Historical Bobotie Recipes

Traditional Bobotie, Image Source - The South African Culinary Tradition, Renata Coetzee,1977

The recipes that follow are given first as they appeared in their original sources, retaining their wording, ingredients and methods as far as possible. They are presented as historical recipes, not as modernised versions.

Each is followed by an adaptation for the modern kitchen. Where the original measurements, ingredients or instructions need clarification, these have been made practical for present-day cooking. The intention is not to suggest that the resulting dish is exactly what the original cook would have produced, but to make the old recipe possible to follow today.

Read together, the recipes show how much bobotie could vary from one kitchen, and one period, to another. Hewitt's 1890, "Bobotee", “Cup Bobotees", and “Lamb Bobotee (Lams Fleesch)", Duckitt's 1891 family recipe, Van Tulleken's 1923 version, Leipoldt's 1933 recipe and the 1957 recipe recorded by Hilda Gerber share a recognisable foundation, but each has its own character. Meat, bread, onion, curry, eggs and milk recur, while almonds, sugar, tamarind, chilli, garlic and turmeric appear in different combinations.

The recipes for individual cups are also worth noting alongside the household inventories, where bobotie pots and cups occur repeatedly during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Hewitt and Duckitt both describe bobotie prepared in individual cups, giving us a rare opportunity to connect those old household objects with an actual method of cooking.

What follows is therefore both a record and a way of cooking. The original recipes preserve what their authors wrote; the adaptations allow us to put those instructions to use in a modern kitchen.

Hilda’s, Where is it of recipes, Hildagonda Duckitt, 1891

"BOBOTEE."

(A delicate Indian minced curry. Malay or Indian. My mother's Recipe.)

Ingredients

3 lb of Meat
2 Onions
A large slice of white bread
1 cup of milk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of Curry Powder
A dessertspoon of Sugar
Juice of a Lemon, or I tablespoon of vinegar
6 or 8 Almonds
Lump of Butter

Mince the meat, soak the bread in milk, and squeeze out dry. Fry the onions in a tablespoonful of butter (dripping will do). Mix all the ingredients— curry powder, sugar, salt, vinegar, etc., etc — with the fried onion. Now mix all with the meat and soaked bread. Mix one egg with the mixture, whisk the other with some milk, and pour over the whole, after being put into a buttered pie-dish or into little cups (the old Indian way), with a lemon or bay leaf stuck into each little cup. Put them in the oven to bake, and send to table in the cups or pie-dish. Serve with rice. (This dish is equally good made of cold mutton.)

One ounce of tamarinds soaked in half a pint of boiling water, then strained, and the juice used for Bobotee, Sasaties, and Curries instead of vinegar, gives a very pleasant acid flavour.

Bobotee — after Hildagonda Duckitt, 1891

Serves 6–8

Ingredients:

1.35 kg mutton or lamb, equally good with pre-cooked or leftover
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 large slice white bread
250 ml milk
30 ml curry powder, approximately
10 ml sugar
Juice of 1 lemon or 15 ml vinegar
6–8 almonds, chopped or pounded
15 ml butter, plus extra for greasing
2 eggs
Salt
Lemon leaves or bay leaves
Cooked white rice, to serve

Optional tamarind version: Soak about 30 g tamarind in 250 ml boiling water, strain, and use some of the resulting tamarind water instead of the vinegar.

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 180°C.
2. Soak the bread in the milk. Squeeze it out.
3. Fry the onions in the butter until soft.
4. Finely mince the meat.
5. Mix the meat, bread, onions, curry powder, sugar, acid, almonds and salt.
6. Beat one egg into the meat mixture.
7. Butter a baking dish or several small ovenproof cups.
8. Fill the cups, or use one large dish.
9. Beat the second egg with some of the milk and pour it over the meat.
10. Place a lemon or bay leaf into each small cup if using individual portions.
11. Bake until the custard has set and the top is lightly browned.
12. Serve with boiled rice.

Duckitt's observation: She says the dish is equally good made with cold mutton and describes the individual cups as the “old Indian way.”

Cape Cookery  Simple yet Distinctive, AG Hewitt, 1890

"BOBOTEE"

Take 1 lb. minced cold meat, 2 oz. butter, 1 cup milk, 1 slice bread, 1 doz. pounded almonds, a small tablespoonful Cartwright's curry powder, the juice of a lemon, a small onion fried.

Blanch and pound the almonds. Soak the bread in a little gravy. Fry the onion in the butter, and put the mixture into a pie-dish, with here and there a bay or orange leaf; beat up 2 or 3 eggs with the milk and pour over the meat. Bake in a moderate oven. Serve with rice and chutney.

