Abstract
Food preparations, culinary-related Proto-Polynesian and Proto-Nuclear-Polynesian words and material culture associated with cookery processes from West and East Polynesia provided the data
base. This study looks at the Polynesian pudding from an interdisciplinary point of view using ethnography, linguistics and archaeology.
The specific recipes from individual Polynesian island groups were standardised. The data indicates that several key processing techniques occur that have a widespread distribution during prehistory. The distribution of the individual standardised recipes, coupled with the archaeological and linguistic information, relate the culinary utensils to the main processing steps thus providing definitive evidence for the Polynesian pudding as a culinary practice during prehistory.
Two main issues under investigation in this study were: To define and determine the antiquity of the Polynesian pudding preparation. From the Samoan case study, 'What elaborate culinary processes continue to the present day and why do they persist?
In making the Polynesian pudding, a deliberate set of processing techniques were undertaken requiring certain cooking utensils, the antiquity of the preparation stretching back more than 3000 years. The Samoan case study demonstrates that continuity or conservatism far out-weighs change in this aspect of Polynesian culinary history.