Ducks and Stuphins – Sausage Makers and their OXFORD SAUSAGES
By Eben van Tonder
20 August 2019

Introduction

Food offers us a beautiful opportunity to not only look into the distant past but to taste what our forefathers tasted.  It is to experience history!  The allure is irresistible!  I have not done a study on the earliest reference to the Oxford sausage but found this fascinating reference from an author from the 1840s.

His name was Joseph Thomas James Hewlett and he lived from 1800 to 1847.  He was a novelist, son of Joseph Hewlett of the parish of St. Pancras, Middlesex, and was born in 1800.  He was educated at the Charterhouse, where Lord-chancellor Eldon placed him. On 13 May 1818, he matriculated from Worcester College, Oxford, and on 5 Feb. 1822, he graduated with a B.A..  On 25 May 1826, he received an M.A.. (Cooper, 1885 – 1900)

He was initially appointed head-master of Abingdon grammar school.  His career there was, however, a failure and he did not hold the post long.  His subsequent life was a prolonged struggle with poverty. Retiring to Letcombe Regis, near Wantage, Berkshire, he endeavoured to gain an income by writing novels. In 1840, through the intercession of Fox Maule (afterwards Lord Panmure), an old schoolfellow, Lord-chancellor Cottenham presented him to the rectory of Little Stambridge, near Rochford, Essex, of the annual value of 175l. He died there on 24 Jan. 1847.  One of his novels was ‘College Life; or the Proctor’s Note-Book,’ 3 vols., London, 1843.  (Cooper, 1885 – 1900)

In this novel, we find “The History of Lady Fleshington Freeliver”.  It is this section that he gives us a nugget for the food historian.

Lady Fleshington Freeliver

He tells the story of one Daniel Ducks who lived on Penny-Farting-Street.  He was appointed as the “purveyor of milk” to St. Jude, the local college.  Not only was he famous for his milk, but also for his eggs.  His eggs were so famous that it was said that “the men of St. Jude’s were perpetually subjected to the inroads of their friends at breakfast-time, on the sole plea that fresh eggs were not to be obtained elsewhere.”  He was a very astute man, able to glean the financial standing of the many people who wanted to befriend him.  In particular the many ladies.  (Hewlett, 1843)

One family caught his eyes in on account of their abundant financial resources, the Stuphins.  “They were an amiable old couple, who had one unmarried but quite-ready-to-be-married daughter, who assisted them in the pleasant and profitable trade of sausage-making.  They did not manufacture those horrible concoctions of all manner of nastiness, which, to hide their filthy component parts are tied up in opaque chitterlings (small intestines of a pig);  but the pure, the delicious, the far-famed digestible OXFORD SAUSAGES!”  (Hewlett, 1843)

Hewlett pauses to make an editorial comment which is my interest in the account and the reason why I will forever hold him in high esteem and be grateful to him.  He writes:  “before I proceed in my narrative, I feel benevolently disposed to confer on the readers of these pages – that is, upon “society in general”, a favour which, I trust, they will duly appreciate.  Those who have eaten the old OXFORD SAUSAGES will do so by anticipation, when I tell them what I am about to disclose to them the way of making the delicacy according to the recipe given to me out of gratitude for my delicate attention to her by Lady Fleshington Freeliver, who pronounced them edibles which, “no lady or gentleman ought to be without.”  The other division of the world, who have not yet partaken of the mixture,  will, I am sure, on making “one trail” give “further orders” to their cooks, and gratefully give me a place in that best of lady’s albums, the family recipe book.” (Hewlett, 1843)

He is tempted to disclose the historical origins of the recipe, but then, for fear of annoying his readers he suffices with the following remarks.  “The Romans owe the introduction of them [these sausages] at their meals to that great fighting-man and voluminous author, Varro, who obtained the recipe from the Lucanians.  Whether it was handed down from them to old Simon Stuphins, by written document or oral tradition, I must leave to those who delight in such abstruse inquiries to determine. Simon inherited the recipe and here it is. (Hewlett, 1843)

To Make OXFORD SAUSAGES:  Ingredients

1 1/2 pound pigmeat (cut from griskins, rindless)  – A lean cut of meat from the loin of a pig.
1/2 pound of veal
1 1/2 pounds beef suet (Suet is the raw, hard fat of beef or mutton found around the loins and kidneys)
5 eggs (yolk and white)
Dessert spoon of sifted, well-dried sage
Pepper and salt to taste

Procedure:

Chop meat into small blocks

Pound into marble mortar till short and tender

Chop suet very fine.

Beat eggs and remove white specks, pour over meat and suet.

Knead it together.  Add sifted sage, salt, and pepper, and mix till distributed evenly through the mix. When well mixed, press it together.  Keep it from air in a cool place.  Roll the sausages on a flour board and use very little grease in frying them. (Hewlett, 1843)

Note to Vendors and Machine Sausage Makers

Hewlett makes the following additional note before returning to his tale.  He entreats the vendors and machine sausage-makers of the University “not to be offended with his betraying the secret of their trade” and he assures them that it will not interfere with their local interests.  “The undergraduates are not allowed to compound their own sausage meat; and the graduates are quite satisfied with what they can obtain ready-compounded.”  (Hewlett, 1843)

The Novel Continues

Daniel Ducks set his sights on Miss Stuphins and her parent’s strong financial position. He carefully timed his first visit to the mother.  I quote from the novel one paragraph that tells the rest of the events.  “In less than one week from that eventful evening, the neighbors who had their suspicions, as they afterward said, observed that Daniel’s house was “to let,” and saw a painter obliterate the old letters over the sausage-shop, and supply their places with this announcement,

DUCKS AND STUPHINS
SAUSAGE-MAKERS

(Hewlett, 1843)

Conclusion

OXFORD SAUSAGES!  A fascinating mention.  I will do a study to find the earliest reference to the ingredients of this famed sausage but as far as references go, this one is exquisite!  I am heading for the kitchen to make my first small batch.  Forever grateful to Hewlett’s tale of Daniel Ducks.

(c)  eben van tonder

References:

Cooper, T..  1885 – 1900.  Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 26
Hewlett, Joseph Thomas James.  Smith, Elder & Co    

Hewlett, J.  1843.  College Life; or, the Proctor’s Notebook.  Henry Colburn.