Bobotee — after H. G. Hewitt, 1890

Serves approximately 4

Ingredient:

450 g finely minced cold cooked meat, preferably mutton
60 g butter
250 ml milk
1 thick slice white bread
12 almonds
1 small tablespoon Cartwright's curry powder — approximately 10–15 ml
Juice of 1 lemon
1 small onion, finely chopped
2–3 eggs
Bay leaves or orange leaves
A little gravy (Hewitt does not explain which gravy to use, possibly a cold meat stock)
Salt, if needed
Cooked white rice, to serve
Chutney, to serve

Method:

1. Heat the oven to approximately 180°C.
2. Blanch the almonds and pound them finely.
3. Soak the bread in a little gravy until soft.
4. Fry the finely chopped onion gently in the butter until soft.
5. Combine the minced cold meat, pounded almonds, curry powder, lemon juice, soaked bread and fried onion.
6. Taste and season if necessary.
7. Butter a baking dish and put the meat mixture into it.
8. Tuck a few bay leaves or orange leaves into the mixture.
9. Beat 2 or 3 eggs with the milk.
10. Pour the egg-and-milk mixture over the meat.
11. Bake in a moderate oven until the bobotee is thoroughly heated, the custard is set and the top is lightly browned—roughly 30–40 minutes.
12. Serve hot with boiled rice and chutney.

Historical note: Hewitt's original recipe says simply “1 lb. minced cold meat.” The use of cold cooked meat is therefore explicit, not an adaptation. The almonds are also a significant feature, as is the use of either bay or orange leaf.

"CUP BOBOTEES"

Take 2 lb. minced cold meat, 1 tablespoonful Cartwright's curry powder, 1 onion sliced and fried in fat, 1 cup of milk, 1 slice of bread soaked in gravy, the juice of a lemon; add pepper and salt to taste.

Beat up an egg with the milk, mix all the ingredients well up with the meat, fill some buttered cups, and bake a nice brown. Serve with boiled rice.

Hewitt's other 1890 recipe is worth keeping separately because it demonstrates the individual-cup form. It is particularly important when read against the earlier Cape inventories containing bobotie bekertjes, bobotie kopjes and bobotie potjes.

Cup Bobotees — after H. G. Hewitt, 1890

Serves approximately 4–6

Ingredients: 

900 g minced cold cooked meat
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 onion, sliced
30 ml fat or butter
250 ml milk
1 slice white bread
Gravy, for soaking the bread
Juice of 1 lemon
1 egg
Salt and pepper
Butter for greasing
Cooked white rice, to serve

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 180°C.
2. Soak the bread in a little gravy.
3. Fry the onion in the fat until soft.
4. Mix the minced meat with the bread, onion, curry powder and lemon juice.
5. Beat the egg with the milk and mix it into the meat.
6. Butter several small ovenproof cups.
7. Fill the cups with the bobotee mixture.
8. Bake until browned and cooked through, approximately 20–30 minutes.
9. Serve with boiled rice.

Historical note: Hewitt calls these specifically “Cup Bobotees.” This is important evidence for the continued individual-serving form that is also described by Duckitt in 1891 as the “old Indian way.”

LAMB BOBOTEE (LAMS FLEESCH)

Cut the meat from a leg of lamb, mince and put it into a pot with some finely chopped onion, a good lump of butter, a tablespoonful of Cartwright's curry powder. Add the juice of a lemon, or some tamarind water, and some pounded almonds. When the meat is done (it should be stirred all the time it is cooking), beat up 4 eggs and half a bottle of milk, and mix with the meat. Fill some small basins with the mixture, putting a lemon leaf and piece of butter in each. Bake in a moderate oven.

Lamb Bobotee (Lams Fleesch) — after A. G. Hewitt, 1890

Serves approximately 4–6

Ingredients:

900 g lamb, preferably from the leg, finely minced
1 onion, finely chopped
30 ml butter
1 tablespoon Cartwright's curry powder, or a similar curry powder
Juice of 1 lemon
or approximately 60 ml tamarind water
50 g pounded almonds
4 eggs
250 ml milk
Salt, if required
Lemon leaves, 1 for each baking dish
Butter for the baking dishes

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 180°C.
2. Melt the butter in a pot and add the finely chopped onion. Cook until softened.
3. Add the minced lamb and curry powder and cook gently, stirring regularly as Hewitt instructs.
4. Add the lemon juice or tamarind water, together with the pounded almonds, and continue cooking until the lamb is done.
5. Beat the eggs with the milk and stir the mixture into the cooked lamb.
6. Butter several small ovenproof basins or individual baking dishes.
7. Divide the bobotee mixture between the dishes. Place a lemon leaf and a small piece of butter in each.
8. Bake in the moderate oven until the mixture is set and lightly browned, approximately 20–30 minutes.
9. Serve hot.

Historical note: Hewitt's recipe is particularly interesting because she gives tamarind water as an alternative to lemon juice, providing an early example of tamarind being used to give bobotee its acidity. She also instructs the cook to divide the mixture among small basins, adding another example of the individual-vessel preparation that appears in her separate “Cup Bobotees” recipe and in Duckitt's 1891 description of making bobotee in little cups.

