if you have a real Hawaii appetite)
- A portion of lomi lomi salmon on the side
- A few pieces of haupia for dessert
For a less formal version, lau lau over rice with kim chi or pickled cabbage and a side of pipikaula. The dish is rich and intensely flavored; smaller portions go further than typical American dinner servings.
Where lau lau fits in Hawaiian food
Traditional Hawaiian cuisine has maybe a dozen foundational dishes. Kalua pig, lau lau, poi, lomi salmon, poke, haupia, opihi, limu salad, sweet potato, breadfruit, taro corm. Lau lau is one of the most labor-intensive of those — it takes hours to wrap and hours to cook — and one of the most distinctly Hawaiian. Mainland approximations exist (spinach-wrapped pork bundles in some Pacific-Islander restaurants), but the dish does not really translate without the taro leaves and the salt-cured butterfish.
If you are cooking for a Hawaii-themed dinner or a luau-style party, lau lau is the centerpiece. For the broader luau-menu context, see the Hawaii Thanksgiving menu, which covers how Hawaii households build holiday tables. For the taro context (lau lau is part of a larger Hawaiian taro tradition), see how to prep and cook taro.
Storage and reheats
Cooked lau lau bundles refrigerate for up to 4 days in their ti-leaf wrappers; the wrappers protect the protein and keep it moist. Reheat by re-steaming for 20 minutes, or by microwaving in a covered bowl with a splash of water (acceptable, not great).
Frozen, lau lau holds for up to 3 months. Defrost in the fridge overnight before re-steaming. The texture suffers slightly with freezing — the taro leaves get a little softer than fresh — but the flavor stays intact.
The dish does not improve dramatically after a day, unlike kalua pig (which gets better the next morning). Best eaten on the day you steam it.
