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| 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:
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:
- Heat the oven to 180°C.
- Soak the bread in the milk. Squeeze it
out.
- Fry the onions in the butter until soft.
- Finely mince the meat.
- Mix the meat, bread, onions, curry
powder, sugar, acid, almonds and salt.
- Beat one egg into the meat mixture.
- Butter a baking dish or several small
ovenproof cups.
- Fill the cups, or use one large dish.
- Beat the second egg with some of the milk
and pour it over the meat.
- Place a lemon or bay leaf into each small
cup if using individual portions.
- Bake until the custard has set and the
top is lightly browned.
- 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:
- Heat the oven to approximately 180°C.
- Blanch the almonds and pound them finely.
- Soak the bread in a little gravy until
soft.
- Fry the finely chopped onion gently in
the butter until soft.
- Combine the minced cold meat, pounded
almonds, curry powder, lemon juice, soaked bread and fried onion.
- Taste and season if necessary.
- Butter a baking dish and put the meat
mixture into it.
- Tuck a few bay leaves or orange leaves
into the mixture.
- Beat 2 or 3 eggs with the milk.
- Pour the egg-and-milk mixture over the
meat.
- 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.
- 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.
Cup Bobotees — after H. G. Hewitt, 1890
Serves approximately 4–6
Ingredients:
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:
- Heat the oven to 180°C.
- Soak the bread in a little gravy.
- Fry the onion in the fat until soft.
- Mix the minced meat with the bread,
onion, curry powder and lemon juice.
- Beat the egg with the milk and mix it
into the meat.
- Butter several small ovenproof cups.
- Fill the cups with the bobotee mixture.
- Bake until browned and cooked through,
approximately 20–30 minutes.
- 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:
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:
- Heat the oven to 180°C.
- Melt the butter in a pot and add the finely chopped onion. Cook until softened.
- Add the minced lamb and curry powder and cook gently, stirring regularly as Hewitt instructs.
- Add the lemon juice or tamarind water, together with the pounded almonds, and continue cooking until the lamb is done.
- Beat the eggs with the milk and stir the mixture into the cooked lamb.
- Butter several small ovenproof basins or individual baking dishes.
- Divide the bobotee mixture between the dishes. Place a lemon leaf and a small piece of butter in each.
- Bake in the moderate oven until the mixture is set and lightly browned, approximately 20–30 minutes.
- 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:
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:
- 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.
- Mince the cooked meat finely.
- Grind the almonds and add the bitter almond essence.
- Finely chop the onions and fry them in the butter until soft. Add them to the meat.
- Soak the bread in some of the reserved meat stock, then add it to the mixture.
- Add the curry powder, lemon juice or vinegar, egg, sugar, salt and pepper. Mix everything thoroughly.
- Place the mixture in a greased pie dish and bake for approximately 15 minutes.
- Beat the milk with two eggs and a pinch of salt. Pour this over the meat mixture.
- If available, insert a few orange leaves into the meat.
- 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:
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:
- 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.
- Soak the fresh breadcrumbs in milk, then squeeze them out. Mix them with the minced meat and beat the mixture well.
- Sauté the chopped onions in butter.
- Prepare a curry sauce using curry spices, brown sugar, lemon juice, chilli and vinegar or tamarind water.
- Stir the curry mixture into the meat and breadcrumbs. Beat in the eggs.
- Chop the blanched almonds and add them to the mixture.
- Grease a baking dish and line it with a few lemon leaves. Put in the meat mixture.
- Beat together the milk, egg yolk, whole egg and a pinch of salt. Pour this over the meat.
- Bake until the top is nicely browned.
- 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:
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:
- Combine the minced meat, soaked bread, two eggs, butter, onion, garlic, curry powder and turmeric. Mix thoroughly.
- Put a generous quantity of dripping into a pie dish and add the meat mixture.
- Bake for a short time until the mixture begins to take colour.
- Remove the dish from the oven.
- Beat the remaining two eggs with the milk and pour this over the meat.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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| 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.
