Food Breadfruit is a
staple food in many tropical regions. Most breadfruit varieties produce fruit throughout the year. Both ripe and unripe fruit have culinary uses; unripe breadfruit is cooked before consumption. Before being eaten, the fruit is roasted, baked, fried, or boiled. When cooked, the taste of moderately ripe breadfruit is described as potato-like, or similar to freshly baked bread. One breadfruit tree can produce each season. Because breadfruit trees usually produce large crops at certain times of the year, the preservation of harvested fruit is an issue. One traditional preservation technique known throughout Oceania is to bury peeled and washed fruits in a leaf-lined pit, where they
ferment over several weeks and produce a
sour, sticky paste. Stored in this way, the product may endure a year or more. Some pits are reported to have produced edible contents more than 20 years after burial. Remnants of pit-like formations with stone scattered around (presumed to line them) are often clues indicating prehistoric settlement to archaeologists studying precontact history of
French Polynesia. In addition to being edible raw, breadfruit can be dried and ground into flour and the seeds can be cooked for consumption.
Southeast Asia, Pacific Islands and Madagascar The seedless breadfruit is found in
Brunei,
Indonesia, and
Malaysia, where it is called . It is commonly made into
fritters and eaten as snacks. Breadfruit fritters are sold as local street food. In the
Philippines, breadfruit is known as in
Tagalog and in the
Visayan languages. It is also called (also spelled ), along with the closely related
Artocarpus camansi, and the
endemic Artocarpus blancoi ( or ). All three species, as well as the closely related
jackfruit, are commonly used much in the same way in savory dishes. The immature fruits are most commonly eaten as (cooked with
coconut milk). In the Hawaiian staple food called , the traditional ingredient of mashed
taro root can be replaced by, or augmented with, mashed breadfruit ( in
Hawaiian). The resulting "breadfruit poi" is called .
South Asia In
Sri Lanka, it is cooked as a curry using coconut milk and spices (which becomes a side dish) or boiled. Boiled breadfruit is a famous main meal. It is often consumed with scraped coconut or
coconut sambol, made of scraped coconut, red chili powder, and salt mixed with a dash of
lime juice. A traditional sweet snack made of finely sliced, sun-dried breadfruit chips deep-fried in coconut oil and dipped in heated treacle or sugar syrup is known as
rata del petti. In India,
fritters of breadfruit, called
paatponnos/nirponnos in
Konkani or
kadachakka varuthath in
Malayalam, are a local delicacy in coastal
Goa,
Karnataka and
Kerala. In
Seychelles, it was traditionally eaten as a substitute for rice, as an accompaniment to the mains. It would either be consumed boiled (
friyapen bwi) or grilled (
friyapen griye), where it would be put whole in the wood fire used for cooking the main meal and then taken out when ready. It is also eaten as a dessert, called
ladob friyapen, where it is boiled in coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt.
Caribbean and Latin America In
Belize, the Mayan people call it
masapan. In
Puerto Rico, breadfruit is called
mapén,
panapén or
pana, for short, although the name
pana is often used to refer to
breadnut, seeds of which have traditionally been boiled, peeled, and eaten whole. In some inland regions, it is also called
mapén and used to make
pasteles and
alcapurrias. Breadfruit is often served boiled with a mixture of sauteed
bacalao (salted cod fish), olive oil, and onions, mostly as
tostones where about 1-inch chunks are fried, lighty flattened, and fried again.
Mofongo de panapén is fried breadfruit mashed with olive oil, garlic, broth, and
chicharrón.
Rellenos de panapén is the breadfruit version of
papa rellena. Dipping sauce can be made from boiled, ripe breadfruit, similar to
chutney, using spices, sesame seeds, herbs, lentil, coconut milk, and fruit. Both ripe and unripe fruit are boiled together and mashed with milk and butter to make
pastelón de panapén, a dish similar to
lasagna. Ripe breadfruit is used in desserts, including
flan de pana (breadfruit custard).
Cazuela is a crustless pie with ripe breadfruit, spices, raisins, coconut milk, and sweet potatoes. Breadfruit flour is sold all over Puerto Rico and used for making bread, pastries, cookies, pancakes, waffles, crepes, and
almojábana. A
Breadfruit Festival in which traditional and novel breadfruit-based dishes are sold is celebrated on the last Friday of August in Barrio
Mariana, Humacao, Puerto Rico. In the
Dominican Republic, it is called
buen pan or "good bread". Breadfruit is not popular in Dominican cookery and is used mainly for feeding pigs. In
Barbados, breadfruit is boiled with salted meat and mashed with butter to make breadfruit coucou. It is usually eaten with saucy meat dishes. In
Haiti, steamed breadfruit is mashed to make a dish called
tonmtonm which is eaten with a sauce made with okra and other ingredients, such as fish and crab. In
Trinidad and Tobago, breadfruit is boiled, then fried and eaten with saucy meat dishes like curried duck. In
Jamaica, breadfruit is boiled in soups or roasted on stove top, in the oven or on wood coal. It is eaten with the national dish
ackee and salt fish. The ripe fruit is used in salads or fried as a side dish. In
St. Vincent and the Grenadines, it is eaten boiled in soups, roasted, and fried. Roasted breadfruit, served with fried jackfish, is the country's national dish. The ripe fruit is used as a base to make drinks, cakes, and ice cream.
Timber and other uses Breadfruit was widely used in a variety of ways among
Pacific Islanders. Its lightweight wood (
specific gravity of 0.27) is resistant to
termites and
shipworms, so it is used as timber for structures and
outrigger canoes. The parts of the fruits that are discarded can be used to feed livestock. The leaves of breadfruit trees can also be browsed by cattle. Breadfruit, however, exudes latex upon harvesting, causing the plant sap to adhere to the surface, leading to the staining of the epicarp. Proper methods of breadfruit harvesting usually include the process of draining the latex and disposing of it. Sticky white sap or latex is present in all parts of the breadfruit tree and has been used for glue, caulk, and even chewing gum.
Native Hawaiians used its sticky
latex to
trap birds, whose
feathers were made into
cloaks. == In culture ==