Photo credit:  https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes/fresh/uk/oxford-traditional

Salt Bush
15 August 2019
By: Eben van Tonder

An installment in the series, The Salt Bridge

Introduction

I have been searching for salt in Southern Africa as I have done around the world.  Ancient people knew salt very well!  They knew that high salt concentrations occur naturally in certain plants. The ash from these plants was used to “salt” meat before they were hung out to dry and used extensively in cooking.  I realised that one can get a glimpse of ancient technology by seeing what Western scientists learned from the indigenous peoples they encountered.  Salt that is extracted from vegetation is an excellent case in point.  Shrubs and trees that contain large concentrations of salt were of interest to Western Scientists, not for cooking purposes, but for animal feed.  I imagine how Westerners pulled up their noses for meat that was salted with ash, and how botanical scientists reveled in the knowledge of the saltbush for the purpose of feeding sheep, as if they discovered it.

South African Karoo

Any farmer will tell you that livestock needs salt to be healthy.  In South Africa, from very early days of colonisation, farmers in the Karoo region learned the secret and value of the salt-bush.  The Afrikaner boer gained knowledge of brak-plants or brakveld and knew that livestock will do well to feed on it due to its high salt content.  The fact of its abundance in semi-arid regions like the Karoo and its scarcity in grassland regions explains why semi-desert regions are often preferred for livestock farming with small stock like sheep.  (Beinart, 2003)

Farmers found that saline bushes kept parasites in check and is, therefore, the first to be overgrazed.  Fortunately, these bush have the ability to recover quickly.  Ganna (salsola species) is found in the Karoo region of South Africa.  Salsola is from the Latin salsus, meaning “salty”.  In Australia, the saltbush is the atriplex species and, as in South Africa, it is closely associated with the control of sheep parasites.  (Beinart, 2003)  The name saltbush is derived from the fact that the plants retain salt in their leaves and they are able to grow in areas affected by soil salination.

From South Africa to Australia

The honour of alerting the British colonies of its value goes as far back as 1869 to Kew.  There are many plants that are classified as salt-bush or a sheep bush.  Another excellent example is Penzia virgata.  It is closely related to the common Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) and Wormwood (Artemisia)   (Kew, 1896)  Penzia virgata, the “Goed-Karroo Bosje”, covers large areas of the Karroo Veldt.  In 1873 a report appeared in the Report of the Royal Gardens about the sheep-bush of the Cape of Good Hope that was successfully introduced to South Australia by seeds supplied by Kew in 1969.  Dr. Schomburghk, director of the Botanical Garden, Adelaide, commented on the bush, how suited it is for the Australian climate.  He mentions that it has an “aromatic bitterness” which the sheep likes and which gives the mutton a distinct flavour, very familiar to South Africans. (Kew, 1969)

Australian Species

Ther are many different plants that fit the characteristic as salt bush.  It is especially found in parts of the world where alkaline salts occur as part of the soil, sodium salts in particular.  Goosefoots (Chenopodiaceae) is another excellent example.  These salt-bushes occur naturally in Australia and has been an ally of the sheep farmer for many years.  It is a large family with 302 species in Australia, found especially in arid and saline areas.  Atriplex nummularia Lindl. is, of all the Australian salt-bushes, the most famous. (Alson, 1893)

From Australia, back to South Africa

Not only was the South African salt-bush exported to Australia, but two Australian varieties were successfully introduced to South Africa.  Mr. E Garwood Alston, of the Van Wyk’s Vley Estate, reports that in April 1886 Professor MacOwan sent them six seeds of Atriplex halimoides, Lindl..  Only two of these came up.  One died making the one survivor the mother plant of all subsequent plants in South Africa.  Later, Professor MacOwan sent them seeds from Atriplex nummularia.  (Alson, 1893)

The Australian species are better fodder plants on account that they are less salty than the South African ones.  This means that animals can eat more of it.  It is known in South Africa and Namibia that eating too much of it is detrimental to the health of the animals as can be expected due to the high concentration of salt. (Alson, 1893)

The saltbush family (Salsola species) is large and confusing and includes vegetables such as beetroot (Beta vulgaris) and spinach (Spinacia spp.).   These species not only occur in South Africa in the Karoo, but throughout the drier parts of Namibia.  They are centered around the Luderitz area where over 20 species are endemic to the region and the southern Namib Desert.  (namibian.org)

In 1889, Alston traveled from Parys in the Free State, through Hope Town, Kimberley, Boshof, Bultfontein, Kroonstad, Vredefort and he distributed seeds to the local farmers.  My family hail from these areas and I am intrigued if my Oom Jan Kok has any memory of saltbush on any of their farms.  Kew also sent seeds to the Government Secretaries of the Free State and the Transvaal and various editors of newspapers.  President Reitz of the Free State took a personal interest in the distribution of the seeds to farmers.

India, Algiers, and Namibia

There was an attempt to establish the salt bush in northern parts of India which failed due to high rainfall in certain time of the year.  Seeds were also sent to Algiers and Namibia (German South West Africa) where the country was being stocked by Merino sheep.  (Alson, 1893)

Salvadora persica

Another saltbush is Salvadora persica Garc..  “It is a multi-purpose shrub (Ecocrop, 2011). Saltbush fruits can be eaten raw, cooked, or dried and stored, sometimes as a famine food (Ecocrop, 2011; Freedman, 2009; Orwa et al., 2009). Saltbush leaves and young shoots may also be used as vegetables. Roots and small branches are used to make toothbrushes in India, Arabia, and Africa. Saltbush yields a soft, termite-resistant wood used for construction and furniture as well as for firewood and charcoal. The seeds contain 30-40% of non-edible oil that has over 50% lauric and myristic acids and few C8 and C10 fatty acids, which makes saltbush an alternative source of oil for the soap and detergent industries. Saltbush also has a wide range of uses in ethno-medicine and ethno-veterinary medicine (Orwa et al., 2009). In veterinary medicine it is mainly used against helminthiasis, brucellosis, retention of the foetal membrane and anthrax (Reuben et al., 2011; Toyang et al., 2007; Gezahegn, 2006; Ole-Miaron, 2003, Macharia et al., 2001).

Saltbush is readily browsed by all classes of ruminants. Its leaves make good evergreen fodder, available when other species have disappeared. They are a valuable source of water during droughts, due to their high water content (Shamat et al., 2010; Orwa et al., 2009).”  (feedipedia.org)  Many references state that Salvadora persica is not used to cook meat in due to a bad taste of its leaves, while at least one mentions its use with stew meat.

Conclusion

The concept of the saltbush was well established across many regions in the world.  Its knowledge is ancient.  African tradition is replete in reference to its ash being used as a meat preservative and as a condiment.  The source of salt used in cooking and preserving meat.  It was undoubtedly used for millennia as animal feed which is what Western plant scientists picked up on in the 1800s.  The saltbush is an example of ancient technology which had many different applications.  It controlled parasites in animals, served as a source of salt for humans and livestock alike and was and still is used today to treat a variety of ailments depending on the specific variant and species.  It takes us back to unlock one aspect of what made the ancient societies who occupied the stone ruins across Southern Africa work, especially for cattle and sheep farmers.  The evidence is stacking up that salt was an integral part of the lives of the people of Southern Africa.