The Practical Cookery Book for South Africa,  SH van Tulleken, 1923,

Bobotee.  2 lbs. mutton, boiled up in 1 cup water for 15 minutes or till water is reduced to of a cup. Save the stock in which the meat is boiled. Mince the meat. Add 12 ground almonds and 4 drops of bitter almond essence. Now chop 2 onions finely, and fry in 2 spoons butter, and add to meat. Soak 1 slice of bread in the stock in which meat was boiled. and add also pepper and salt. Now mix 1 dessertspoon curry- powder, juice of 1 lemon or 2 spoons of vinegar, 1 egg, 1 tea- spoon sugar, and add to meat, etc. Mix well, and put in a piedish. Bake for 15 minutes, and pour over 2 cups milk, to which add 2 beaten eggs and pinch of salt. If at hand. stick a few orange-leaves in the meat. Now place in oven and bake till custard on top has set.

Bobotee — after S. H. van Tulleken, 1923

Serves approximately 6

Ingredients:

900 g mutton
250 ml water, for boiling the meat
12 almonds, ground
A few drops of bitter almond essence
2 onions, finely chopped
30 ml butter
1 slice white bread
1 tablespoon curry powder
Juice of 1 lemon
or approximately 30 ml vinegar
1 egg
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper
500 ml milk
2 eggs
Orange leaves, if available
Butter or dripping for the baking dish

Method:

1. Put the mutton into a pot with 250 ml water and boil for approximately 15 minutes, or until the water has been reduced. Reserve the stock.
2. Mince the cooked meat finely.
3. Grind the almonds and add the bitter almond essence.
4. Finely chop the onions and fry them in the butter until soft. Add them to the meat.
5. Soak the bread in some of the reserved meat stock, then add it to the mixture.
6. Add the curry powder, lemon juice or vinegar, egg, sugar, salt and pepper. Mix everything thoroughly.
7. Place the mixture in a greased pie dish and bake for approximately 15 minutes.
8. Beat the milk with two eggs and a pinch of salt. Pour this over the meat mixture.
9. If available, insert a few orange leaves into the meat.
10. Return the dish to the oven and bake until the custard topping has set.

Historical note: Van Tulleken's 1923 recipe shows bobotie retaining several features found in the earlier nineteenth-century recipes: cooked and minced meat, soaked bread, onion, curry, almonds and an egg-and-milk topping. It also introduces bitter almond essence, while sugar is used in a small quantity. Her choice of lemon juice or vinegar for acidity shows the continuing flexibility of the recipe. The use of orange leaves is particularly interesting, since other recipes mention lemon leaves as part of the flavouring of bobotie.

Kos vir die Kenner, C Louis Leipoldt, 1933

Bobotie. Mince the meat (this can be either cooked or raw meat, according to preference) at least three times so that it is very fine, free of sinew or skin. Mix it with fresh breadcrumbs that have been soaked in milk and squeezed out, and beat the mixture well. Sauté chopped onions in butter and prepare a good curry sauce using curry spices, a little brown sugar, lemon juice, chili pepper, and a few spoonfuls of good vinegar. Stir this into the minced meat and breadcrumbs, and beat in a few eggs. Tamarind water may be used instead of vinegar, just as for sosaties. Chop a dozen blanched almonds into pieces and add them to the mixture. Place the mixture in a greased baking dish lined with a few lemon leaves; pour over a cup of milk beaten with one egg yolk, one whole egg, and a pinch of salt. Place in the oven and bake until the top is nicely browned. Serve with boiled rice.

Bobotie — after C. Louis Leipoldt, 1933

Serves approximately 6

Ingredients:

900 g meat, cooked or raw, finely minced
150 g fresh breadcrumbs
Milk, for soaking the breadcrumbs
2 onions, chopped
30 ml butter
Curry spices, to taste
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1–2 small chillies, finely chopped
30–45 ml good vinegar
or tamarind water
12 blanched almonds, chopped
2–3 eggs
250 ml milk
1 egg yolk
Salt
Lemon leaves
Butter or fat for greasing
Boiled rice, to serve

Method:

1. If using cooked meat, mince it very finely. Leipoldt specifies that the meat should be minced at least three times and be free of sinew and skin. Raw meat may also be used.
2. Soak the fresh breadcrumbs in milk, then squeeze them out. Mix them with the minced meat and beat the mixture well.
3. Sauté the chopped onions in butter.
4. Prepare a curry sauce using curry spices, brown sugar, lemon juice, chilli and vinegar or tamarind water.
5. Stir the curry mixture into the meat and breadcrumbs. Beat in the eggs.
6. Chop the blanched almonds and add them to the mixture.
7. Grease a baking dish and line it with a few lemon leaves. Put in the meat mixture.
8. Beat together the milk, egg yolk, whole egg and a pinch of salt. Pour this over the meat.
9. Bake until the top is nicely browned.
10. Serve with boiled rice.

Historical note: Leipoldt's 1933 recipe is particularly valuable for the evidence it provides of continued variation in bobotie. He explicitly allows either raw or cooked meat, while retaining the familiar combination of bread, onion, curry, eggs, milk and almonds. Most importantly for the earlier recipes, he again gives tamarind water as an alternative to vinegar, noting that it may be used in the same way as for sosaties. Chilli and brown sugar also appear, showing how the flavour profile had continued to develop without losing the older structural features of the dish.

