Safari Cooking: Ingredients

In 1928, the authors of The Kenya Settlers’ Cookery Book and Household Guide, with their advantage of having many years of lore and practicality to choose from, included a detailed list of what foods to take on safari. A smaller Swahili edition came out in 1935. The original 1928 English edition added a list of appropriate Swahili phrases for people striving to communicate with their Swahili-speaking servants, the first being “Clean all pots and pans well.”

Before presenting the list of foods and equipment vital to the proper workings of a safari camp kitchen, let’s look at the stove suggested by the authors. Lest you think that a few stones on the ground and some logs would suffice (which would do only for soup, stews, and porridges), the ambitious cook should:

Carry a piece of sheet iron, 3 ft. by 2 ft., in which holes have been cut for saucepans as in an ordinary range. Build three side walls with stones to height desired (about 1 ft.) and place iron on top. Build fire underneath.

What about the food?

Here’s what a well-stocked safari circa 1928 would carry, no doubt based on the wise counsel of those with experience, in an odd alphabetical order:

1. a boiled ham
2. bowls
3. bread
4. 3a. butter
5. baking powder
6. beef extract
7. cups and saucers
8. cutlery
9. candles
10. camp bath
11. camp beds
12. Chargals (for water)
13. Curry powder
14. cake
15. cheese
16. Dietz lanterns
17. debbies (petro tins)
18. dish towels and dusting rags
19. dried fruit
20. eggs
21. flour
22. fresh fruit
23. 1 housewife (containing pins, needles, cotton, etc.)
24. kettle
25. lard or dripping
26. matches
27. mosquito nets
28. methylated spirit stove with solid fuel or primus stove
29. plates
30. paraffin
31. pepper and mustard
32. petrol and oil
33. rice, cornflour, sago, etc.
34. spoons and forks
35. shoe polish
36. shoe brushes
37. soap
38. saucepans
39. salt
40. sugar
41. side of bacon
42. sanitary paper
43. teapot
44. towels
45. tea, coffee, and cocoa
46. tinned milk (sweetened and unsweetened)
47. tins of biscuits (plain and sweet)
48. tinned meat
49. tinned fish
50. tinned fruit and vegetables
51. thermos flask
52. tin-opener and corkscrew
53. vinegar and salad oil
54. vegetables
55. water (drinking)
56. yeast

The yeast is a bit of a mystery, since nowhere on the list do the authors provide wheat flour, except maybe in item #32. And they do suggest a recipe for a bread substitute:

1 cup flour
1 cup wheatmeal
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
Milk to mix to the consistency of scones

Cook in a quick oven. When nearly ready to take out, split into halves, return to oven and bake till brown and crisp.

(Is this the English muffin concept or due to an acknowledgment that the baking set-up tilted a few degrees shy of perfect?)

© 2009 C. Bertelsen