[2][3] The goal is to produce a tight ball of mashed plantains that will absorb the attending condiments and have either pork cracklings (chicharrón) or bits of bacon inside.

[4] Particular flavors result from variations that include vegetables, chicken, shrimp, beef, or octopus packed inside or around the plantain orb.

These cultural influences also resulted in the creation of mofongo's distantly-related but notably different West African dish fufu, but Mofongo's unique flavor comes from a combination of West African flavors and the Taíno Indian culinary tradition of mashing root vegetables, mixed with major Spanish culinary influences.

Each country developed their own unique dish borne from their cultural origins and influences that were very different from original native dish such as Trinidad and Tobago (pong plantain also known as tum-tum), Cuba (fufu de plátano and machuquillo), Dominican Republic (mangú), Haiti (tomtom) and Puerto Rico (mofongo and funche criollo); this also most likely includes Colombia (cayeye), Ecuador (bolón), Costa Rica (angú), Amazon region, and Peru (tacacho).

[citation needed] The earliest known written recipes for mofongo appeared in Puerto Rico's first cookbook, El Cocinero Puerto-Riqueño o Formulario, in 1859.

Green plantains are cleaned with lemon, boiled with veal and hen, then mashed with garlic, oregano, ají dulce, bacon or lard, and ham.

The recipe calls for yellow plantains fried in lard, mashed with garlic, olive oil, and chicharrón, and then formed into a ball.

[6] El Cocinero Puerto-Riqueño o Formulario also has an example of green plantains roasted over coal and eaten with fat and garlic called plátanos asado.

[citation needed] The recipe has many variants throughout Puerto Rico, but most have maintained the key ingredients of traditional mofongo, such as pork, cooking oil, spices, broth, and starch, as well as the use of a pilón for mashing.

The contemporary interpretation of classic mofongo involves frying the starch in lard or oil, and that method makes the dish distinctively Puerto Rican, giving it a crusty, dense, and umami flavor.

[citation needed] Central African ethnic groups that populated Puerto Rico used the technique of a mallet to mash large amounts of starchy foods.

[citation needed] The use of lard, pork scraps and inner parts has its influence from the harsh diet and treatment of African people in Puerto Rico.

The name mofongo refers to cooked plantains mashed with fat (olive oil, lard, or butter), spices, and pork in a wooden mortar and pestle called a pilón (made with mahogany or guaiacum, both native hardwoods) and shaped more or less into a ball and in or alongside broth.

[citation needed] Food Network chef and host Guy Fieri featured mofongo from Benny's Seafood (in Miami, Florida) and from El Bohio (in San Antonio, Texas) on two separate episodes of his show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

On Saturday Night Live, David Ortiz (a recurring impression played by Kenan Thompson) frequently refers to the dish when describing his "big lunch".

Mofongo was mentioned numerous times on the 1970s U.S. NBC situation comedy Sanford & Son when characters Fred and Lamont (Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson) interact with their Puerto Rican neighbor Julio (Gregory Sierra).