Okay, maybe this belongs in Cafe Society, but here goes.
Anyone with a passing familiarity with the history of the mutiny aboard HMS Bounty is aware that the ship’s mission was to find some as-yet untapped sources of breadfruit.
But what the heck is breadfruit? How is it eaten? Do you cut it into slices and toast it (based on the results when I tried serving scrambled eggplant, I suspect not)? Why can’t I find it in the produce department of my local supermarket? Has it already been exploited into extinction? Is it called something else these days?
Or is it really just not very good, to the point where it doesn’t make sense to try to make a profit out of importing and marketing it?
From this site, which does say that cultivation of the breadfruit, in spite of all its uses other than as food, has fallen, at least in the Pacific Islands.
Breadfruit is highly perishable, and not likely to be found in markets, although some is exported. It’s called breadfruit because it looks like bread when you cut it open. It has a bland flavor similar to that of root vegetables. Breadfruit can be fried, boiled, or roasted.
I am going to Barbados in two weeks and there are breadfruit trees growing all over the island. I don’t recall seeing them in the market, but when a native wants one, he will find a tree and get one. They are about the size of coconuts or somewhat larger, but not as hard (they also grow all around). Still you wouldn’t want to be under one if it falls. It tastes rather bland (but then so does Wonder bread) and I would guess it is pure starch.
A wild plant known as “Indian Breadfruit”, grows in Central Texas - I used to know how to identify it. It was rather small, and the root was edible - but was only about the size of a small tangerine at the largest. I used to peel and eat the roots raw - they were kinda crispy but had very little taste. Interesting texture, though.
There’s a description of breadfruit and how to repare it in Jules Verne’ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Well worth reading.
In the book that the movie The Bounty was based on they answer the question about the breadfruit that the Bounty was sent after – it was supposed to be used as cheap food for the slaves/workers on plantation in (I think) the Caribbean. It urned out that it didn’t work out for some reason – it wouldn’t take in the soil, or the workers wouldnt eat it, or something. So, in the end, the Bounty’s last mission didn’t really matter.
When I was in the Peace Corps, I was on a small island in the Western Pacific and one of the few things other than coconuts that would grow on the coral atoll was breadfruit. I ate it almost constantly. While technically a fruit, it neither looks not tastes like a fruit.
It is a large green thing about the size and shape of a somewhat deflated rugby ball. It only looks like bread if it is skinned and baked (one way to eat it). The taste is strange too (you’re not going to believe this).
Have you ever had eggs over hard and let the yolkes get cold? That is the taste and consistency of bread fruit. It seldom tastes any better than that. Although breadfruit chips aren’t that bad. Honestly, it really is a blah food. The only thing fruity about it is that it grows on a tree.
The only food I know that has less of a personality is taro - the other other home-grown food staple of the Pacific islands. It tastes not unlike a cross between a patato and cardboard.
Dea Birkett wrote a book about spending time on Pitcairn’s Island called A Serpent in Paradise, in which she describes slicing breadfruit and deep-frying it.
I’m very curious about it, though I’ll probably never get to try it.
Huh. I had no idea that Captain Bligh’s misfortune also marked the end of the Great Breadfruit Experiment. I was going to ask, “if the stuff is so perishable, how did anyone expect to ship it in usable form across the South Seas eighteenth century transportation technology?”
The Bounty wasn’t carrying breadfruit - it was carrying breadfruit trees. Lots and lots of potted saplings all over the ship.
Which is how 18th Century folks tried to ship foods - alive. Live chickens, live turtles very popular (didn’t require feeding, being cold-blooded reptiles, or much excercise) and so on and so foth. Butcher as needed.
I once worked with a programmer from Jamaica, and somehow Breadfruit came up in conversation.
Her distaste for it was quite strong, and she pretty much said it was thought of (in the Caribbean) as bland food fit only for the poor (she came from a middle class background).
I grew up in Barbados, and breatfruit was quite common there. Personally, I found it insipid so didn’t eat it often. SirRay’s friend’s observation also applies to Barbados: it was considered “food for the poor”, although it was also sometimes served in hotels to curious tourists.
I remember that part of the book! The funny thing was, the characters seemed to think breadfruit was really great, contrary to what I’ve read in this thread. I wonder if Jules Verne actually ever tried the stuff…
