The 1910 Recipe for ‘Joloff' Rice’

Dating - not the romantic sort - recipes, establishing timelines, studying the progressive use or not of certain ingredients is a great way to explore the evolution of culture and cuisine. This book is also one that gives me pause and I’ll write more about it soon.

This recipe for ‘Joloff’ is unique in many ways, and comes from the 1910 cookbook by two European women - Practical West African Cookery - available for free in our Digital Library.

It features a one-pot rice dish, seasoned with mostly salt, pepper and dried thyme. The tomatoes that define the dish’s colour are strained and the seeds discarded, I assume, though no mention is made of this point. That inference is from the last statement in Step 2: ‘…through the sieve, so as to remove the seeds and keep all the juice.’

Part 1/ The Recipe: Joloff Rice, Practical West African Cookery

Part 2/ The Recipe: Joloff Rice, Practical West African Cookery

I wonder if discarding the seeds was common practice. That isn’t something you’ll see many Nigerians do when they prepare the tomato base now. Tomatoes are blended or processed - skin, seeds and all.

Step 5 shows the principle technique for successful Jollof rice - bring to the boil and then turn down to simmer so the rice slowly absorbs the sauce and develops flavour as it cooks.

I like the fact that it was served in a ‘native’ pot which I assume was a clay pot as enamel serveware wasn’t popular till the 50s.

So yes, there it is, the earliest documented recipe for Joloff rice I know. Check it out in the book, Practical West African Cookery in the Digital Library.