References

Alson, G. E..  1893.  “Sheep-Bushes and Salt-Bushes.” Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), vol. 1896, no. 115/116, 1896, pp. 129–140. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4118365

Beinart, W.  2003.  The Rise of Conservation in South Africa: Settlers, Livestock, and the environment 1770 – 1950.  Oxford University Press.

https://www.feedipedia.org/node/97

http://www.namibian.org/travel/plants/bush/ganna-species.html

Builders of the Stone Ruins – From Antiquity to the Pô
By Eben van Tonder
4 August 2019

An installment in the series, The Salt Bridge

I was hiking in Gauteng, looking for its soul. Tribes emerged out of the bush. It seems like every site I visit, I find circular or semi-circular rock ruins, validating that my visions are about real historical people. Most of these ruins predate the Mfecane, the isiZulu word for “scattering” that took place in the decades preceding the 1830’s when white settlers started arriving in the region. The earliest mention of the Magaliesberg and Witwatersberg mountain ranges was when Sir John Borrow marked it on his 1802 map of the region with the remark “Gold Bearing.” I try and understand their culture in order to reproduce their food! Their culinary heritage is hands down, just as rich as the German, Italian, Spanish and English traditions. Understanding their best dishes begins by an understanding of where they came from, their history, building styles and where they settled. As always, the goal is to produce the most authentic and exquisite dishes. True to the land that people call home!

Ancient Migration: 300 AD to 900AD

At the north of the Congo basin, local inhabitants changed from hunter-gatherers to animal husbandry, metalworking, crop farming and making pottery. Linguistic analysis and studying pottery patterns shows that this area is the site where the Bantu-language speakers of Southern Africa hail from. (Carruthers, 2014) This point dovetails beautifully into two major areas of interest for me being the domestication of cattle, sheep, and pigs in Africa and secondly, the development of “salt-related technology”, important in food preparation and in the metalworking industry. A closely related development is pottery which completely changed the way that food dished were prepared and stored. The look at these tribes, their movement into southern Africa and their development of this new frontier offer insight into a unique culture and in particular, for our purpose, the development of food dishes.

From around 200 until 900 AD the people from north of the Congo basin started migrating south. Two migration streams have been suggested who entered the Magaliesberg around 1200 years ago. The one group was from the Kwale branch from East Africa and the other was the Kalundo from West Africa. The first group arrived in the Magaliesgurg region around 300 AD. They established an extensive settlement at what is now Broederstroom near Hartbeespoort Dam. (Carruthers, 2014)

It would be completely incorrect to think of these people as “primitive”. They established very sophisticated societies which clearly indicate a very sophisticated pallet and approach to food. The evidence clearly points to that.

1. They had in their hands all the foods that we have today to create our most exquisite dishes. The reasoning is as follows. If you have the same variables or ingredients, then the likelihood is there that they would eventually end up with results (dishes) that are similar to what we have today. We have had meat, grains, milk, herbs, roots, edible leaves, fruits, and vegetables. So did they.
2. They planted crops on land best suited for it showing that they had great insight into their food production arts.
3. They stored food for future use to supplement time of want from times of plenty. They knew that food could be traded which again necessitates or at least would lead to technology of preservation of food. They dub pits that they lined with a mixture of dung and mud to store grain in. Methane gas from the cattle dung killed insects that may have spoiled the grain. The created thick-floored storage bins which they elevated on stones to keep them dry.
4. They worked metals and located in close proximity to the different ores. They identified with the land and were willing to defend it against invaders if necessary. The fact that they worked metals shows us that they had an understanding of the chemical properties of the minerals in their environment, such as sodium bicarbonate to be used as a flux in the metal smelting process to manipulate the melting point. The Broederstroom sites may have been the center of iron production in the region. The iron was possibly traded and the forging of usable implements was probably done at other locations.
5. They identified with the concept of capital wealth and developed hierarchical structures with leaders endowed with authority and power. Exquisite dishes was without a doubt part of the courts of people in authority in these societies, as was the case around the world.

(Points by Carruthers, 2014 and conclusions related to salt and food, my own)

More Recent Migration: 1300 AD to 1820 AD

From 1300 AD, migrants arrived in the Magaliesburg area and established settlements on the southern slopes. They came from regions north of Botswana and Angola. For many centuries they did not use stone as building material for houses or cattle enclosures. The first stone walls in the region were built around the 1600s.

Enhancements were in all likelihood done to existing structures with stone. It is interesting that the iron age communities of the region continued to co-exist with Late Stone Age people as is shown by sites near Olifantshoek. Here it is seen how these two cultures existed in close proximity for around 500 years.

One of the earliest groups who migrated from the regions of Zambia and Botswana is the Hurutshe. Possibly during the late 17th century, they subdivided and one of the offshoots were the Kwena. Many of the Bakwena moved eastwards under Kgosi Modimosana across the Kgatleng (Elands) River. They settled at Molokwnane on the Ngwaritse (Koster) River on the Western edge of the Magaliesberg region. They flourished until they too split into smaller groups. (Carruthers, 2014)

The story is that one of Modimosana’s sons, Mogopa, broke away with some of his father’s followers and established a chieftainship on the Oori (Crocodile) River near present-day Madibeng. This was followed by further splits. The Kwena be Maake and the Kwena Modimosana ba Mmatau were established. The latter remained at Molokwane. The sprawling stone ruins of the area is a must-visit! Another important Kwena site is located on the farm Olifantspoort. near Olifantsnek Dam. (Carruthers, 2014)

In terms of building technology, from about 1650, the Twana in the Magaliesburg started to build dry-stone walled enclosures or huts. By the 1800s, these structures were elaborate. They often built newer buildings on top of the foundations of older ones. The Kwena Modimosana ba Mmatau built settlements along the lower slopes of the southern Magaliesburg. from Magatasnek to near the present village of Maanhaarrand. The chief at this time was Kgosi Kgaswane. He was one of the most respected chiefs of the region. The Griqua and Korana traders who traveled to this region called the mountain range “Cashan”, a corruption of Kgaswane’s name. The name persisted until around the 1840s. (Carruthers, 2014) In the 1690s, a drought caused the BaKwena to the south to Lesotho. This group became known as the Sotho in an area today known as Phokeng, about 10km north of Rustenburg. (SAHistory)

Another tribe who settled in the region was the Fokeng who settled in the north, close to the present-day Rustenburg. Some say that they preceded the Hurutshe while others believe there is evidence making them one of its splinter groups. Other subgroups settled in the area such as the Phiring, Tlokwa, Taung, and Kgatla. These or some of them may be offshoots from the Kwena and the Fokeng. During this time, under the leadership of chief Musi, a number of Nguni people moved into the region. They came from the eastern coastal lowlands and occupied the present-day Mpumalanga and regions east of the Magaliesburg. These people were later known as the “northern” Ndebele. They are distinct from the Ndebele invaders under Mzilikazi in 1817. (Carruthers, 2014)

One of the subgroups of these Ndebele was the Pô. They migrated further westwards into Twana territory than any other Ndebele group. They settled in the Wonderboom area and from there moved further west to Tlhogokgolo Mountain (Wohluterskop). They were surrounded by the Twana people of the Fokeng and Kwena and gradually took on their culture and language. (Carruthers, 2014) It is the iconic leader of the Pô, Chief Mogale, gave his name to the Magaliesberg.

