Mumu

A feast from an earth oven: pork, kaukau sweet potatoes, bananas and greens steamed over hot stones.

Prep: 30 min
Cooking: 3 h
Total: 3 h 30 min
Servings: 6

About the dish

Mumu is Papua New Guinea’s earth oven and the feast cooked in it. In a pit lined with stones heated in a fire, pork or chicken, kaukau sweet potatoes, taro, cooking bananas and greens are layered up, often doused with coconut milk, then covered with banana leaves and earth. After several hours the food comes out tender, moist and gently smoky. A mumu is prepared together for weddings, bride price ceremonies, funerals, holidays and village gatherings, and the sharing out of the food carries social meaning. A simplified version can be made in a home oven.

Main ingredients

pork
sweet potatoes
taro
cooking bananas
leafy greens
coconut milk

Papua New Guinea: Especially important in the Highlands provinces, where it accompanies the biggest celebrations.

Recipe

Mumu

https://foodmap.ominuvo.com/dish/mumu

Ingredients

6 servings

1.2 kg pork shoulder or belly, in large pieces
800 g sweet potatoes, in large chunks
500 g taro or potatoes, in large chunks
3 green cooking bananas (plantains), peeled and halved
400 g leafy greens (spinach, kale or pumpkin leaves)
400 ml coconut milk
2 tsp salt
banana leaves or aluminium foil

Method

Heat the oven to 170°C and rub the meat with salt.
Line a large, deep roasting tin with banana leaves or foil, leaving the edges overhanging.
Lay the meat in the bottom, then the sweet potatoes, taro and bananas, with the greens on top.
Pour over the coconut milk and sprinkle with the rest of the salt.
Fold the leaves or foil over, seal the tin tightly with a double layer of foil and bake for 3 hours.
Check that the meat is very tender and the root vegetables break apart under a fork, then serve everything together straight from the tin.