South Africa’s Culinary History through Cooking, Consumption, and Language

Thanks to the Culinary Historians of New York (CHNY), we received a Scholar’s Grant to research about South African food. The capstone was a presentation we gave on June 9, 2022, for the society. Here is an overview of the presentation and the rich culinary history of South Africa.

Culinary Biography

Our project took a Culinary Biography approach to explore the historical development of important foods of South Africa. We define culinary biography below.

Data

Our data consisted of a range of authentic materials, including cookbooks, restaurant menus, museums, library archives, gardens, wine tours, and interviews with South African locals and scholars. This range provides both historical and living data for a multifaceted look into South African cuisine and culture.

• Cookbooks​
• Recipe cards​
• Restaurant menus​
• Museums ​
• Library archives​
• Gardens​
• Wine tours​
• South African locals
• South African scholars​
• Everyday artefacts

Culinary Biographies of 5 South African foods

We traced the pathways through which ingredients, techniques, and regional culinary philosophies converged in South Africa through these 5 important foods:

1. Malva pudding
2. Cape Malay curry
3. Cinnamon
4. Wine
5. Biltong

Stellenbosch: Research Center

Thanks to the grant from the Culinary Historians, Kelsi was able to travel to South Africa during Spring 2021 and conduct research for 6 weeks. During that time, Kelsi met with Dr. Marcelyn Oostendorf of Stellenbosch University. Her specialty in language, memory, and food of South Africa gave us insight into our research. Kelsi and Marcelyn met several times for discussion over coffee and meals. 

Kelsi’s base was Stellenbosch, South Africa’s second oldest town (1679 by the Dutch), and one of the country’s most inspiring wine, food, art, and cultural destinations. The scenic wine route of Stellenbosch is the oldest in the country. The historic town center is a living museum with a vibrant street culture. Friendly locals, cultural events with art, music, and food, and a beautiful natural scenery made Stellenbosch a lovely place to stay.

To commemorate the anniversary of the District Six order in Cape Town and as part of its ongoing work to preserve the culture of the lost community, the District Six Museum released its cookbook.

District Six Huis Kombuis: Food & Memory Cookbook, 2016 

Dr. Oostendorp informed Kelsi about a beautiful cookbook: District Six Huis Kombuis, as a way explore connections between food, language, and history of South Africa. The cookbook presents recipes, stories, and photos from about two-dozen former District Six residents, remembering and recreating the food they ate as children. Huis Kombuis means “home kitchen” in Afrikaans.

District Six is a mixed-race section of Cape Town. It was home to Africans, Europeans, Asians, Christians, Muslims, and Jews. In 1966, the apartheid government declared it a whites-only area. From 1968, over 60,000 people had been forcibly removed from their homes.

Kelsi met with Tina Smith, the director of the District Six museum and the District Six Huis Kombuis cookbook author/collaborator. “This is not a cookbook in the sense of recipes of the greatest chefs,” Tina says. “This is ordinary stuff and how people put it together.”

The museum floor shows the area plan of District Six. Tapestries of the former residents’ stories are hung. A volunteer former resident sits on a bench daily and invites museum visitors to sit and listen to stories about the past.

Former residents of District Six met weekly to share stories and reflect on the past while participating in workshops, such as sewing recipe cloths. The museum has on display the embroidered recipe cloths and photos from the participants. The cookbook is illustrated with reprints of the recipes.

Cape Cookery: Simple Yet Distinctive, 1890

We continue with the Afrikaner doughnut Koeksisters and trace the origins of the recipe to one of its first publications. Here we have a historical cookbook from Cape Town, Cape Cookery: Simple Yet Distinctive published in 1890. The cookbook is like the Joy of Cooking for South African women and referred to frequently in the kitchen. A. G. Hewitt describes in the preface that the cookbook is a collection of “really good old-fashioned recipes.” Mrs. Allie Hewitt was driven to write down the Cape cookery, worried that its reputation would be lost with the “competition of more pretentious French dishes.” 