It is the quest for the origins and fingerprints of the Pô people who was my first glimpse of the heart of the region and I went looking for it. I discovered a mountain top settlement on the farm, Eastwick, comprising of 4 or 5 houses and a large cattle byre, stretching almost 100m, no more than 10km away from Wolhuterskop and the valley where the Pô settled. I know that they were settled in the Broederstroom valley years later and of course, the possibility is there that more of the Pô were settled there due to the fact that they were already in the area. That would make the hilltop settlement on Eastwick probably a Pô settlement. I hiked the likely route up Piesangkloof.

Here is a video I did of the site:

Archeology

Analyzing the ruins in the area, scientists conclude that originally there were small and dispersed homesteads. People had cattle and farmed the land. It was subsistence living as opposed to large-scale communal living. Over time, these dispersed homesteads were morphed into aggregated communities.

Starting in the early 1800s, there is a move towards the establishment of towns with a social hierarchy. These communities were complex and interrelated. Unfortunately, they were wiped out by the Mfakane.

Typically there was a capital with secondary and tertiary settlements. This is seen in many of the ruins where there is a megacity surrounded by smaller settlements. This is the pattern found at the Suikerbosrand and the Kungwini 4 x 4 treck at Bronkhorstspruit.

The community at Bronhortspruit was an iron age community. Johan Klopper found iron arrowheads buried at the site. There is no reason to think that this was not smelted and forged at the site.

The fact that the larger kraals are seen as cattle kraals is something that is disputed in academia. Robert Thornton from Wits University concludes that such stone-walled structures were the sites of ancient rituals. “There’s no conceivable way they could have been for cattle. Ask m farmer. He’ll laugh at you. They have no doors, and the stones are not high enough [to keep them enclosed],” according to Thornton.

He points to a site he is working on, located north of Machadodorp in Mpumalanga. “They’re not random. They’re along mineral lines.” “I think some were used as metalworking ritual sites … Southern African sangomas are the descendants of earlier guilds of technical specialists.”

The people from these communities produced iron, glass and gold objects using high-temperature technology, according to Thornton. According to him, it was when European products (with their more advanced technology) began flooding into Africa, it destroyed the local trade. This contributed to the Mfecane as peoples livelihoods were destroyed.

A paper was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science in 2012 by Karim Sadr of Wits and Xavier Rodier of the Université de Tours in France where the “conventional” view was presented that breaks the stone-walled ruins down into three groups:

1. The first group is early Sesotho-speaking immigrants. The structures set up by them have an outer perimeter wall, with smaller circles inside.
2. The second group is Setswana speakers who constructed a scalloped perimeter wall, which wasn’t always enclosed but contained clusters of smaller circles.
3. The third group descended from the first group of Sesotho speakers. These came into contact with the Tswana. These kraals are characterised of being a hodgepodge of the first two styles: “a confusion of inner enclosures within a continuous perimeter wall”, which was sometimes straight, sometimes scalloped.

Sadr and Rodier make another important “evolutionary” note related to the formation of hilltop settlements such as the site at Suikerbosramd. They wrote, “Around Kaditshwene, Boeyens (2003: 69) has observed that the dispersed sites from AD 1675 – 1750 had no scallops in their outer walls, while aggregation was a feature of settlement patterns from AD 1750 -1790, followed by a move to defensible hill-top mega-sites which took place in AD 1790 – 1823.” (Sadr and Rodier; 2011)

Food for Thought

The technology related to iron and building style has traditionally been the area of focus when talking about these late stone age and early iron age people. The use of plants for medicine is dealt with in great detail, but what did their everyday food look like in terms of meat. How did they cook their meat and how did they prepare it for future use?

• Ashes to Ashes

The people who settled in the Magaliesburg knew salt well and was able to extract it from trees and bush through its ash. Thys Koen is the manager of the Eastwick Stud Farm and tells me that the local people of the region use sickle bush as their source of ash or hard-wood. He confirms the practice of salting meat with this ash before it is hung out to dry. After three of four weeks hanging outside in the wind and sun, it turns black like biltong. He also confirms the practice to cook the dried meat in water before it is consumed.

The other way that prepared it was to knock the ash off the meat and to braai (BBQ) it. They would sometimes pulverize the meat after drying, before cooking. In a world where energy sources are scarce, it is a natural way of reducing the amount of fuel needed in the form of cow dung or dead trees to soften the meat. It struck me that this exact characteristic of tenderizing meat is at the heart of much of our cooking technology. The reality is that meat, especially game, is tough and may even be one of the reasons why we started cooking and roasting our meat. We have seen before that fermentation (leaving the carcass to ferment and “soften”) was in all likelihood the oldest form of meat storage and preparing it consumption. (How did Ancient Humans Preserve Food?)

Thys refers me to a kind of a cake that formed in the ash that woman would dig up and apply it to their skins for moisturizing. His memories go back to him as a child, growing up in the Benoni area on the East Rand. In all likelihood, a mixture of ash and fat. Thys commits to interrogate Bedwell, someone who still works for him and who grew up with him. It was this mixture of ash and fat that was used as toothpaste. For the full discussion with Thys, see:

There is ample evidence from around the world about the preparation of sausage meat. The intestines naturally lent itself to be stuffed with components of meat.

• Sausages from the Stone Age

Nothing in an animal was discarded or lost. The effort in securing the food source was too valuable. A document from the archives of the University of Pretoria describes some of the slaughtering techniques of people who lived contemporaneously with the late stone age and early iron age people in the Magaliesburg region, the San Bushman.

“Once the animal has been found (after it was wounded) it is skinned quickly and the head and legs are removed. The body is then dissected into loads, which can be carried by the men. The horns are disposed of, except when needed to make a new axe handle or cultural object. Almost nothing is left behind, except the stomach, intestines and their contents which are sour and bitter in taste, they are however a valuable source of water in the dry months.”