Traditional Cookery of the Cape Malays, Hilda Gerber, 1957

BOBOTIE

Recipe: Mrs. A. Jacobs, Schotsche Kloof, Cape Town.

2 lbs mince meat
a little soaked bread
2 eggs
1/4 lb butter
1 onion chopped very fine
2 cloves of garlic stamped fine
1/2 teaspoon curry
1/2 teaspoon turmeric

Combine all these ingredients. See that they are properly mixed. Put a good lot of dripping into a pie-dish. Put in the mixture and let it cook in the oven for a little while. When it begins to take colour, remove the dish from the oven. Beat up 2 more eggs with 1/2 cup of milk and pour this over the meat. You should stick some lemon-leaves into the bobotie; but if you can't get them take bay-leaves instead. Orange or lemon-leaves give a more delicate flavour. Bake bobotie very slowly until it is nice and brown. If the oven is too hot the bobotie bakes too quickly and becomes dry. That must never be. Always eat bobotie with rice.

Bobotie — after Mrs A. Jacobs, recorded by Hilda Gerber, 1957

Serves approximately 6

Ingredients:

900 g minced meat
A little soaked bread
4 eggs, divided
115 g butter
1 onion, very finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely stamped
½ teaspoon curry powder
½ teaspoon turmeric
Dripping or fat, for the baking dish
½ cup milk
Lemon leaves, if available
or bay leaves
Salt, if required

Method:

1. Combine the minced meat, soaked bread, two eggs, butter, onion, garlic, curry powder and turmeric. Mix thoroughly.
2. Put a generous quantity of dripping into a pie dish and add the meat mixture.
3. Bake for a short time until the mixture begins to take colour.
4. Remove the dish from the oven.
5. Beat the remaining two eggs with the milk and pour this over the meat.
6. Insert lemon leaves into the bobotie. If lemon leaves are unavailable, bay leaves may be used. Gerber notes that orange or lemon leaves give a more delicate flavour.
7. Return the dish to the oven and bake very slowly until the bobotie is nicely browned. Gerber cautions that a hot oven will cause the bobotie to bake too quickly and become dry.
8. Serve with rice.

Historical note: This recipe, recorded by Hilda Gerber from Mrs A. Jacobs of Schotsche Kloof, Cape Town, brings the story into the Cape Malay cooking tradition of the mid-twentieth century. It retains the familiar soaked bread, onion, curry, egg-and-milk topping and citrus leaves, but adds garlic and turmeric, ingredients not found in Hewitt's 1890 recipe. Gerber's emphasis on slow baking and keeping the bobotie moist also gives us a glimpse of the practical knowledge behind the recipe. As with the earlier versions, rice remains the expected accompaniment.

For the history behind these recipes and the different approaches to bobotie over time, read Bobotie at the Cape: A Dish with a History in Every Cup.

Traditional Kitchen Interior, Image Source - Spys en Drank, Renata Coetzee, 2012

After working through these old recipes, I find myself less interested in deciding which one is the “real” bobotie. What interests me more is how familiar the dish becomes once you start looking closely at the details. The meat changes, the spices change, the souring can come from lemon, vinegar or tamarind, and the mixture might be baked in a large dish or in the little cups that turn up so often in the old inventories. Yet it is still recognisably bobotie.

None of the old recipes I have used here specifically calls for yellow rice, although bobotie has traditionally been served with it. The yellow rice is usually cooked with turmeric, sugar, cinnamon and raisins, giving it that familiar golden colour and gentle sweetness. It makes sense alongside a dish that already balances savoury, sour and sweet flavours.

For me, that is what makes bobotie so interesting. It is not a recipe frozen in time, but something that has been cooked, changed and passed on from one kitchen to another. The old cookbooks and household inventories give us little glimpses of those kitchens, but they never tell the whole story. Perhaps that is why I enjoy following the trail through the recipes. Each one adds another small piece, and together they give a much richer picture of bobotie at the Cape.

Printed Sources Consulted

• Hewitt, A. G. 1890. Cape Cookery: Simple Yet Distinctive. Recipes include “Bobotee” and “Cup Bobotees.”
• Duckitt, Hildagonda J. 1891. Hilda’s “Where Is It?” of Recipes. London: Chapman and Hall. See “Bobotee,” identified as “My mother's Recipe.”
• Van Tulleken, S. H. 1923. The Practical Cookery Book for South Africa.
• Leipoldt, C. Louis. 1933. Kos vir die Kenner.
• Gerber, Hilda. 1957. Traditional Cookery of the Cape Malays. Includes a bobotie recipe attributed to Mrs A. Jacobs of Schotsche Kloof.

Mebos musings

On one of my recent visits to Atlas Trading in the Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, a sign for Mecca Mebos on one of the shelves caught my attention. For me, Mebos is synonymous with the Cape and its dried fruit culture. On closer inspection the packet read, “Dried Apricot Paste”. The ingredients indicated on the pack included apricots, sugar, and olive oil. I was not sure why it was described as mebos, because it was not mebos as I know it.

