Chef Makoa
Faiʻai Eleni (Sāmoan Mackerel in Coconut Cream)
Sāmoa's faiʻai eleni turns tinned mackerel, onion, and coconut cream into a quick, generous supper, the pantry fish that feeds the whole ʻaiga beside talo, ʻulu, green banana, or rice.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Povi Masima (Sāmoan Salted Beef with Cabbage)
Created by
Sāmoa’s povi masima is hard-cured beef boiled soft, salt tamed by water and time, then finished with cabbage for the Sunday toʻonaʻi table.
Main Dishes
Polynesian, Samoan
Special Occasion
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
30 min
Active Time
3 hr cook•3 hr 30 min total
Yield8 servings
The first thing a Sāmoan auntie will teach you is not the beef. It’s the share. Povi masima, salted beef, belongs to Sāmoa’s table now, especially the toʻonaʻi, the big Sunday meal after church, where the whole aiga, the family, eats from one spread and nobody watches the pot like it’s only for them.
This isn’t deep food in the canoe-crop way. Talo, ʻulu, banana, coconut, those are the old relatives that came by canoe. Beef came later, through ships and trade and hard history, but Sāmoa took that salted brisket and made it sit beside the old foods until it became comfort, feast food, make-ahead food, the salty piece that asks for plain talo under it.
The work is humble. Soak if it’s too salty. Boil it slow until the fat goes soft and glossy. Change the water if it bites too hard. Add cabbage near the end so it drinks the beef but doesn’t disappear. Eat what you have, yeah? If the table has talo, good. If it has rice, good. The point is the aiga fed.
Across the Triangle, the cousins know this turn too: Tonga folds corned beef into lū pulu and kapisi pulu, Sāmoa has palusami fai pisupo with tinned beef, Hawaiʻi eats corned beef and cabbage in the local plate-lunch world. Same ocean family, different history in each bowl. Name the hand. This one is Sāmoan.
Povi masima is a post-contact Sāmoan food, born from nineteenth-century trade, mission, and colonial supply lines that brought cattle, salt beef, and later tinned meats into Pacific kitchens. It sits on the other side of the deep-food doorway from canoe crops like talo and ʻulu, but Sāmoan families made it their own at the toʻonaʻi table, where salted beef, cabbage, and taro became a Sunday comfort. Its cousins across Polynesia show the same pattern: Tonga’s lū pulu and kapisi pulu, Sāmoa’s palusami fai pisupo, and Hawaiʻi’s local corned beef plates carry later history beside older foodways.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
povi masima, salted beef brisket or salt-cured beef
Quantity
4 pounds
rinsed
cold water
Quantity
as needed
for soaking and simmering
yellow onion
Quantity
1 large
quartered
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
lightly smashed
black peppercorns
Quantity
1 teaspoon
bay leaves (optional)
Quantity
2
green cabbage
Quantity
1 large head
cut into 8 wedges
talo (taro), ʻulu (breadfruit), green banana, or rice
Quantity
2 pounds
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| povi masima, salted beef brisket or salt-cured beefrinsed | 4 pounds |
| cold waterfor soaking and simmering | as needed |
| yellow onionquartered | 1 large |
| garlic cloveslightly smashed | 4 |
| black peppercorns | 1 teaspoon |
| bay leaves (optional) | 2 |
| green cabbagecut into 8 wedges | 1 large head |
| talo (taro), ʻulu (breadfruit), green banana, or ricefor serving | 2 pounds |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 8-quart stockpot or Dutch oven
- •Long tongs for lifting the beef
- •Large serving bowl or carved wooden kumete
Instructions
- 1
Taste the salt
Rinse the povi masima well, then cut a tiny piece from an edge and simmer it in a little water for 5 minutes. Taste that water and meat. If it is salty but friendly, keep going. If it grabs your tongue hard, soak the beef in cold water for 2 to 4 hours, changing the water once.
- 2
Start the pot
Put the beef in a heavy pot and cover it with fresh cold water by 2 inches. Add the onion, garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaves if using. Bring it up slowly, then lower to a gentle simmer. Skim the gray foam from the top so the broth stays clean.
- 3
Boil it tender
Simmer 2 1/2 to 3 hours, partly covered, until a fork slides into the thickest part with almost no fight and the fat looks soft and glossy. Keep the water just moving, not rolling angry. If the broth tastes too salty halfway through, pour off half and replace it with fresh hot water. No shame in that. Salt beef needs correcting by hand.
- 4
Add the cabbage
Lift the beef to a board and keep it warm. Add the cabbage wedges to the pot liquor and simmer 10 to 15 minutes, just until the leaves slump, shine, and hold together when lifted. You want cabbage that drank the beef, not cabbage that gave up and vanished.
- 5
Slice and share
Slice the povi masima across the grain into thick pieces, or pull it into soft chunks if the brisket is very tender. Lay it with the cabbage in a wide bowl, spoon a little pot liquor over the top for gloss, and serve with talo, ʻulu, green banana, or rice. The starch is not decoration. It is the steady hand that carries the salt.
Chef Tips
- •Povi masima should have fat. Lean salted beef goes dry and mean in the pot. Ask for brisket, navel, or another fatty cured cut if your market gives you a choice.
- •The salt level changes by brand and butcher, so taste early and adjust with water. No blame the beef. The cook is the one who listens to the pot.
- •Serve it with plain talo if you can. The taro is the elder at the table, and that quiet starch makes the salty beef make sense.
- •If all you can find is corned beef brisket, use it. It will be softer and less hard-cured than island povi masima, but the weeknight table is real too.
Advance Preparation
- •Cook the povi masima one day ahead and cool it in its cooking liquid. The next day, lift off any excess fat, rewarm gently, and cook the cabbage fresh.
- •If your salted beef is very strong, soak it overnight in the refrigerator, changing the water once before cooking.
- •Leftovers keep 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator with a little pot liquor. Reheat gently so the beef stays soft.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 390g)
Calories
570 calories
Total Fat
28 g
Saturated Fat
10 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
17 g
Cholesterol
145 mg
Sodium
1800 mg
Total Carbohydrates
48 g
Dietary Fiber
9 g
Sugars
5 g
Protein
29 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from The Toʻonaʻi: Sāmoa's Sunday Table
Browse the full collection
Chef Makoa
Faiʻai Feʻe (Sāmoan Octopus in Coconut Cream)
Sāmoa's faiʻai feʻe is reef octopus simmered patient in fresh coconut cream, rich and glossy enough to eat beside talo at toʻonaʻi, with the ocean feeding the whole aiga.
Chef Makoa
Luau Pisupo (Sāmoan Corned-Beef Taro-Leaf Parcel)
Sāmoa's taro-leaf parcel made generous with pisupo, coconut cream, and time: a toʻonaʻi kind of comfort, with Tonga's lū pulu and Hawaiʻi's laulau sitting close as cousins.
Chef Makoa
Oka Iʻa (Sāmoan Raw Fish in Coconut Cream)
Sāmoa’s oka iʻa bathes fresh fish in citrus and peʻepeʻe, fresh coconut cream, then runs tomato, cucumber, and onion through it cold. Same fish as Tahiti’s ʻia ota, different bowl.