“The hide is tanned, sectioned and used for food, clothing and skin carry-bags. The blood is poured into the stomach sack and hardened, then mixed with fat found around the intestines and put into the duodenum and small intestines to make sausage. The liver, heart, and kidneys spoil easily so they are cooked and eaten immediately. Ribs are also eaten the night of the hunt. Women never eat the heart, as it is believed this will bring bad luck to the men’s hunt and for this reason it is never brought back to camp. If the animal brought down is too big, the bones are discarded and the meat is cut into strips and dried, thus reducing the weight of the load and preventing spoilage. Animal flesh is never eaten raw, but cooked in melon water, with a little added fat for flavour.” (Repository, UP, Ac.)

The use of intestines to hold blood and fat is particularly interesting. There are good records from the Khoe that woman would hang such intestines that have been stuffed with fat, blood and pieces of meat around their legs. Sweat from their bodies that came into contact with the meat would have cured it as a source of salt and nitrates. The fact that it was around the body would have made it easy to deal with flys and other scavengers. The practice was elegant and would have had the added advantage for the woman to have moisturized the skin. There are reports of sausages from the Germanic tribes and it is easy to see how the practice, in one form or the other, was universal.

The Twana-speaking farmers/ herdsman/ traders/ metalworkers of the Magaliesburg lived in relative tranquility until the early 1800’s when events tore the society apart. The winds of war swept through the region and transformed its nature. This, despite the fact that how food was prepared and what was on the everyday menu for ordinary people and royalty probably did not change much, irrespective of who was in charge, as far as the indigenous (as in non-European) people were concerned.

Conclusion

Understanding the ancient cultures of this region leads us into an appreciation of their culture and in particular, their food. We live in a unique land where cross currents and flavours from around the world converge to give South Africa a unique food heritage. Understanding it and reproducing these traditions for future generations is the adventure of a lifetime! It is, in particular, the African cuisine that takes front and center stage in these considerations.

Photos from my hike up Piesankloof to the mountain top settlement on Eastwick.

References

Layout and structure based on an article by Wild, Sarah. 2013. Walking in the ruins of a lost world in Melville Koppies. 5 Nov 2013. Mail & Guardian. https://mg.co.za/article/2013-11-14-walking-in-the-ruins-of-a-lost-world.

Carruthers, V. 2014. The Magaliesberg. Protea Book House, Pretoria.

Sadr, K, Rodier, X.. 2011. Google Earth, GIS and stone-walled structures in southern Gauteng, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science. Journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas

Discussion with Thys. https://photos.app.goo.gl/3DuKrLEQMW3fafw59

The Magaliesberg or ‘Cashan Mountains’, Repository, UP, Ac. The Magaliesberg (UP.ac)

The Stories of Salt
By Eben van Tonder
17 July 2019

An installment in the series, The Salt Bridge

My journey of discovery of the use of salt in southern Africa brought me to Johannesburg. Minette and I wanted to be in New Zealand but dubious former business partners had other ideas.  The Universe used the bad intentions of my previous compatriots and predestined me to be in Johannesburg.  I went hiking around the country to find the soul of this land.  Suddenly, quite unexpectedly, out of the bush appeared three tribes.  One of these tribes, in particular, took me in and started showing me amazing things.  Salt itself started talking to me and took my journey further.

I did a 14 km hike in Johannesburg at the Suirkerbosrand reserve just outside Heidelberg.  I completely missed the many old stone ruins.  Back home I read up on the site and discovered that a huge Twana settlement was located there.  I was back the next weekend and then I found the ancient village!

Massive South Tswana Village at Suikerbosrand (Heidelberg, Gauteng)

I saw the ruins of an impressive Tswana mega-city close to the modern-day town of Heidelberg.   At Suikerbosrand there is an ancient Tswana city. It turns out that roughly built stone structures can be seen in several locations throughout the reserve.  Over the next weeks, as I kept returning to the site, I came across many more structures.  Archeologists discovered pottery designs and other objects such as copper ornaments, iron spears, iron rods, and hoes, which identifies the inhabitants as Sotho-Tswana. The such South-Tswana settlements were present throughout Gauteng.

Judging by the dated architectural styles that were common at Suikerbosrand, it’s estimated that the builders of the stone-walled structures occupied this area from the fifteenth century AD until the second half of the 1800s.  The biggest cluster of circles on the reserve form part of a much larger settlement, with what appears to be a royal kraal with commanding views of the surrounding area.

Using recent laser technology (LiDAR), researchers were able to recreate the remains of the city. The evidence gathered by researchers from WITS university suggests that the area was certainly large enough to be called a city measuring nearly 10km (6.2 miles) long and about 2km wide.”

Here is a reconstruction of what it may have looked like, built from the results from the LiDAR research.

Parys on the Vaal and the farm of Berakah Eco Trails

Since I am close to Parys, I thought there may be great hiking trails.  Johannesburg itself is notoriously scarce in its offering to outdoor enthusiasts!  I drove to the Northen Free State town of Parys to try a new area.  I googled “hiking trails” in the area while sitting at a coffee shop in Parys and I could find only one, on the farm where Berakah Eco trails is located.  No sooner did I start the hike when I came upon another massive settlement.  By this time, I have come across a huge Twana site in Suikerbosrand and now, completely unexpected, the ruins on the Berakah farm on the Vaal River.

The Tswaing Salt Lake in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria

I was looking for a transition to enter the Gauteng region in the book I am writing on the history of meat curing.   I wanted to link my time in the story riding transport between Johannesburg and Cape Town to my quest for the origins and use of salt in southern Africa.  I was looking for possible locations where bicarbonate of soda naturally occurs which I thought would do the trick very nicely as a transition salt into my much detailed look at sodium nitrate and nitrite, ammonium chloride and sodium chloride in “Bacon and the Art of Living”.  To my great surprise, I found that high levels of bicarbonate of soda occur abundantly in Tswaing salt lake, 40km north of Pretoria.  The site is, at the same time, one of a handful of impact craters in southern Africa.

Here I discovered more ancient ruins at the impact crater which was in all likelihood connected through trade to the communities in the Suikerbosrand, the communities along the Vaal River and definitely connected to the people who lived in the Magaliesburg region.  It also probably traded with an enormous Sotho settlement in the Bronkhortstpruit area.

The Kungwini 4 x 4 treck at Bronkhorstspruit

Just outside Bronkhorstspruit, overlooking the Bronhorstspruit dam is a site that holds many Sotho and probably some Ndebele settlements stone ruins.  The architecture is markedly different than what I have seen at Suikerbosrand or against the Vaal River, at Parys.  Experts tell me that the Twana ruins show round circles for the houses where the Sotho architecture used the form of a horseshoe.  Iron arrowheads have been discovered at the site, leaving us clues of its dating.