Mebos is made from dried apricots that are pulped and flavoured with sugar and salt. Once flavoured, the apricot pulp is shaped into circles or sticks. Mebos is an acquired taste for most people. The pressed salty sun-dried apricots cover a whole flavour spectrum from salty, sour, and sweet with the unmistakable flavour of apricot. Personally, I prefer the mebos wheels without the sugar.

Dried fruit producers offer mebos in different forms. These vary from the round disks, sticks, flakes, slices, to squares. Normally they are natural flavoured or sugared. The sugar tends to disguise the salty sour taste of the mebos. For me, it is a way of sweetening the experience to capture a broader audience.   

What tempted me in Atlas Trading, was a small jar of mebos dip. It turned out to be a versatile dip. It had the flavour of mebos but with a spicy edge. I found the dip great for snacks and I prefer it to sweet chilli sauce.  One can even use it in a marinade for a leg of pork or a roast chicken.

The name mebos is said to originate from the Japanese word umeboshi and comes from the Prunus Mume, known in Japanese as “ume”. The Prunus Mume is often translated as “Asian plum”, but this fruit is closely related to the apricot. Umeboshi is a brined, fermented sun-dried Asian plum/apricot.

During his travels at the Cape of Good Hope from 1772 to 1775, Carl Peter Thurnberg encountered mebos and compared it with the practice of drying fruit in Japan. In 1862 Lady Duff-Gordon in her letters from the Cape recorded buying mebos. On 15 April 1862 she writes, “I have bought some Cape confeyt’; apricots, salted and then sugared, called ‘mebos’—delicious! Also pickled peaches, ‘chistnee’, and quince jelly.” I can agree with Lady Duff-Gordon. I am sure it was as delicious then as it is now.

In “The story of an African Farm”, written by Olive Schreiner under the pseudonym Ralph Iron and published in 1883, Bonaparte Blenkins, the confidence trickster in the story, illustrated what a liar is by telling the story of a boy from Short Market Street, Cape Town. The boy was sent to buy meiboss (mebos). The boy came back concealing from his mother how many pieces he had bought.

“ “Here, Sampson,” said his mother, “go and buy sixpence of meiboss from the Malay round the corner.”

“When he came back she said: “How much have you got?”

“Five,” he said.

He was afraid if he said six and a half she’d ask for some. And, my friends, that was a lie. The half of a meiboss stuck in his throat and he died and was buried. And where did the soul of that little liar go to, my friends? It went to the lake of fire and brimstone.” “

In the cookbook by Hildagonda J Duckitt, Hilda’s where is it of recipes, first published in 1891, I found the earliest recipe for the making of mebos.

Hildagonda Duckitt's recipe for Mebos

In his book Social Life in Cape Colony in the Eighteenth Century, published in 1926, Colin Graham Botha writes the following, “Apricots were dried and made into “mebos”, no doubt an art learnt from the East, …”

In “In Search of South Africa”, published in 1948, H. V. Morton writes, ”Mebos is not common. Here again we have something that came to the Cape from the Far East. Some believe that the word is derived from the Arabic mushmush, an apricot, but others, and this is more likely, from umeboshi, a Japanese word given to preserved plums. Mebos is made of ripe apricots, dried, salted, and sugared, and the taste is an acquired one, for it belongs definitely to that “sweet and sour” order so palatable to the Chinese. People brought up in China tell me that plums salted and sugared like mebos are still popular there, and it is fairly certain that this unusual sweetmeat came to South Africa in early times by way of the Dutch East India Company’s factories in China and Japan.”

In the Afrikaans folksong “Daar kom Tant Alie” Aunt Miena is cooking syrup from the mebos jam.

“Daar kom tant Alie, tant Alie, tant Alie,
daar kom tant Alie, tant Alie om die draai.

En tant Miena kook stroop van die mebos-konfyt,
van die Wellingtonse suiker teen ‘n trippens die pond,
en tant Miena kook stroop van die mebos-konfyt,
van die Wellingtonse suiker teen ‘n trippens die pond.”

Mebos made from dried apricots are a true Cape tradition. It is well recorded in historical travel writing, popular fiction, folk songs, and historical cookbooks. For the established lover of mebos it will always be a delight.

Apricot blossoms in the orchard

To lure a new and young audience to the taste of mebos, a beverage company on the West Coast of the Western Cape is producing a naturally fermented, preservative free, low sugar, gently sparkling mebos drink. If you are that way inclined, you can inhale mebos vape fluid made by a company in Wellington, South Africa.

I might be tempted to try the mebos drink, but I will pass on the vape fluid. Buying the mebos dip has inspired me to explore the culinary possibilities of mebos, but I am quite happy to sit back and enjoy this tangy salted snack just as it is.

