

African style cooking theory,principles and lore.

What makes African style cooking different to any other type? Well it has kind of evolved from a mixture of many other cultures of cooking. I think it is important to realise that african cooking has a relatively modern history. Its not like English, or French or German cooking which has an ancient history of dishes developing and becoming firmly established.African cooking is an amalgamation of some of these classic cooking methods including its own native cooking. For example, Biltong, although attributed to the Afrikaaner culture really originated in the native africans method of preserving meat, viz drying it. The early Colonial settlers of Africa made up of Dutch, French, German, Portuguese, English etc added to this method and improved by adding spices and salt until today we have a unique, tasty delicacy called biltong. This was largely perfected by the Dutch farmers who later became the Afrikaaner nation.
Similarly, although many hostelries serve "English Breakfasts" they have their own slightly changed methods and flavors which have evolved from the original recipe. I invite you to try some of the variations you will note. Many times the variation may occur in the way something is cooked and not entirely by the ingredients. For example a lot of cooking is done on the stove top, which of course originated on open fires. In fact every recipes you find on this blog has been cooked and can be cooked on the stove top or on a fire, or in a cast iron pot or fire-contrived oven.(For example, heaping coals on the lid of a cast iron pot) Heavy cast iron pots are widely used. Grilled or barbecued food is common and unique in flavor.