There is evidence that links the building style of the kraal used here with settlements stretching all the way through Tanzania, all the way to Zanzibar.  They reckon that the monsoon winds blow there, a certain time of the year towards India.  When the monsoon turned south, traders, using the villages as route, came down all the way to Southern Africa.  Trading was a key feature of these cities and this area where I hiked, was the endpoint of these important trade routes. The location of these villages seems to be in service of the trade route.

There are San paintings in caves in the Soutpansberge showing Bushman trading.  The Voortrekker Louis Trichardt settled at the foot of Songozwi in the Soutpansberge, exactly for the reason that he wanted to be in the trading route.  Mapungubwe, the mega settlement established on the banks of the Limpopo River was apparently accessed by ship from where trade was further undertaken on foot, south, further into South Africa.  Sand filling up the river ended the boats reaching the city from the sea, by river.

Johan Klopper, the source of the information above reminded me of a delicious practice.  He grew up in Louis Trichardt, and when they slaughtered beef or game, they would roast the animals liver by directly putting it in the ash of the fire.  The ash was the salt that flavoured the liver.  It took me back because it was the exact practice that I know from my youth.  We would do exactly the same, but we added “growe sout” (salt) that was used to salt the hide.  Johan reports that the ash made the liver taste salty.

Two interesting plants are found around the kraal ruins to this day.  The one is Artemisia afra Jacq. ex Willd.  A 2012 study by More, et al. found that “the crude extract of A. afra inhibited the growth of all tested microbial species at concentration range of 1.6 mg/mL to 25 mg/mL. The compounds 1–6 also showed activity range at 1.0 mg/mL to 0.25 mg/mL.  Evaluation of its antimicrobial efficacy was dome against Gram positive (Actinomyces naeslundii, Actinomyces israelii, and Streptococcus mutans), Gram negative bacteria (Prevotella intermedia, Porphyromonas gingivalis and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans previously known as Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans), and Candida albicans.  (More, et al, 2012)  It is suggested that it is better than quinine for malaria and excellent for the flue.  These were planted around the dwellings.  You dry it and use the leaves like tea.

There is another plant found inside the houses that looks like an onion.  You take it out, clean it and cut it in small blocks.  You boil this in water for 10 min and leave to cool down.  It is a remarkable energy booster.

The settlements along the trade route had similarity in building stile and the medicine used.  The interesting thing is that a key feature in trade is salt!

Twana Ruins on Eastwick

As I was discovering the Tsana cities at Suikerbosrand and the sites close to Parys on the banks of the Vaal River, their important salt source of Tswaing; while salt was leading to the local tribes, I discovered the Magaliesberg sites.  This region was introduced to me by Etienne Lotter who has his farm, Eastwick Stud Farm, here where they have one of the best Nguni herds on earth.  Soon after my hikes in Heidelberg, along the Vaal River and north of Pretoria, I visited Thys and his wife on the farm and hiked to the top of the cliffs of the Magaliesberg mountains up a gorge on Eastwick. At the top, we discovered the old ruins of a large indigenous village.

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The Magaliesburg mountain

The Magic of Salt

I was intrigued!  The complexity of the societies, their close interconnectedness – their size and sophistication, it all blew me away!  I realized that my quest for understanding the use of salt in southern Africa is nothing less than hearing their stories, told to me by the elders of the different villages, while we sit at the evening village fire, and eat their sumptuous dishes.

Salt is the medium that can not be understood without understanding the people who enjoyed it!  I had to learn about the people so that I can understand what salt is telling me.  THAT is my first lesson.

What will follow are the stories of salt, and we begin with the story of three tribes!

The impact of Sodium Bicarbonate and the Twaing Impact Crater
By Eben van Tonder
26 June 2019

Introduction

There are many ancient salts on earth. Over the years of studying many of them, I discovered a unique and fundamental property. They are alive, able to speak, reason and will!

They direct me in my everyday work at the deli meat producer in Johannesburg, Van Wyngaardt. They commune with me at night when I sleep. They do not let me rest, directing my thoughts and inquiries. The spirit of ammonia, spirit of saltpeter, spirit of sal ammoniac, spirit of soda ash, spirit of soda; these collectively form the Spiritus Mundi, literally, the World Spirit, which, in the interpretation of Yeates, contains the collective soul of the universe, the repository of the memories of all time.

Salt and the peoples of Southern Africa

Crosscurrents converged. For years I have been studying salt from the perspective of the people of Southern Africa. I took some time during two long visits to New Zealand to study the ancient salt production in that country and expanded it to Polynesia and touching on Taiwan and China to gain a better understanding of the regional technology related to salt. I became convinced that even if there was no actual salt production in pre-colonial New Zealand, that this does not mean that the Maori did not have a sophisticated knowledge of salt, as did the people from the region it finds itself in.

Back in South Africa, I fell in love with another great African technology of cattle breading when I was introduced to the subject of the Nguni by Etienne Lotter. It is the Nguni cattle which in turn lead me to the great indigenous cultures of sub-Sahara Africa and I started seeing these people, not as primitive humans, but very sophisticated societies.

I was trying to imagine apart from sodium chloride, what salts would the peoples of southern Africa have encountered and then, more importantly, what did they use it for. The most obvious answer for me, apart from sodium chloride, was to start with bicarbonate of either sodium of calcium.

Sodium Bicarbonate

Calcium bicarbonate was a logical starting point due to the existence of so many limestone caves in Southern Africa. My own exposure to caves taught me that stalactites and stalagmites form in limestone caves. Limestone contains at least 50% of calcium carbonate which dissolves in water. The water, in turn, contains carbon dioxide. Calcium bicarbonate is formed and the reaction is represented as follows:

The water with the calcium bicarbonate travels through the ground to the roof of the cavern where it comes into contact with air and a reaction takes place that creates calcium carbonate again which is deposited on the cave floor or suspended from the ceiling forming either stalagmites and stalactites. The reverse reaction where the calcium carbonate is created is represented as follows:

We are familiar with the effects of calcium bicarbonate in hard water where buildup is caused in one’s bathroom or kitchen and is difficult to clean. In limestone caves, the white calcium buildup is seen everywhere and these would have been tested by the industrious Africans. The custodians of chemical technology in Africa, as in probably all parts of the globe, was at some point the domain of the Sharma and healers. The white precipitate in the caves would have been heated, burned, rubbed onto wounds, tasted, used in foods, in water, in drinks and part of various potions and purely based on observation and by elimination, the properties of the salt would have been elucidated.

