Mom’s magic with pilchards and pap — a taste of home on a budget

A wave of nostalgia about growing up in Dobsonville, Soweto, has lingered on my mind lately. 

The nostalgia may be caused by the fact that I haven’t been home in months to see my mother because life has been busy, especially on the work front. I have no excuse not to visit my mother, considering that a drive home from where I live is quick – 28km or 30 minutes. 

I promise to make it up to her this Mother’s Day. The smothering cost-of-living crisis has made me think about my mother’s dishes. I don’t have to tell you how expensive groceries are or how the food basket is always shrinking because consumers face an affordability crisis. 

I’m curious about how my mother fed her family during the Nineties without breaking the bank. We weren’t rich; in fact, I come from what would be considered a low-income household. My mother was a housewife and my dad was a technician who fixed Telkom telephone lines. However, they fed their two children (my brother and me) delicious and nutritious meals every day. 

Over the phone, I recently asked my mother how no meal was skipped despite running a low-income household. She replied: “It was always about going to basics. There were three methods.”

The first entails finding ways to stretch budgets. Families often prioritised cheaper and more filling staples such as pasta, rice, beans, potatoes and canned goods. My mother said meat and fresh produce were included when possible, but often only once or twice a week due to cost constraints. Dishes were also bulked up with extra vegetables when possible.

The second element of the affordability game plan was focused on shopping. Many families planned meals in advance, made shopping lists and shopped around for the best deals to avoid impulse buys and maximise their limited funds. I shop blindly as I don’t compile a shopping list and this is why the grocery bill is unnecessarily high.

Last, households had to be creative with recipes. They often used inexpensive ingredients that could be adapted to whatever was on hand.

There is a hearty dish that my mother made constantly and is in line with these three elements – canned pilchards or tinned fish served with pap.

Long before the late former finance minister Tito Mboweni dazzled us on X (formerly Twitter) with his interest in cuisine and penchant for Lucky Star fish, pilchards and pap were, and remain, a staple in many South African homes.

I have fond memories of my mother carefully opening the can housing the pilchards swimming in tomato sauce and individually slicing open the pilchards to remove tiny bones with a fork. 

Although the pilchards are ready to eat from the packaging, my mother would go the extra mile to make them delicious. She would heat pilchards, then add an array of spices and vegetables. 

In honour of my mother and trying to redeem myself for being a neglectful son, I recreated her spicy canned pilchards.

I haven’t bought or consumed canned pilchards in many years. To my shock, I discovered that canned pilchards in tomato sauce cost nearly R30. The last time I purchased pilchards, it wasn’t even R20. However, there are reasons for the inflation, which is beyond the control of consumers.

Local sardine catches have been insufficient to meet local demand, making South Africa’s fishing industry reliant on imports from countries such as Thailand, China and Namibia. Importing pilchards brings additional costs such as exchange rate fluctuations and shipping fees, all of which drive up the prices of canned pilchards. Food manufacturers and retailers then pass the increased input costs to consumers. 

Eskom blackouts in the past have made it harder to store perishable foods, and more households have turned to canned pilchards as a convenient, shelf-stable protein source. This has further increased the demand for canned pilchards. And when something is scarce, its price tends to increase. 

I decided to bite the bullet and shell out R27.99 for 400g of canned pilchards in tomato sauce. Although the dish didn’t turn out to be as good as my mother’s (they seldom are when recreated), it was good to eat and elicited memories of home. I served the canned pilchards with pap. If you don’t know how to make pap, follow my recipe below. 

Read more: Late bloomer! I finally know how to make pap

And if you love to hear me yap, I even created a TikTok video detailing the recipe for canned pilchards dish and pap.

@ray_mahlaka Making philchards and pap… @Sister Ntswempu ♬ original sound - ray_mahlaka

Ray’s canned pilchards and pap, which he modestly says his mom does better. (Photo: Ray Mahlaka)