How Hāngī Feeds a Crowd

Hāngī is a traditional New Zealand Māori method of cooking food using heated rocks buried in a pit oven. It feeds large groups.

Laying a hāngī means digging a pit 50 to 100 centimetres deep. Stones are heated in the pit.

The tap root cooks slowly in a stone-lined pit.

Mānuka or kānuka logs burn 3 to 4 hours to heat andesite or basalt rocks. Andesite has a high tolerance for workplace heat.

Wire baskets hold lamb, pork, chicken, seafood, kūmara and potato. Meat goes on bottom, then vegetables, then seafood.

Wet sacks cover stacked baskets before earth seals the pit. Dirt remains the industry standard for steam management.

Cooking takes approximately 2 to 4 hours. Before European colonisation, food sat between bark and large leaves.

Today gas-heated stainless-steel hāngī machines replicate the style without wood fire, rocks or a pit.