Calcium carbonate and calcium bicarbonate in terms of food preparations and preservation would not have done much. The only place on earth where I could find calcium carbonate or bicarbonate being used in food preparations is in Korea. Sodium bicarbonate, however, is a completely different story. I knew this from my work on another great African salt, Natron.

Natron

Natron contains around 17% sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃). The other chemical present is sodium carbonate decahydrate (Na₂CO₃·10H₂O, a kind of soda ash) and a small quantity of sodium chloride and sodium sulfate. I was first alerted to the preserving power of Natron when I realised its role in embalming. (Salt – 7000 years of meat curing) It is not hard to guess the extreme effective nature of sodium bicarbonate in preservation.

Corral, Laurie, Thomas, and Montville (1988) published a key paper on the use of sodium bicarbonate in meat preservation, Antimicrobial Activity of Sodium Bicarbonate.

I, myself, started using it with tremendous effect as a meat preservative. I wondered if there is any place in Southern Africa where sodium bicarbonate naturally occurs.

Twaing Impact Crater

Of course, it occurred naturally wherever Natron was found, but what about Southern Africa? To my great surprise, one of the very few places sodium bicarbonate naturally occurs is at a very special site, 40km’s North of Pretoria called Twaing. It means “the place where salt is.”

Around 220 000 there was an event where a meteorite struck the earth at this site. It exploded and vaporized on impact and the impact craters and the salt lake was formed.  The small groups started visiting Twaing between 130 000 and 30 000 years ago after the plant life was restored and animals returned to the region following the impact event. These groups came here to hunt, gather plant to eat and use for medicine and, of course, to collect salt. They made stone age tools and weapons. Scrapers, points and stone tools that were thrown away were found at Twaing. None of the rocks at Tswaing is suitable for making such tools and points, showing that these objects were brought from somewhere else. Interestingly enough, there were also artifacts found at Twaing that is smaller than the ones from the Middle Stone Age which we just referred to. This may indicate that the ancestors of the San Bushman who lived from 30 000 to 2000 years ago visited the site during a time known as the Late Stone Age.

The first ancestors of the current indigenous people, the first farmers to use iron age tools, migrated to South Africa 1850 years ago. The first Iron age people came to Twaing around 800 and 900 years ago. Decorated clay pot fragments found on the crater floor shows that these people were Sotho or Tswana speaking communities known as the Miloko who used the salt to preserve and flavour food and trade with it. It shows that by and large, people did not stay very long at Tswaing. It seems that most people who came to the crater was periodic visitors from the Waterberg area (and other locations). So far they have only found one Iron Age community at Tswaing along with a grindstone, decorated and undecorated potsherds.

There is evidence that the salt they collected was used for flavouring, food preservation, and trading. A large number of undecorated potsherds found in the crater indicate shows that Tswana and Sotho speaking people made up most of the visitors until the advent of the time of the Matabele in the 1820’s.

In the 19th century, factors such as drought, famine, competition for grazing, wood, and water and trading routes precipitated tremendous unrest and conflict between the Iron Age Inhabitants of South Africa. New political groupings were formed and new kingdoms emerged and militarism grew.

One such empire was the Ndebele (Matebele) empire. They established themselves north of the Vaal River in the early 1820’s. A band of Nguni refugees under Mziklikazi from KwaZulu-Natal started attacking and defeating Sotho tribes. In 1827, the kingdom relocated to the Magaliesburg region. From there they launched attacked and conquering Tswana/ Sotho chiefdoms to the North and West. It has not been proven, but it is very possible that the Matebele visited Twaing to collect salt and hunt the many wild animals who congregated there.

For most of the 19th Century, Tswaing remained the key salt lick north of Pretoria. Large herds of game gathered here including elephants until the early mechanized salt mining operation scared them away.

Tswaing: Sodium Bicarbonate and an Impact Crater – a massive impact

On Saturday, 22 June I visited the Tswaing impact crater and salt lake. I set off with a guide on the roughly 7km hike on the crater rim. In the first video, I arrive at the salt lake and impact crater.

Arriving at the water’s edge. The boreholes were drilled as a means to extract the salt brine. The taste of the salt is amazing! It has a depth in taste that surprises you! It is less salty than one expects and the aftertaste is exquisite!

Sampling the salt and the background of the salt.

What was it like arriving at the site 200 years ago?

Running towards the water’s edge.

Taking water samples and thinking about life.

Photos from the impact crater.

Conclusion

The impact of the crater has been profound. The knowledge of the ancients was impressive and their technology sophisticated. Sharing the space and knowledge possessed by the ancients is one of the highest privileges on earth! It was fantastic being here and continuing to understand the implications of this site.

References:

All information about Twaing, from the official documentation and resources at the site.

Arnay-de-la-Rosa, M., González-Reimers, E., Pou-Hernández, S., Marrero-Salas, E., and García-Avila, C.. 2017. Prehispanic (Guanches) mummies and natrium salts in buria caves of Las Cañadas del Teide (Tenerife). E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 70176 Stuttgart, Germany http://www.schweizerbart.de
DOI: 10.1127/anthranz/2017/0662.

Mild Cured Bacon Celebrated
Eben van Tonder
23 September 2021

Traditional dry-cured Irish bacon by the English Master Butcher, Robert Goodrick.

Invention

Irish Mild Cured Bacon was invented by Mr William Oake of Ulster sometime in the late 1820s/ early 1830s. Some believe it to be the first technical development away from traditional dry-cured bacon that was practised for millennia. It was replaced by the modern high injected, industrial bacon following World War 1. The use of needles to inject brine into the meat tissues was incorporated into the system very early on. Needle injection itself was invented in c. 1850, also in Ireland. Here I do a short comparison with Sweet Cure Bacon and then celebrate Mild Cure Bacon by listing interesting mention of it in newspapers from the 1840s until the early 1900s.

Original Method

Brine was prepared and sterilised. Meat was soaked in liquid brine for 7 days. After brine soaking, it was rested for up to three weeks and smoked. Cold smoking was done for between 24 and 48 hours.

The simple brine make-up was:

10 lb salt (54%)
8 lb of dark brown sugar (43%)
1/2 lb of saltpetre (2.7%)
Total brine: 18 1/2 lb. (100%)
Dilute it in water, but it must be able to float an egg.

Mild Cured Bacon was a huge success and further in this article, I list some of the mentions of it in newspaper advertisements of the time. As is often the case with these things, processes are invented at various places and various times and are often intimately connected with the prevailing level of technology. Another issue that came into play is that different people called the same thing by different names. This is why I relied heavily on the Oake family and the Harris family from Calne in their naming policy. They are two families who gave their curing inventions different names, thus clearly distinguishing their inventions.

