How did early Maori make fire and cook food? By Aimee and Jorja

How did Maori cook food Maori cooked food by using a hangi. It is very hard to prepare a hangi.

How did Maori make fire? Maori made fire by rubbing two sticks together.The wood used is the Kaikomako.

Steps to make a hangi The Cooking Oven is Prepared The Wood & Stones Prepared The Food is Prepared

The Stones are Super Heated The Basket is Prepared

More food is added Water splashed over the hangi to cause steam & covered Hangi is left to cook 3-4 hours

Then the Sacking is removed Then the Hangi is exposed Hangi well cooked ready to serve

Some times during the making of the Hangi, sticks were stacked or placed across the rim of the Hangi to to prevent crushing from the weight of the earth on top. A process or term we call rakau korehina. These days, there are many different Hangi methods used. Wire baskets became widely used in the early 19th century with sacking and cloth replacing leaves and bark as the covering of choice. Hangi Information

Cooking was not done in the main house, but in specially built sheds called whanau or kauta, or the food was simply cooked out in the open. Food was generally eaten in the open, or in a whanau. Distinguished visitors, if sleeping in the large important meeting house, might be served with food in the house, but the food must be placed in the narrow space left in the center as you enter the door

Digging the pit You dig the Hangi pit according to the size of the basket you are laying or the number of people you are catering for. Super heated stones are used as the cooking tool although alternative metals can be used. Wire baskets are used to hold the food. Traditionally it is the men Ko na ira Tane who put the Hangi's down as Wahine (women) aren't allowed to take part in this part of the preparation. The men and the woman work together in preparing the food for the Hangi.

Things that are cooked in a hangi. people cook vegetables such as kumara (sweet potato), pumpkin, carrot, potato, onions and cabbage are normally Cooked in the hangi.

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