 

Sources:

Letters from the Cape (1861-62), Lady Duff-Gordon, Published 1925

The story of an African Farm, Olive Schreiner, Published 1883 

Hilda’s where is it of recipes, Hildagonda Duckitt, First Published 1891   

Social Life at the Cape, C.G. Botha, Published 1926

In Search of South Africa, H.V.Morton, Published 1948

The History of Koeksisters explained

After efforts towards finding information about the origins of Koeksisters in my traditional South African cookbooks, I recalled Hester Wilhelmina Claassens’ thesis for her doctorate written in 2003, “Die Geskiedenis van Boerekos 1652-1806”. A shortened version of this thesis was published in a book of the same title in 2006.

In her thesis, “Die Geskiedenis van Boerekos 1652-1806” (2003), Hester Wilhelmina Claassens explains the origins of the Koeksister, Koesister and Bollas.

She writes that the most popular cake in 17^th century Holland was “stroopkoek” (syrup cake). From literary descriptions, it seems that the “stroopkoek”and “oliekoek” (oilcake) was the same thing. The recipe for oliekoek in the “De verstandige kock (1668)” contained raisins, apples and almonds, apart from the cinnamon, cloves and ginger. The dough was fried in deep fat and then rolled in a “syrup”. The syrup that was used to dip the dumplings was not a liquid but only melted sugar. Oliekoek was called (Olie)Bolle at the Cape. In the old Cape recipe manuscripts, the Malay people used to refer to Bolle or Bollas. These recipes are the same as an original Arabian recipe.

My further research on the subject suggests that the Arabian recipe appears to have come to Andalusia (Southern Spain) during its dominant Muslim period (roughly 700 -1200). When Spanish rule came to the Southern Netherlands and neighbouring territories in the period 1556 -1714, the recipe most likely came with and became part of the Dutch culinary tradition. This tradition then followed the Dutch to their colonies in the east, Batavia and other territories like the Cape.

(See an Arabian recipe from the 13^th Century in my post Koeksisters, Koesisters and Bollas.)

In Hilda Gerber’s “Traditional cookery of the Cape Malays”, she shares a recipe of Mrs Galiema S., off Hanover Street, Cape Town. It is a recipe for cinnamon flavoured, sugarless “Bollas” that was not dipped in syrup. The dough for Bollas is rolled out and pressed in round forms. According to Mrs Galiema, these Bollas were enjoyed for breakfast on Sundays instead of Koeksisters. A custom that continues today in some homes.

Traditional Cookery of the Cape Malays [Hilda Gerber]

The earliest recipe for Bolle Claassens could find was in the Versfeld manuscripts, circa1800. In the Cape, the Bolle that was not dipped in sugar or syrup was known as “Vetkoek” because it was mostly fried in fat.

According to Claasens, the recipe for Crullers that became koeksisters at the Cape, dates to the 15^th century cook Martino, the head cook of the Holy Patriarch of Aquileia. He used sliced dough to make Crespelli (now called Cenci). He explained that the dough could be plaited or turned in any form before it is baked in fat. After it was baked it was sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Crullers that are plaited like koeksisters and dipped in sugar and not syrup can be found in Europe and Scotland.

Aberdeen Crulla, German Crullers, Danish Klejne, Bugnes de Lyon and Fattigman

One can find the resemblances in the Aberdeen Crulla, Danisk Klenje, German Crullers, Swedish Fattigman and many more.

In the Cape, some confusion originated when the same dough started to be used for the ”Oliebol” (without the fruit) and the Cruller. According to Claassens’ thesis, it is not clear when the same dough first began to be used for the different confectionaries.

Claassens notes the fact that the same dough was used for “Oliebolle” and Crullers/koeksisters. This is also clear from Mrs Galiema’s words in Hilda Gerber’s book “Traditional Cooking of the Cape Malays”: "Make Bollas exactly like Koesisters, but add cinnamon." To add to the confusion, plaited Crullers started to be called Koeksisters.

Claassens has a very interesting explanation for the origin of the name Koeksister,

“Die oorspronklike Kaapse benaming koeksusters - vir gevlegte krullers - se oorsprong lê waarskynlik by die koeke genaamd Groote zuster, Kleine zuster en Kuische Zuster. Dié resepte het in De volmaakte Hollandsche keuken-meid (1761) en waarskynlik ook in die eerste uitgawe in 1746 verskyn. Dit is moontlik dat die naam koeksuster wat vir die gevlegte vorm meer beskrywend as kruller was, na aanleiding van die name van bogenoemde koeke ontstaan het. Die meeste kokke het die deeg vir koeksusters in drie repe  verdeel om te vleg. Die drie repe is moontlik met die name van bogenoemde drie koeke verbind en daarom is daarna as koeksusters verwys. Sinkopee van die [k] aan die einde van die eerste lettergreep en die ontronding van die [u] in die tweede sillabe van die woord, was te wyte aan sowel slordige uitspraak as Engelse invloed. Van Dale se Handwoordenboek der Nederlandse taal het nie 'n woord soos "sister" nie, en volgens Verdam se Middelnederlandsch handwoordenboek, is die vorms "sister, zester, sester" gebruik om 'n inhoudsmaat aan te dui en kan dit dus buite rekening gelaat word as betekenisdraer in 'n vorm soos koeksister wat vandag deur baie mense as die oorspronklike naam beskou word.

