A sand Hangi - is it feasible?

[Totumpole]

i've been tasked with food prep for my close friends Stag do. THe main event (ie evening p**s up) is going to be a big fire on the beach, which led me to thinking about a HAngi on the beach.

Now I've never done a Hangi before, let alone a hangi with a twist. I'm thinking the principle should be the same, but my concern is that sand will be a far better insulator and might cook the meat too quickly.

THoughts, comments and experiences please (and any Hangi oven pictures to spice up the thread would be a bonus)

Thanks to all in advance.

Colin

 

[Huon]

I've never made on in the sand but I see no reason why not. See here:

http://stason.org/TULARC/travel/new-zealand/C4-2-4-New-Zealand-Laying-A-Hangi-p1.html

Cheers!

Huon (a Kiwi)

i've been tasked with food prep for my close friends Stag do. THe main event (ie evening p**s up) is going to be a big fire on the beach, which led me to thinking about a HAngi on the beach.

Now I've never done a Hangi before, let alone a hangi with a twist. I'm thinking the principle should be the same, but my concern is that sand will be a far better insulator and might cook the meat too quickly.

THoughts, comments and experiences please (and any Hangi oven pictures to spice up the thread would be a bonus)

Thanks to all in advance.

Colin

 

[Toddy]

Speak to Buckshot, sargey, Moduser or the other Mods who organise the hangi at the Moot every year. That's on sand

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Bushwhacker]

You want to watch out with beach rocks. Sand is no problem.

 

[Buckshot]

Absolutely no problem. If you make the sides too verticle as they dry out they tend to crumble in
You need to be careful of the rocks as has been said, we collect them from as high up the beech as possible to try to make sure they're as dry as poss. Some still explode. Make sure you don't stand too close especially in the first hour or so of heating the rocks - just in case
Otherwise have fun

Mark

 

[Ogri the trog]

How big a meal are you thinking of doing Colin?

The Hangi at the Moot gets dug out one day and fired & cooked the next, then filled back in a day after that - not something you could do on a whim in an afternoon.

Ogri the trog

 

[johnboy]

The last one I went to the fellas had used bits of steel as a substitute for rocks.. Worked well..

 

[sasquatch]

I'll try to dig out pics of one from nearly a year ago in sand dunes. Worked a treat...

 

[Totumpole]

Thanks for the input guys. Hope I can get this pulled off.

I've never made on in the sand but I see no reason why not. See here:

http://stason.org/TULARC/travel/new-zealand/C4-2-4-New-Zealand-Laying-A-Hangi-p1.html

Cheers!
Huon (a Kiwi)

Thats a great link - thank Huon

How big a meal are you thinking of doing Colin?

The Hangi at the Moot gets dug out one day and fired & cooked the next, then filled back in a day after that - not something you could do on a whim in an afternoon.

Ogri the trog

Its not going to be a monster Moot sized hangi, just for a dozen or so people. Despite this I think you are right - we will be hard pushed to have it all going in time for a meal before midnight without a couple of people missing he afternoon activities to create the hangi. Will a smaller hangi for a couple of reasonable sized joints (say a leg of lamb and a large bit of silverside) with some potato and veg still take a full on 6 hours to cook? May just have to push to make this Sundays activity!

Another question - can you use salt water in the hangi rather than lots of salt and lots of water?

 

[Ogri the trog]

At the Moot we aim for at least six hours to warm the pit and then six hours of cooking (even then we may have to finish things off over a barbeque!) - you'll be able to reduce the actual times but I still think you'll need 3 to 4 hours of burning and heating before 3 to 4 hours cooking.

I'm not sure where salt and water come into things as we tend to use a few litres of fruit juice to flavour/steam the Moot hangi.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[Huon]

At the Moot we aim for at least six hours to warm the pit and then six hours of cooking (even then we may have to finish things off over a barbeque!) - you'll be able to reduce the actual times but I still think you'll need 3 to 4 hours of burning and heating before 3 to 4 hours cooking.

I'm not sure where salt and water come into things as we tend to use a few litres of fruit juice to flavour/steam the Moot hangi.

ATB

Ogri the trog

I've never had to finish food off over the barbecue after a hangi. You guys must have been cooking massive joints, adding too much liquid or perhaps some heat escaped?

There is a very comprehensive hangi safety guide here that may help:

http://www.foodsmart.govt.nz/elibrary/food-safety-practices-hangi-guide/

Colin, one fun thing to do is to cook dessert in the hangi as well. Steamed puddings can work well. We've done them in the top layer of the hangi wrapped in tinfoil and muslin and they turned out really well. I think you could probably bake bananas with cinnamon, sugar and rum in the same place.

Cheers!

Huon

 

[Tony]

yeah, we cook a lot of food in the hang, enough or a couple of hundred people to have some, now and then we've had a lump of meat that needs finishing off or some veg that's not quite done, for the most part though it's well done straight out of the ground, this year will be the 10th moot hangi and all should be well, spreading it out over a couple of days makes it easier to get the heating up done early and enough time for the cooking.

 

[Huon]

yeah, we cook a lot of food in the hang, enough or a couple of hundred people to have some, now and then we've had a lump of meat that needs finishing off or some veg that's not quite done, for the most part though it's well done straight out of the ground, this year will be the 10th moot hangi and all should be well, spreading it out over a couple of days makes it easier to get the heating up done early and enough time for the cooking.

I think it makes sense to spread a hangi out. The pit for a large number of people would be a large one and the fire would be huge.

I'm guessing that the problems you've had with undercooked food have diminished with practice? Usually undercooked means either:

Too slow covering up
Too much water
Too few rocks (too much food for the rocks you have)
Steam escaping from the pit after you cover.

I guess you could also hit problems if you had very large chunks of meat or if your food layers are too thick or too many.

If you have enough stones, a good fire and cover up quickly enough you should be pretty safe.

 

[Tony]

yeah, it's got easier as the years have gone by, although the size increased as well for the first few years, I think that we did have too few risks at times and sometime the joints were rather big. It's all quite straight forward now though, we do the butchering workshops, get the meat into the fridge get the pit dug, fire set up etc, it all works very well. yeah, it's a big pit and it's a very big fire

 

[Huon]

yeah, it's got easier as the years have gone by, although the size increased as well for the first few years, I think that we did have too few risks at times and sometime the joints were rather big. It's all quite straight forward now though, we do the butchering workshops, get the meat into the fridge get the pit dug, fire set up etc, it all works very well. yeah, it's a big pit and it's a very big fire

It is really good to see hangis being used to cook over here too. They are a brilliant way to cook for large groups and used to be a fixture at pretty much every big party or gathering in NZ when I was a kid. School galas, rugby club dos and tangis were all excuses to dig a bit. I think that the flavour of food cooked this way is pretty unique.

Have you tried doing dessert in one yet? Steam puddings work really well.

 

[Tony]

He he, No, but it's an idea we could do another smaller one for it... and suggestions or will standard steam puddings be ok?

 

[Huon]

He he, No, but it's an idea we could do another smaller one for it...

Nooooooo! Just wrap it in a few layers of muslin and put it on the layer you do the veg in.