What is Hangi in Maori culture?

Best answer:
Answer by Ted H
Hāngi (pronounced [ˈhaːŋi]) is a traditional New Zealand Māori method of cooking food using heated rocks buried in a pit oven still used for special occasions.

To "lay a hāngi" or "put down a hāngi" involves digging a pit in the ground, heating stones in the pit with a large fire, placing baskets of food on top of the stones, and covering everything with earth for several hours before uncovering (or lifting) the hāngi.

There are many variations and details that can be altered. Hāngi "experts" have developed and improved methods that often, like the stones themselves, have been handed down for generations. Another name sometimes used is umu, for instance the umu tī, used in the South Island to cook Cabbage trees (Cordyline australis).

Prior to colonisation and the introduction of metals and wire, food was laid out on clean sticks, bark, large leaves and other vegetation to minimize direct contact with the hot rocks and reduce burning. Carved bowls and flat rocks were also used for this purpose. Leaves, sticks and vegetation were used to cover the food and to prevent crushing from the weight of the earth on top.

Many different hāngi methods are now used. Wire baskets became widely used in the early 19th century with sacking and cloth replacing leaves and bark as the covering of choice.

In the early 21st century, gas heated stainless steel "hāngi machines" are sometimes used to replicate the style of cooking without the need for a wood fire, rocks and a pit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C4%81ngi


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