Volgens die Etimologiewoordeboek van Afrikaans is sister in die samestelling koeksister, moontlik 'n vervorming van sisser wat verwys na die geluid wat die deeg in die kokende olie maak. Dit is egter onwaarskynlik dat sprekers in die omgangstaal 'n maklike uitspraak met 'n dubbele [s] sal verruil vir 'n ingewikkelder uitspraak waar die stand van die tong van [s] na 'n sluitklank [t] moet verander. Aangesien Groote zuster, Kleine zuster en Kuische zuster se resepte op die vroegste net voor die middel van die agtiende eeu kon verskyn het, moes die benaming koeksuster eers daarna in gebruik begin kom het. Voor daardie tyd is die Hollandse naam cruller waarskynlik gebruik. Die feit dat die verwarring met die benaming tot byna die helfte van die twintigste eeu voortgeduur het, dui moontlik daarop dat die naamsverandering eers laat in die agtiende eeu begin het.”

Loosely summarized, Dr Claasens’ research findings on the subject are that the name Koeksister, for what was essentially a braided Dutch Kruller, apparently originates from three variants of the Kruller published in a Dutch recipe book in 1746 and again in 1761. These variants were known as Groote Zuster (Big Sister), Kleine Zuster (Small Sister) and Kuische Zuster (Chaste Sister). The common fundamentally dominant elements of these recipes make up the recipe for the Koeksister. The three braids reference the three sister cakes. Dr Claasens also unpacks the etymology of the sister portion of the name Koeksister.

Dr Claassens' thesis is interesting and professionally researched. It is a must-read for anybody interested in the culinary history of South Africa. It is a pity that it is only available in Afrikaans. If more people knew about her research and explanation of the origin and name of the koeksister, there might be less need for speculation on the subject.

Sometimes people prefer not to know the researched academic explanation of things and find comfort in the oral history and mystical legend of the familiar.

Source: Die geskiedenis van Boerekos 1652-1806 - Claassens, Hester Wilhelmina, Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2005.

More posts about Koeksisters on this blog.

Koeksisters, Koesisters and Bollas

Koeksisters en Koffie (Afrikaans)

Dried naartjie peel

Koeksisters, Koesisters and Bollas

During lockdown, I started browsing the internet for rare and secondhand books. I hoped that this activity would help me overcome the longing brought about by not being able to browse through secondhand bookshops, a favourite pastime. I love books and enjoy the excitement of coming across a bargain rare book. Nothing beats a bookshop with shelves laden with books from floor to ceiling.

To be in the presence of so many books, to see and smell them, is the best therapy. I can lose myself in their pages. Knowing that I will find something there that will fascinate me. I have never been able to walk into a bookshop and not walk out without a handful of books.

Browsing the internet for books is extremely dangerous where I am concerned. I was able to fill several ‘Wish Lists’ in no time. Emails reminding me that I have books waiting in ‘Wish Lists’ are frequent. No, I do not need help completing the purchase, I need help not to make the purchase.

On one of my online shopping excursions, I came across two books by Betsie Rood that I wanted to add to my Towerwater collection of traditional South African cookbooks. “101 Traditional South African Recipes” and “Malay Cooking”, is in my opinion an essential part of any South African traditional cookbook collection.

In “101 Traditional South African Recipes” published in 1977, she has selected 101 traditional South African treasured family recipes from scrap books that date back to the 1890s. These traditional recipes she inherited from her mother and mother-in-law, and both her grandmothers.

“Malay Cooking”, published in 1978, was first published a year earlier, in 1977, in Afrikaans as “Maleierkookkuns”. To my knowledge, this cookbook was the first to be published in Afrikaans about Malay cooking. The book is more of a recording of popular recipes used by Malay cooks. Each contributor’s name appears alongside her recipe. Interestingly, where cooks had differing approaches to a specific recipe, the different recipes for the same dish are included.

Reading through the two cookbooks, I came across a recipe each for koeksisters and koesisters. I was interested to find the recipe for the plaited koeksisters in “101 Traditional South African Recipes” and the round koesister rolled in desiccated coconut, in “Malay Cooking”. The contribution of Malay cooks to traditional South African cooking is indisputable.

This got me thinking about the name koeksister/koesister and how it came about that the same name was used for two quite different confectionaries, but also interchangeably.

The origin of the koeksister is not exactly clear, but it is popularly thought to have originated from a recipe brought to the Cape by Dutch settlers in the 17^th century.

After reading several online speculations about the origin of both koeksisters and koesister, it was clear that none of these really knew the origin. I decided to consult my collection of South African cookbooks after searching online unsuccessfully for possible Dutch recipes for any confectionary resembling the two. In the Dutch cookbook “De Verstandige Kock,” published in 1667, I could not find any recipe resembling either of the two Cape recipes. I deduced that the recipes could both have roots in Middle Eastern or Asian recipes. Further, that the recipes in their current form were not traditionally Dutch which would explain why they were not included in this cookbook. Or, at best, that something familiar in the Dutch tradition had evolved into a new guise.

