African impact on Tobago's food history

DR RITA PEMBERTON

Similar to other facets of its development, the food culture of Tobago has been influenced by the island’s historical experience. Each group of occupants has left its mark on particular food patterns, some of which have lasted to present day.

The impact of the Europeans was determined by the plants and animals they introduced and through the institution of slavery, used to provide estate labour. Each worker was provided with weekly rations of salt fish, salt meat, smoked herring, cornmeal, flour, and plantains which formed the basis of their diet.

Unlike the situation in most of the plantation colonies of the Caribbean, where the slaves were provided with communal barrack-type housing, the enslaved population of Tobago lived in individual houses, and each household was responsible for the preparation of its own meals.

From the last two decades of the 1800s, when slaves in the American colonies revolted, the shortage of food caused the Tobago House of Assembly to mandate that every enslaved worker 14 and over was to be allocated a piece of estate land to be cultivated as a provision ground. This gave the Africans the freedom to cultivate food items of their preference.

The women who worked as cooks in the plantation house were exposed to European-style food preparation and preservation.

But by far the greatest impact on the island’s food practices was made by the Africans, with the amalgam of food items and traditional preparation methods brought by each group of slaves who called Tobago home.

But it was not until after emancipation in 1838 that a flowering of the food traditions occurred.

From that time onward, food was the means of survival through the challenging circumstances which characterised life on the island. Faced with extremely low wages and very limited employment options, poor working conditions and a spiralling cost of living, there was simply no disposable income and survival was dependent on two factors – the agricultural base of the community and the creativity of the womenfolk.

The island established itself as a food producer, cultivating a range of ground provisions and rearing animals. Every yard had a garden with banana and plantain stools, sweet potato beds, yam banks and cassava rows, herbs for seasoning and fowls, pigs, goats and cows. Corn and peas were planted annually.

They ate what they produced and in most families nothing was wasted. All items were used for either human or animal food and all parts of the animal were utilised for food.

For them, food should always be “living” – fresh from the earth. They snubbed what they called “dead food” – fish, meat or chicken that was placed “on the ice.” Chickens or yardies were killed, scoured with hot water, plucked, gutted, washed on Saturday afternoon and seasoned for the Sunday meal.

Leafy plants had to be picked on the day they were being cooked, because it was believed that consuming stale dasheen bush or other plants would cause gripe. There were dasheen patches in some yards in every community. Crabs had to be purged with pepper leaves a day before they were to be cooked.

Market day was the opportunity to purchase fresh meat supplies for the Saturday soup and the Sunday lunch. Meat would be "doved” (lightly cooked in oil so it keeps overnight) and kept in the kitchen safe for the Sunday meal. Usually one-pot meals were prepared during the week, except when the conch shell sounded to announce that fresh fish was available. Those who lived on the coast purchased fish as soon as the fishermen came in with their catch. Extra fish was corned.

The women baked twice per week and if they ran out of bread they made bakes. They found innovative ways to cook. Some people baked on the "banks" – where a hole was carved in an embankment and a fire set in it. Some put a hole on the top of the dirt oven and cooked other items there while the bread was baking in the oven.

The island’s food culture was based on a number of staples. Cornmeal, made from locally ground corn; coconut, which was used in just about every meal; coconut oil, made in most households, was the fat used in cooking; roucou, used for colouring food, was popular before curry became widely available; cassava, used in multiple ways; and salt meat for flavouring food and often a source of protein.

The guiding philosophy of food preparation in Tobago was to make maximum use of whatever was available, and meals always reflected what was grown in the yard or the community.

A typical Tobago breakfast would include any of the following:

Cornmeal, farine, green fig or plantain porridge (sago or oats by prescription for the sick or young children).

Cassava bread, cornmeal bake, roasted or fried bake, freshly baked bread or boiled provision.

Fried cow brain, “light” (cow lungs) or liver; fried dry sprat; sprat accra, saltfish buljol; fried jacks; float and accra, breadfruit chips.

Soaked farine, sliced and served with salt fish.

Farine in tea, to be savoured after the hot liquid was consumed.

Scalded fresh goat or cow’s milk, spiced with bay leaf and nutmeg.

The main meal could include:

Fish dishes:

Fish tea, usually made with jacks or fish head (especially grouper, red fish and king fish), small red fish (Georgie or George Rankin).

Fish broth, which usually contains green figs, dasheen and eddoes and corn or cassava dumplings.

Roasted or corned fish.

One-pot meals, which carried different names in different localities, were commonly prepared during the week:

All in one, also called yabba in Pembroke, was a mixture of everything that was available – fish, provision and salted meat. In other parts of the island yabba was made with fish and provision.

Warup, a dish made of fish in coconut milk and provision, was made in Roxborough.

Oil down was an islandwide favourite, as was sancoche.

Soups were also common one-pot meals, in which the balance of seasonings was important.

Pigeon peas soup was a very popular item that was made complete with provision of all kinds – pumpkin, coconut milk, seasonings and salted meat.

Corn soup, a popular main meal item made with provision, salt meat, pumpkin, seasonings and coconut milk, was commonly made during the corn season.

Green black-eyed peas soup. Some innovative families planted dry black eyed-peas and raised their own supply of fresh green peas to make this soup.

Cookup was also a popular meal. It consisted of split peas, rice and salt fish; black-eyed peas and salt fish.

Cou cou cookup with pigeon peas or dasheen bush cookup with ochroes, pigtail, salt fish and coconut could be served alone, or with provision or rice.

Dasheen bush, spinach and goomah (a local leafy vegetable) with pig tail and coconut.

Pelau with chicken, pork, beef or a combination of meats. Creative cooks produced the Buccoo specials – lobster, shrimp or conch pelau.

The use of curry on the island resulted in curried pigeon peas, curried green fig, delicious curry pelau and curried crab, dumpling and provision.

Other main meals include:

Pork in coconut milk; stewed chicken, beef or pork with provision; Slawrie in Lambeau – salt fish in coconut milk with roucou; cassava or cornmeal cou cou with crab and callaloo (which always went together); bhaji and dumpling and roasted breadfruit and salt fish. Those who lived in the coastal areas made whelks (wilks) and pacro stew with coconut milk and dumplings.

Pound plantain or tum tum, roasted sweet potatoes, plantains or breadfruit and boiled provision were served as side dishes.

Saturday meal was standard tripe, beef bone or dasheen bush soup.

Desserts and snacks:

Sweet potato pone, corn pone, starch cake, peppermint, sweet bread, tarts with coconut and other fillings, and paime.

Souse made from cow skin or conch.

Roasted corn and coconut and the children’s favourite, chililbibi.

These examples of resourcefulness and creativity, were the meals on which the population of Tobago survived the difficulties they faced during the 19th and 20th centuries.