Breadfruit pit fermentation (ma, masi, popoi)
Fermentación del fruto del pan en pozos (ma, masi, popoi)
- Date
- c. century XIII (tradición anterior) · confidence low
- Place
- Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia
- Credited to
- Polynesian and Micronesian peoples
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Breadfruit pulp was wrapped in leaves and buried in lined pits, where it fermented and kept for months or years. This sour paste, called ma or masi, served as a reserve against cyclones and droughts and as provisions for voyages.
Storage pits are known from the archaeology of the Marquesas, Hawaii and Micronesia and from 18th-century accounts; their exact chronology is imprecise. The date is a broad estimate and the place representative.
What it led to
- a long-term food reserve on cyclone-prone islands
- provisions for ocean voyages
- cooking with fermented breadfruit paste and dishes such as Marquesan popoi