It also happened that the same outcome was later accomplished using different curing techniques. This was the case with mild curing. At first, mild curing referred to the system of William Oake. Later, the same outcome of a less salty bacon was later achieved when refrigeration was incorporated into curing. At first, it was called ice cured bacon but later it was also called mild cured even when tank curing was not involved in the process or the re-use of the old brine.

Sweet Cure vs Mild Cured Bacon

The first major development following Dry Cured Bacon is not Mild Cured Bacon, but Sweet Cured Bacon. The Harris brothers invented Sweet Cured Bacon and I dedicate an entire chapter in Bacon & the Art of Living to, Sweet Cured Harris Bacon. In this letter, I concluded that “sweet cured bacon was cured with less salt and saltpetre, with or without the addition of sugar and smoked immediately after curing in a built-for-purpose smokehouse which resulted in less moisture loss (and therefore tasted less salty); liquid brine was injected with a single needle injector into the meat which further allowed for reduced salt levels and cover brine may or may not have been used.”

The essence of Mild Cured Bacon as invented by William Oake was the use of old brine which already had nitrites. The secret behind the speed of the curing is accomplished by the fact that nitrites are present in the brine from the beginning of the curing, created through bacterial fermentation of nitrates to nitrites.

For a detailed treatment of the inspiration of the invention, the history of the actual invention, a detailed process description and recipes where the invention is used I refer you to the following articles:

Chapter 09.01 – Mild Cured Bacon

Chapter 11.04: Wiltshire Cured or Tank Cured Bacon

Tank Curing Came From Ireland

Westphalia Bacon and Ham & the Empress of Russia’s Brine: Pre-cursers to Mild Cured Bacon

Westphalian Hams and Bacon Recipes

An enduring account I often come across is how sweet cured bacon was invented in Ireland in the 1880s. Ruth Guiry, for example, in her landmark work, Pigtown, A History of Limerick’s Bacon Industry, writes, “By the 1880s a further development in curing occurred in Limerick when due to a shortage of money on the part of some producers, short-cuts were made in the accepted curing process, so the meat was turned out in a ‘half-cured’ condition. The fortunate result was a ‘sweeter’ and less salty meat which created the unique sweet taste that made Limerick bacon famous.”

This is a good example of how the terms “sweet” and “mild” were later used interchangeably to simply refer to bacon that is less salty. It lost the technical reference to a particular method of curing and both came to mean the same thing. This will be clear when I list some of the newspapers advertisements where, for example, Denny’s bacon is called “mild cured.”

The Harris brothers from Calne invented the first Sweet Cured Bacon based on the application of brine injection and the use of a specially designed smokehouse. Another way that salt was later reduced was through the application of cold which Harris called Ice Cured Bacon. If the temperatures where bacon is kept can be kept sufficiently low, microbial activity is retarded through cold long enough for even little salt to dry the meat out. Harris is also credited for bringing this invention to England. See my latter to the kids, American Ice Houses for England: Year-Round Curing. They patented the concept of refrigeration through a clever way of using ice. Refrigeration, therefore, started to be incorporated into curing plants across the world in the mid to late 1850s.

It was this invention that allowed curers around the world to reduce the amount of salt in their curing process and the Irish seized on this as described by Guiry and many others. The fact that they called it sweet cure should by no means be confused with the method employed by Harris for the first sweet-cured bacon invented by them. Years after the Harris invention, the Irish (along with others around the world) also achieved the same reduction in salt through cold.

There is one other point that must be made about the Harris ‘Sweet Cure Method.’ In later years, they achieved less salty bacon, not only through the application of brine injection or refrigeration but also using heat in drying the bacon. (Harris Bacon – From Pale Dried to Tank Curing!) The heat not only dries the bacon out but very importantly also facilitates the diffusing of salt through the meat and the subsequent water-binding affected by the salt and sugar in the cures. Therefore, it is still good practice to hot smoke bacon after curing, even if the curing was done in a cold environment.

The invention of Mild Cured Bacon, however, belongs to William Oake from Ireland. Henry Denny did invent the automated singeing of the pork carcass which further allowed for less salt. It was done at a time when different firms achieved a mild cure or a sweet cure in different ways and the exact process is essentially lost in the final product.

Superior in Every Way

Newspapers started tracking the price of Mild Cured Bacon from 1842. It shows the place it occupied as superior to any other system and its legendary status. Mild Curing was finally abandoned after the First World War when it was replaced by quick curing, high volume, high injection modern bacon processing methods. See my work The Direct Addition of Nitrites to Curing Brines – the Master Butcher from Prague and The Direct Addition of Nitrites to Curing Brines – The Spoils of War where I record this history. It is safe to say that following the war, it endures in the English Tank Curing system.

Here are a few quotes about it followed by the actual article or advertisement in celebration of this system

Mild Cured Irish Hams and Bacon – “The best ever sold”

Thu, Jan 13, 1910 – 4 · Butler Citizen (Butler, Pennsylvania) · Newspapers.com

Widely advertised and “Mild Cure” used as the key product feature.

Sat, Oct 2, 1886 – 4 · The Freeman’s Journal (Dublin, Dublin, Ireland) · Newspapers.com

Often repeated – adverts like this appeared countless times.

Tue, Jan 4, 1910 – 7 · Butler Citizen (Butler, Pennsylvania) · Newspapers.com

Mild Cured Bacon – “Greatly praised by purchasers”.

Mon, Aug 30, 1886 – 4 · The Freeman’s Journal (Dublin, Dublin, Ireland) · Newspapers.com

Mild Cured Bacon – “met by good sales.” In comparison, “scarcely any business has been done” in competing, “inferior” products.

Wed, Oct 14, 1846 – 4 · The Weekly Standard and Express (Blackburn, Lancashire, England) · Newspapers.com

“Choice Mild Cured Bacon”.

Sat, Mar 9, 1844 – 8 · The Hampshire Advertiser (Southampton, Hampshire, England) · Newspapers.com

“Brisk demand” for “mild cured meat”.

Fri, Jun 23, 1843 – 4 · Belfast News-Letter (Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland) · Newspapers.com

“Bacon market dull .., except for choice. . . mild cured bacon“.

Fri, May 27, 1842 – 4 · Belfast News-Letter (Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland) · Newspapers.com

“Bacon market flat, . . . but “mild cured is much sought after.”

Fri, Aug 19, 1842 – 4 · Belfast News-Letter (Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland) · Newspapers.com

These 1842 references to it are some of the earliest in any newspaper.

Conclusion

The grandeur and magnitude of producing these legendary foods cannot be overstated. Sweet Cured Bacon is definitely not an original Irish invention, but Mild Cured Bacon is! It lives on in English Tank Curing. The invention is Irish, as is the injection of meat with needles. To the Irish belongs the credit!

(c) Eben van Tonder

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