4 meals in this book
“Magnificent forests of tall trees are scattered over the face of the country from Badagry to Soccatoo, and afford, in their gloomy solitudes, shelter to numerous species of reptiles and wild beasts. The palm, the cocoa, the tamarind, the banana, the fig, the date (a species of palm), the butter, and other trees, are indigenous; and several varieties of plum grow in woods of Yariba, as well as a tree bearing a fruit similar in size and appearance to our “love apple,” and in flavour, to the _cashew_ apple of the West Indies. Stunted orange, lemon, and lime trees, bearing fruit of inferior quality, may also be found growing wild in that region, but are made little use of by the natives, who know not how to improve them; the people have likewise water-melons, guayavas, papaws, &c. &c. The cotton plant, indigo, rice, wheat, yams, maize, Guinea corn, dourra, six or seven other varieties of corn, the plantain, sweet potatoes, onions, and cassada, are cultivated to a great extent in the interior countries.”
Being peeled, put them into boiling liquor, and when they are boil'd, drain them in a cullender, and butter them whole with some boil'd currans, butter, sugar, and beaten cinamon, serve them on fine sippets, scrape on sugar, and run them over with beaten butter.
Recipe from The accomplisht cook of 1660.
“The people of Soccatoo cry their provisions round the city; and milk, fish, &c. are daily hawked through the streets by the lower orders, whose voices are as loud and shrill as those heard in London. The cry of “_Nono de mi!_” (milk and butter) always put me in mind of bells belonging to village churches; there was something peculiarly plaintive in the rising and falling of the voice of the young female who used to vend those articles morning and evening in the immediate neighbourhood of our dwelling; and, in my opinion, it strikingly resembled them in sound. “Namah du tonkah,” mutton (literally “flesh of the sheep”); “Namah de la comma” (camel’s meat); “Namah du acquia” (beef); “Gorassa” (little cakes made of pounded wheat); are also cried every morning; as is likewise “dowah,” and every other variety of grain produced in Haussa.”
258. INGREDIENTS.--The remains of any cold fish, 1 onion, 1 faggot of sweet herbs; salt and pepper to taste, 1 pint of water, equal quantities of bread crumbs and cold potatoes, 1/2 teaspoonful of parsley, 1 egg, bread crumbs. _Mode_.--Pick the meat from the bones of the fish, which latter put, with the head and fins, into a stewpan with the water; add pepper and salt, the onion and herbs, and stew slowly for gravy about 2 hours; chop the fish fine, and mix it well with bread crumbs and cold potatoes, adding the parsley and seasoning; make the whole into a cake with the white of an egg, brush it over with egg, cover with bread crumbs, and fry of a light brown; strain the gravy, pour it over, and stew gently for 1/4 hour, stirring it carefully once or twice. Serve hot, and garnish with slices of lemon and parsley. _Time_--1/2 hour, after the gravy is made.
Recipe from The Book of Household Management of 1861.
“During the rainy months fires are kindled in sheds purposely constructed for the occasion, it being impossible for them to burn in the open air by reason of the unabating violence of the weather. Mornings and evenings are the periods generally allotted for the preparation of food, and a fire is rarely seen in the intermediate hours of the day. The yam- flour is usually made into a solid pudding by being mixed with water, and boiled in much the same manner as common paste in England; and a person is employed in stirring it over the fire with a stick till the whole is sufficiently dressed, which done, the pudding is turned out into a calabash or bowl, and a quantity of either honey, oil, or butter from the maccadania tree being mixed with it, the paste is eaten with the fingers. Animal food is roasted on a wooden stake thrust into the earth before the fire, and after one side is properly dressed, the meat is simply turned on the other, the use of the jack, or indeed any article at all answering to it being unknown to the people of Western and Central Africa.”
Take six ounces of fine flour, a little salt, and three eggs; beat up well with a little milk, added by degrees till the batter is quite smooth; make it the thickness of cream; put into a buttered pie-dish, and bake three quarters of an hour; or into a buttered and floured basin, tied over tight with a cloth: boil one and a half hour, or two hours.
Recipe from The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual of 1817.
“At Cokalo, a Bowchee village, where we arrived on the 27th, the inhabitants were so poor, that they sent us nothing but corn; but the chief, in honor of our arrival, made a fetish, and having roasted a fatted dog, stewed a snake in oil and water, and boiled a quantity of corn. He then invited his people to a feast; and they partook of the good things set before them with peculiar relish. With a benevolence truly amiable, a small bowl of the corn so prepared, enriched with a portion of the reptile, and the liquid in which it had been dressed, was brought me from the chief’s table; and, supposing it to be fish swimming in oil, I ate a mouthful or two with a very good appetite. It had, however, a peculiar, although certainly not a disagreeable flavour with it, and I carelessly asked a person standing near, the name of the animal I was eating; but on his assuring me that it was part of a _land_ fish, my appetite forsook me, and Pasko, who had been casting many a longing eye on the delicate morsel, devoured the remainder with looks of infinite delight, asserting that it equalled in goodness the best dried ling he had ever tasted.”
Prepare some oysters, as shown in No. 54, and when poured upon the toast in their dish, strew all over their surface equal quantities of bread raspings and grated cheese; hold a red-hot shovel over the top until it becomes slightly coloured, and eat this little delicacy while hot.
Recipe from A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes of 1852.
Sources: Every passage above is quoted verbatim from Records of Captain Clapperton's last expedition to Africa, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipes come from cookbooks of the period, also free in full. All are in the public domain in the United States. The binding is ours — oxblood cloth, sheaf stamp.