Bajan Souse

Barbados's Saturday plate of pickled pork dressed cold in lime, cucumber, onion and hot pepper, eaten with steamed sweet potato pudding

Origin: Bridgetown & Barbados

From the journey of Lime.

Pudding and souse is Saturday in Barbados. The souse is pork, traditionally the head, trotters, and ears, boiled until tender, cut up, and dressed while still warm in a cold pickle of lime juice, cucumber, onion, parsley, and scotch bonnet; the pudding is grated sweet potato seasoned and steamed in a casing until it sets dark and dense. They are sold together from Saturday-only counters and rum shops across the island and are eaten at midday. The lime is the dish. The pork is boiled with very little seasoning, and everything that makes souse taste of anything happens in the bowl afterwards: a large quantity of lime juice, cut with a little of the pork's own cooking water, in which the sliced cucumber and onion sit and soften. It is served cool rather than cold and never hot, and the meat must go into the pickle while warm so that it takes the acid up. Citrus reached the Caribbean with the Spanish in the 1490s and the lime naturalised across the islands within a century. It became the region's universal souring agent and its universal cleaning agent for meat and fish, and the practice of washing raw pork or chicken in lime and salt before cooking, which the souse recipe begins with, is standard from Cuba to Trinidad. Barbadians distinguish the cuts with some care. A souse made from the head and trotters is the traditional one and gives the gelatinous texture the dish is built on; a lean-meat souse, made from shoulder, is milder and is what most visitors are given.

Ingredients

Pork

1.5 kg pork trotters, ears and shoulder, in pieces

To prepare

3 limes, juiced, for washing
2 tbsp salt, for washing

To cook

2 litres water
1 onion, halved
4 sprigs thyme
6 black peppercorns

Pickle

6 limes, juiced, about 200ml
2 cucumbers, peeled, deseeded and finely diced
2 onions, very thinly sliced
1 large handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 scotch bonnet, deseeded and very finely chopped
200 ml reserved pork cooking liquid, cooled
2 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Method

Wash the pork thoroughly in cold water with the juice of three limes and the salt, rubbing it well, then rinse.
Put it in a large pot with the water, halved onion, thyme, and peppercorns and bring to the boil.
Skim, then simmer for an hour and a half to two hours, until the meat is tender and the trotters are gelatinous.
Lift the pork out, keeping the cooking liquid, and cool it just enough to handle. Pull the meat from the bones and cut it into bite-sized pieces.
Make the pickle: mix the lime juice, cucumber, sliced onion, parsley, scotch bonnet, salt, and pepper with 200ml of the cooled cooking liquid.
Use the pork liquid as well as lime. Straight lime juice is too aggressive and the gelatinous stock rounds it and gives the pickle body as it cools.
Tip the warm meat into the pickle and turn it through.
The meat must go in warm. Warm pork takes the acid up and cold pork sits in it, which is the difference between souse and a bowl of pickled meat.
Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours, turning it once or twice.
Taste before serving and adjust the salt and lime; it should be emphatically sour and salty, with the heat sitting behind.
Bring it back to cool room temperature rather than serving it fridge-cold, which mutes it.
Serve with steamed sweet potato pudding, and with more sliced cucumber alongside.

Notes

Wash the pork in lime and salt first, which is standard Caribbean practice. Dress the meat while it is warm. Use some of the gelatinous cooking liquid in the pickle rather than lime juice alone. Serve cool, not cold. Trotters and ears give the correct texture and a shoulder-only souse is the mild version. It keeps for three days and the pickle strengthens; the accompanying pudding is grated sweet potato, seasoned and steamed, and the two are never sold apart.

The Gastrographer

Name: Bajan Souse
Prep time: 2 h 30 min
Cook time: 2 h
Total time: 4 h 30 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Bridgetown & Barbados
Ingredients: 1.5 kg pork trotters, ears and shoulder, in pieces; 3 limes, juiced, for washing; 2 tbsp salt, for washing; 2 litres water; 1 onion, halved; 4 sprigs thyme; 6 black peppercorns; 6 limes, juiced, about 200ml; 2 cucumbers, peeled, deseeded and finely diced; 2 onions, very thinly sliced; 1 large handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped; 1 scotch bonnet, deseeded and very finely chopped; 200 ml reserved pork cooking liquid, cooled; 2 tsp salt, or to taste; 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control