Tahitian mahi (breadfruit paste)

A Tahitian name and account

The Mahina educational booklet calls mahi a fermented paste made from breadfruit. FAO’s regional comparison also lists mahi for Tahiti. The supplied association with the Cook Islands was not verified in this source review, so this account is limited to Tahiti and the Society Islands. These names do not establish one interchangeable island recipe.

What the heritage account describes

The booklet shows the breadfruit was peeled, cut and cored, wrapped in Cordyline leaves, and stored in an earth-covered pit for several months. It says the paste was later cooked in a Tahitian oven and eaten during scarcity. This is a description of reported practice, not a set of instructions for making it at home.

What remains unknown

The passage shows no batch size, yield, pit dimensions, monitoring, endpoint, storage conditions or safety controls. It does not identify a starter or microorganisms, explain the role of the leaves, or document a household adaptation. FAO’s detailed 34-day sequence is specifically Samoan and does not fill these gaps for Tahiti.

Storage and evidence limits

The booklet shows storage for several months. That historical account is not a validated shelf-life limit or evidence that a batch is safe. The neighboring image caption names a mahi pit at Mangareva; it does not establish that the pictured location or method is Tahitian. The public gallery shows comparison breadfruit preparations, not a photograph documenting this Tahitian method.

Open questions in the sources

The Cook Islands association and Tahitian seasonal calendar remain not yet checked.

No source-reviewed household recipe, process controls, endpoint, or qualified food-safety assessment is available.

The function of Cordyline leaves and the fermentation mechanism are not established.

Ragone’s 2002 article body was inaccessible in the audit; only metadata and abstract were inspected.

The cited sources reviewed provide no image identifying the Tahitian mahi method or permission to reproduce such a source image. The public gallery uses attributed comparison photographs with reuse rights unstated.