Boning up on the braai
Two Stellenbosch academics have sunk their teeth into a meaty topic
Many will say no meal is complete without some meat on your plate and not just chicken or lamb or beef but other meat delicacies. But have you ever pondered about where exactly our obsession with meat came from?
“We have to go back to the days of colonialism when different populations or ethnic groups with different incomes, cultures and perceptions of what meat is and how it should be prepared and consumed, were introduced and developed in South Africa,” say Dr Sara Erasmus and Professor Louw Hoffman from the Department of Animal Sciences at Stellenbosch University.
Erasmus is a post-doctoral researcher in the department, and Hoffman a professor who also holds the SARChI Chair in Meat Sciences.
Erasmus and Hoffman studied the development of South African meat cuisine and traced its roots back to the Dutch settlers, Indo-Asian slaves, indigenous Khoisan and black African groups.
Their study, recently published in Animal Frontiers, found that during the 17th century colonisation and immigration had significant influence on our meat.
“The early Dutch settlers indulged in rabbit, beef, mutton and lamb, pork, hartebeest, eland, wild pig, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, steenbok, ystervark (Cape porcupine), dassie (rock hyrax), wild geese, mountain duck, wild peacock, korhaan (bustard) and different fish species,” the researchers say in the study.
However, according to the pair, the meat consumption in South Africa began long before the arrival of the first European settlers in 1652 as the indigenous Khoisan hunted wild game for survival.
They also add that the settlers learned how to source meat through hunting and fishing.
“The indigenous Khoisan, black African groups and settlers trekked across the land and, since food was scarce, nothing of the animals was wasted – from the meat to the intestines,” they say.
The researchers say what we today know as a braai, biltong and droëwors can also be traced back to the Khoisan, who fire-roasted and air-dried their meat.
“The slaves brought with them spices, herbs and cooking styles which were quickly incorporated into the cuisine and led to the creation of the Cape Dutch cooking style, known for its use of spices.”