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This page is about the cuisine of the New Zealand Māori. For the cuisine of Māori from the Cook Islands, see Cook Islands cuisine.

A Māori hangi, a traditional method of cooking food.

Māori cuisine (Māori: Kai Māori) refers to the culinary traditions and practices of the Māori people of New Zealand. Māori food culture is derived from the traditional culinary practices of the Polynesians within the tropical pacific that has been adapted to New Zealand’s seasonal climate conditions. Māori cuisine has been heavily influenced by other cultures, with the most notable influence coming from British cuisine.

Overview

Polynesian settlement

The Māori people are descendants of Polynesian settlers who arrived to New Zealand as a result of mass migration events from the Southern Cook Islands and the Society Islands. The Polynesian settlers brought numerous plant and animal species with them, but New Zealand’s temperate, seasonal climate meant that very few of the plant species introduced survived. The food crops that did survive were sweet potato (kūmara), taro (taro), yam (uwhi), calabash (hue) and ti (tī pore). Of the crops that were introduced by Māori, Kūmara had the widest distribution, growing as far south as Banks Peninsula and thus become the dominant crop grown by Māori. The southernmost limits for the other crops included the Cook Strait for taro and calabash, with taro being grown in the north-western South Island. Yams being grown around Tolaga Bay and ti growing in a few favourable sites in the Northland Peninsula. Forests were cleared and the land was extensively modified to grow many of the tropical cultigens. Even though they failed to thrive in the new climate, the names of coconut (niu), breadfruit (kuru) and even rice (ari), a crop once cultivated by the ancestors of the Polynesians in Southeast Asia continued to be passed down through oral tradition.

Cooking and utensils

Māori women cooking food in a hot spring.

Hangi were also used in processing. The long cooking time was used to convert the saccharine matter of Cordyline roots into a molasses-like pulp, detoxify karaka kernels and for extracting seed oils.

Ingredients

Cultivated Plants

These are the plants that were cultivated by Māori for food in New Zealand. Many of these plants were cultigens brought over to New Zealand from tropical Polynesia, though some native plants were also cultivated for food. In Māori mythology, cultivated crops fell under the god Rongo.

• Sweet potato (Kūmara)
• Taro (Taro)
• Calabash (Hue)
• Purple yam (Uwhi)
• Ti (Tī pore)
• New Zealand laurel (Karaka)
• Cabbage tree (Tī kōuka)
• Dwarf cabbage tree (Tī koraha)
• New Zealand nightshade (Poroporo)
• New Zealand rock-lily (Rengarenga)

• Crops cultivated by Māori
• 
  Kūmara (sweet potato).
• 
  Taro plant.
• 
  Uwhi (purple yam).

Gathered Plants

These were plants that were gathered for food by Māori. In mythology, all gathered plant foods fell under the god Haumia.

Fruit and seeds

• Bush lawyer (Tātarāmoa)
• Dwarf mingimingi (Pātotara)
• Fools beech (Tāwaniwini)
• Hinau (Hīnau)
• Kahikatea (Kahikatea)
• Kiekie (Kiekie)
• Prickly heath (Mingimingi)
• Ramarama (Ramarama)
• Swamp maire (Maire tawake)
• Tawa (Tawa)
• Tree fuchsia (Kōtukutuku)
• Tutu (Tutu)
• Wineberry (Makomako)

• Gathered fruits
• 
  Tutu fruit. The extracted juice was used in various meals.
• 
  Developing fruit of Kiekie.
• 
  Fleshy cones of Kahikatea.

Leaves

Leafy vegetables (Korari)

• Marsh yellow cress (Hania)
• New Zealand bitter cress (Panapana)
• New Zealand dandelion (Tohetaka)
• New Zealand ice plant (Horokaka)
• New Zealand sow thistle (Pūhā)
• New Zealand spinach (Kōkihi)
• New Zealand watercress (Matangoa)
• Pratia (Pānakenake)
• Punui (Pūnui)

• Gathered leaves
• 
  Pūhā.

Roots

Roots (Aka)

• Black orchid (Perei)
• Bracken fern (Aruhe)
• Bulrush (Raupō)
• Forest cabbage tree (Tī ngahere)
• King fern (Para)
• Mountain cabbage tree (Tōī)
• New Zealand bindweed (Pōhue)
• New Zealand horned orchid (Perei)
• River bulrush (Kukuraho)
• Striped sun orchid (Māikaika)

• Gathered roots
• 
  Bracken fern, an important wild food source for Māori.

Fungi

Fungi (Harore)

• Agaricus sp. (Tipitaha)
• Basket fungus (Paruwhatitiri)
• Coral tooth fungus (Pekepeke-kiore)
• Honey mushroom (Hawai)
• Native truffles (Panako)
• Polyporus sp. (Popoia)
• Poplar mushroom (Tawaka)
• Puffball (Pukurau)
• Scalycap mushroom (Harore)
• Snow fungus (Tūpā)
• Wood ear fungus (Hakeke)

• Gathered fungi
• 
  Hawai mushrooms.
• 
  Hakeke mushrooms.
• 
  Tawaka mushrooms.

Miscellaneous

A list of plants that don’t fit either category, usually medicinal plants.

• Horopito (Horopito) (Herb)
• Kawakawa (Kawakawa) (Herb)
• Manuka (Mānuka) (Sap)
• New Zealand Christmas tree (Pōhutukawa) (Honey)
• New Zealand flax (Harakeke) (Honey)
• New Zealand honeysuckle (Rewarewa) (Honey)
• New Zealand mint (Hīoi) (Herb)
• Northern rata (Rātā) (Honey)

Preservation

Rua Kūmara, storage pits dug out into a sloping hill used to preserve kūmara.

Māori had utilised numerous preservation methods. In response to New Zealand’s seasonal climate, in contrast to the tropics, preservation of food was employed to provide a constant source of food throughout the winter months. Preserving food also provided a realible source during times of war or famine.

Post-contact period

The first sighting of New Zealand and subsequent contact by European sailors had greatly influenced and changed the Māori diet. European crops were eagerly adopted by Māori as they were more adapted to New Zealand’s climate and often provided higher yields than the original cultigens. The most notable example being the Potato

Dishes

Pre-European

This describes a list of dishes made by Māori before European contact:

• Ika mata – Fish that’s cut and eaten raw.
• Hangi – A traditional cooking method involving food placed on hot rocks within a pit and buried in earth.
• Pehu – Dumplings made from the cooked mashed corm of Taro.
• Rehia – A jelly made from extracted fruit juice thickened by carrageenan seaweed.
• Roroi – Pudding made from a starchy vegetable that’s grated, usually sweet potato.
• Toroi – Seafood and leafy vegetables fermented.
• Waiharo – Gruel made from the paste of Hinau berries.

Post-European

This describes a list of dishes made by Māori after European contact, usually made with ingredients and cooking techniques introduced by foreign settlers:

• Boil up – A soup made from pork bone broth, containing a variety of vegetables and dumplings.
• Kānga pirau – Porridge made from fermented corn.
• Kānga pungarehu – Corn cooked in ash, served as a porridge.
• Kānga waru – Pudding made from grated corn and sweet potato, usually baked in corn husks.
• Parāoa parai – Leavened bread cooked by deep frying.
• Rēwena bread – Sourdough bread made from potatoes.
• Takakau – Unleavened bread.

See also

• New Zealand cuisine
• List of Australian and New Zealand dishes
• Native Hawaiian cuisine