Table Of ContentStruik Lifestyle
(an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd)
Company Reg, No. 1966/003153/07
1st Floor, Wembley Square, Solan Road, Gardens 8001
PO Box 1144, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa
First published in hardcover by
Struik Publishers as A Taste of Tradition in 1993
Second edition published in hardcover for CNA as Traditional South African Cooking in 1996
Third edition published in softcover in 1999 (reprinted once)
Fourth edition published in hardcover in 2007
Reprinted in 2008
Reprinted by Struik Lifestyle in 2009
Fifth edition published in softcover by Struik Lifestyle in 2014
Copyright © in published edition:
Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd 1993, 1996, 1999, 2007, 2014
Copyright © in text: Magdaleen van Wyk and Pat Barton 1993, 1996, 1999, 2007, 2014
Copyright © in photographs:
Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd 1993, 1996, 1999 and 2007, 2014
except pages 8-9 © The Argus,
pages 32-33 © Foodpix/Photo Access,
pages 40-41 © Alain Proust,
pages 104-105 © Index Stock/Photo Access,
pages 112-113 © Walter Knirr,
and pages 118-119 © Herman Potgieter
Publisher: Linda de Villiers
Managing editor: Cecilia Barfield
Editors: Sandie Vahl, Thea Coetzee (1993), Irma van Wyk (2007), Gill Gordon (2014)
Designer: Beverley Dodd
Design assistant: Randall Watson
Photographer: Anthony Johnson
Food stylist: Vo Pollard
Assistant stylist: Petal Palmer
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publishers and the copyright holders.
Print ISBN: 978-1-43230-347-1
Also available in Afrikaans as Tradisionele Suid-Afrikaanse Kookkuns 978-1-43230-348-8
CONTENTS
Introduction
Soups, starters and snacks
Fish and seafood
Poultry
Meat
Game and game birds
Vegetables, salads and side dishes
Desserts
Biscuits, scones, cakes and sweet tarts
Bread and rusks
Sweets and sweetmeats
Preserves, jams and jellies
Pickles and chutneys
Fruit drinks, beers and liqueurs
Index
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Flesch Financial Publications for permission to
use material from Leipoldt’s Cape Cookery, Faldela Williams for material from
The Cape Malay Cookbook, and Renata Coetzee for material from The South
African Culinary Tradition and Funa.
The photographer, stylist and publishers would like to thank the following
persons and companies in Cape Town for the crockery and material which they
so kindly supplied:
Bric-a-Brac Lane, Claremont
Clarewood Antiques and Interiors, Claremont
Clementina van der Walt, Paarl
Fabric Library
Med Blue, Glencairn
Peter Visser Interiors
The Potter’s Shop, Kalk Bay
Val Prout, Franschhoek
Wendy Hofmeyer, Rondebosch
Sylvia Grobbelaar, Oranjezicht
INTRODUCTION
Modern South Africans are fortunate to have a rich culinary heritage, built up
from the cuisines of many different nations. While no dish can be said to be
peculiarly South African, the subtle adaptation of these ‘imported’ recipes in the
addition of local ingredients and the introduction of innovative cooking methods
have made for an original cuisine.
It’s a culinary repertoire inextricably bound up with our history: from the
contributions of the earliest settlers at the Cape and the experimentation with
game of stock farmers who trekked into the interior; to the influence of the
French, German and British immigrants as well as that of Indian workers and
slaves from the East, particularly the Malays, and immigrants from African
Countries like Angola and Mozambique. Immigrants from Portugal and Greece
have also made their mark.
The first Dutch settlers brought with them recipes and cooking methods that
are still with us today; the Dutch habit of serving vegetables dotted with butter
and sprinkled with grated nutmeg, for instance. Their way of cooking meat with
herbs and spices has also become a time-honoured tradition here.
The chief contribution of the French Huguenots lay in their improvement of
viticulture and the production of fruit. They refined the production of raisins, for
instance, and their method for making confitures from the local fruit survives in
the present-day preserves which we call konfyt. The French also passed on their
ways of dealing with offal.
The German settlers passed on a love for spicy wurst, which we still see today
in the wide variety of boerewors recipes, and their hearty casseroles.
British settlers introduced roast meats, particularly beef, which is still the
preferred main Sunday meal at many South African tables, served with roast
potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. Their savoury pies are legend, as are the filling
hot puddings like roly poly, rice pudding and steamed puddings.
Perhaps the greatest contribution was made by the Malay slaves who were
brought to the Cape from the East in the late 17th century. We acquired from
them the liking for combining sweet and sour that is so characteristic of South
African cooking, as well as the spicy sauces, curries, chutneys, blatjangs and
atjars that are so indicative of our cuisine.
Many of the old recipes which have become so much a part of South African
cooking are included here. There are also recipes that are new classics – if that is
not a contradiction in terms – which have become part of our repertoire within
not a contradiction in terms – which have become part of our repertoire within
the last 40 years or so, but which we have adopted with such alacrity that they
feel right at home with those that have been around for centuries.
The recipes have been modernized, in the sense that the present-day utensils
and appliances are used – the microwave oven, for instance, where suitable –
and that quantities for preserves, pickles and chutneys are smaller to allow for
the fact that the modern cook is generally short of time.
Another modernizing feature is that metric measures are provided for all the
recipes. One of the problems we encountered when converting and testing the
old recipes was the fact that imperial measures and metric ones just do not
correspond. We felt, therefore, that giving metric measures would be more
useful, as most measuring implements are now metric. If you still prefer to use
imperial measures, a table of volume conversions (teaspoon, tablespoon and cup
to millilitre/litre) is provided below. Ingredients listed in kilograms and grams in
the recipes should be weighed on kitchen scales for the best results.
We hope that you will enjoy using the recipes in this book, and that they will
provide pleasure for years to come.
MAGDALEEN VAN WYK AND PAT BARTON