Malva Pudding

Malva pudding is a traditional South African dessert and so closely linked with the national identity that South Africans claim that “Malva pudding is South Africa.” The apricot-flavored pudding cake is covered in a creamy, sweet sauce of condensed syrup of milk, butter, and sugar. The origins of malva pudding are Dutch with the arrival of Dutch colonists during the Dutch East India explorations in the mid-1600s.

The dessert is typically served warm, preferably with ice cream or whipped cream, and is still popular today in South Africa. It is spongy, rich, fluffy, warm, and indulgent.

Malva Pudding Recipe

Recipes with their list of ingredients mark a place and time. The ingredients show what food was available and how they were adapted by local culture. In the District Six Huis cookbook, the recipe headnote for Malva pudding reads: One of my mother’s favourite recipes that I still treasure and that I still use is the asyn pudding, known as malva pudding. Asyn means vinegar and is used in the cake in that recipe, while other recipes include it in the syrup.

Another interesting aspect to point out is the serving suggestion: Serve with cream, Ideal Milk or custard. Ideal Milk refers to the brand of evaporated milk tinned cans sold in South Africa. Such examples from the recipe show the ingredients and what food was available and how they were adapted by local culture. 

Malva Pudding: Origins of the name

There are various theories of the origin of the name. Each theory adds to the narrative about malva pudding.

To start, it is believed that the dish is named malva pudding, Malva poeding, “mallow pudding,” after the Afrikaans word, malva meaning marshmallow. This refers to the similarities between marshmallows and the pudding’s texture. Some say that the name is derived after the fact that the pudding used to be served with Malvasia wine. Other suggestions are that malva pudding could have been named after its creator, as Malva is both the name of a flower and a common female name.

Biltong

Biltong is a cured spiced jerky of game meat, such as ostrich, beef, and kudu. It is similar to the American jerky but it has a unique texture and flavor with vinegar and spices, such as coriander, pepper, and cloves. Biltong comes from Dutch words ‘bil’ meaning meat, and ‘tong’ meaning strip, so the word Biltong means ‘strips of meat.’ 

Biltong became an important part of travel due to its durability and how well it is preserved. Biltong also played an important part in the migration of Dutch settlers (Voortrekkers) as they travelled across South Africa to Cape Province during the Great Trek. 

Wine

South Africa’s most well-known export is wine. The majority of winelands are located near Cape Town in the region of Cape Winelands. 

The Grand Constance brand is an important part of World Wine Heritage and South Africa’s oldest wine. Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena from 1815 to 1821 where his favored wine was Groot Constance. Kelsi tasted the Cabernet Sauvignon, which is the most widely planted red grape varietal of South Africa

Two unique wines of South Africa are the Pinotage, grape that is a hybrid of Cinsaut and Pinot Noir, and the Methode Cap Classique (MCC), a sparkling wine comparable to Champagne. 

Stellenbosch restaurants and bars promote local wine, such as the offerings at WynBar. On the chalkboard we see playfully listed in the New Pizza section, a Mr. Pinotage, perhaps serving a ‘subtle’ suggestion on what to drink with it.

Another interesting note is the bar’s name, Beyerskloof WynBar, which is Afrikaans, indicating the multilingualism of South Africa. Afrikaans is one of the three official languages in Stellenbosch and one of 11 languages used in South Africa.

The Stellenbosch University is committed to introducing multilingualism by using the province’s three official languages, namely Afrikaans, English, and isiXhosa.

We hope that this overview has given you an idea of the diverse cuisine of South Africa. Cape Town’s history as a trading port and its fertile terrain for wine and produce have led to a delicious culinary culture.

For further reading and cooking of South African cuisine, we recommend exploring In Bibi’s Kitchen: The Recipes and Stories of Grandmothers from the Eight African Countries that Touch the Indian Ocean, by Hawa Hassan with Julia Tershen. South African malva pudding is featured as well as other excellent recipes compiled by Hassan of her interviews with ‘bibis’ or grandmothers from eight African countries.

Thank you again, Culinary Historians of New York, for helping us to carry out this rewarding research!

Through culinary history, the people and the stories behind the food come to life.