Pap
Also known as Mieliepap, stywe pap, putu (phuthu), krummelpap
South Africans cook white maize meal soft for breakfast, stiff to go with stews and braai meat, or dry and crumbly as putu.
- TraditionSouth African maize cooking
- Kind of dishMains
- SeasonAll year
- OccasionAny day of the week
White maize meal is cooked to several textures. Soft pap is a breakfast porridge with milk, sugar or butter. Stywe pap is stiff and goes with stews and braai meat, a pairing known as pap en braaivleis. Putu, or krummelpap, is stirred with a fork until dry and crumbly.
In isiXhosa cooking, crumbly umphokoqo is served at room temperature with cold amasi, soured milk, on hot days. Elsewhere putu comes with a tomato and onion sauce, and at a braai stiff pap is served with boerewors and chakalaka.
The word comes from Afrikaans, where mielie means maize and pap means porridge, and mealie pap appears in South African English writing from 1880. Before maize reached Africa, southern African cooks made porridge from sorghum and millet.
Check out these sources
- mealiepap · Dictionary of South African English
- pap · Dictionary of South African English
- putu · Dictionary of South African English
- Mealie pap, white maize meal porridge · Ishay Govender (first published by Extra Crispy)
- Umphokoqo namasi (crumbly pap and amasi) · Woolworths TASTE