The South African cookbooks I consulted were “Cape cookery” by A G Hewitt published in 1889, “Hilda's where is it of recipes” by  Hildagonda Duckitt published in 1891,  “Di Suid-Afrikaanse kook-, koek- en resepte boek” by E J  Dijkman published 1890, “Die praktiese kookboek vir Suid-Afrika”  by S van H Tulleken published 1937, “Traditional cookery of the Cape Malays” by Hilda Gerber published in 1954, “The South African Cullinary Tradition” by Renata Coetzee published in 1977,  “101 Traditional South African Recipes” by Betsie Rood published in 1977 and “Malay Cooking” by Betsie Rood published in 1978.

A G Hewitt recorded a recipe for Kosiesters. The recipe is clearly for the ‘Malay version’ of koeksisters but does not mention any coconut. Hildagonda Duckitt recorded a recipe for Koesisters which is annotated as “Batavian or old Dutch Recipe”. However, the recipe looks like that of the plaited koeksister. The recipe calls for the dough to be rolled out and cut into strips but there is no specific mention of plaiting. Did Hilda merely assume her audience would know this? E J Dijkman recorded a recipe for Koesisters that also resemble the plaited one. However, it calls for the rolled dough to be cut in squares before frying. These recipes remind one of the Italian Chiacchiere and Cenci.

Chiacchiere, Image source:Wikipedia 

Hilda Gerber (1954) recorded a recipe for Koesisters that is clearly the ‘Malay version’, but here I found the addition of rolling it in grated coconut. Renata Coetzee recorded a recipe for Koeksisters that is clearly for the plaited variety and here I notice the addition of buttermilk or sour milk to the dough mixture.

In her book “Malay Cooking”, Betsie Rood records two recipes for Koesisters and one for Potato Koesisters but she adds a recipe for Bollas. The Bollas are made like Koesisters but the dough balls do not get rolled in sugar or coconut. Potato Koesister apparently is only made by more skilled cooks, but it makes for a fluffier koesister. In her book “101 Traditional South African Recipes” Betsie Rood recorded a recipe for the plaited Koeksisters.

From all the above, it is evident that historically, the name koeksister and koesister were used interchangeably for any version of the sweet confectionary. It depended on the person recording the recipe. To add further evidence to this observation, there is a historical advert outside a shop in the Bo-Kaap (the historic Malay Quarter of Cape Town which has origins going back to the earliest years of the settlement at the Cape), advertising koeksisters with an image of the ‘Malay koesisters’ rolled in desiccated coconut.

I decided to look at historical recipes from Asia and the Middle East that might have influenced and informed the confectionaries that has become so uniquely South African.

When I investigated the plaited koeksister, I found a 13^th century Arabian recipe recorded in Andalucía, Spain, for Dafâir or Braids. Dafâir or Braids is deep fried and then covered in a syrup.

Dafâir/Braids, Fried Dough Twist and Jalebi

“The Making of Dafâir, Braids

Take what you will of white flour or of semolina, which is better in these things. Moisten it with hot water after sifting, and knead well, after adding some fine flour, leavening, and salt. Moisten it again and again until it has middling consistency. Then break into it, for each ratl (ratl shami = a medieval Middle Eastern unit of measurement for both liquid and mass which could be approximately 2,88kg in this context) of semolina, five eggs and a dirham (an ancient Middle Eastern unit of measurement roughly equivalent to 3,1g) of saffron, and beat all this very well, and put the dough in a dish, cover it and leave it to rise, and the way to tell when this is done is what was mentioned before [it holds an indentation]. When it has risen, clean a frying pan and fill it with fresh oil, then put it on the fire. When it starts to boil, make braids of the leavened dough like hair-braids, of a handspan or less in size. Coat them with oil and throw them in the oil and fry them until they brown. When their cooking is done, arrange them on an earthenware plate and pour over them skimmed honey spiced with pepper, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon, and lavender. Sprinkle it with ground sugar and present it, God willing. This same way you make isfunj, except that the dough for the isfunj will be rather light. Leave out the saffron, make it into balls and fry them in that shape, God willing. And if you wish stuffed dafâir or isfunj, stuff them with a filling of almonds and sugar, as indicated for making qâhiriyât.” Source: An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century

Oliebolle, Mahua and Lokma

I found several twisted deep-fried foods from Asia that might have influenced the South African koeksister. “The Small Honey Fried Dough Twist”, Chinese Mahua, Jalebi and Lokma are some examples.

Koeksisters, koesisters and bollas have become part of the South African culinary identity. Naturally, Koeksisters and Koesisters often put in a welcome appearance for tea at Towerwater. Whichever one you prefer, one will not find anything more South African no matter the roots of origin.

More posts about Koeksisters on this blog.

The History of Koeksisters explained

Koeksisters en Koffie (Afrikaans)

Dried naartjie peel