Preserving traditional recipes - 6 Minute English

Hello.

This is 6 Minute English

from BBC Learning English.

I'm Sam.

And I'm Rob.

Now, all over

the world people love

to eat, and most of us

have favourite food we

like to cook.

Often,

this involves a recipe -

that's written down

instructions explaining

how you combine the

different items of food

you are going to cook -

the ingredients - into

a meal.

My favourite

recipe is for bangers

and mash - a cheap and

popular British meal

made of sausage and

mashed potato.

Cooking is a big part

of our lives, something

pleasurable we do with

others, and a way of

discovering the

flavours and tastes

of other cultures.

In this programme,

we'll be doing just

that - discovering the

food culture of Ghana

in west Africa, and

hearing about one

woman's quest to

preserve her country's

traditional recipes.

And, as usual, we'll

be learning some related

vocabulary along the way.

But before we start,

I have a question

for you, Rob.

Your

favourite recipe is

the classic British dish,

bangers and mash.

It's easy to understand

why mashed potato is

called 'mash' - but

how did sausages come

to be known as 'bangers'?

Is it: a) because 'bang'

is an old-fashioned word

for pork?

b) because sausage-making

machines used to make a

banging noise?

or

c) because sausages would

explode in the frying pan,

going 'bang'?

I think it's a) - 'bang'

is an old-fashioned

word for pork.

OK, Rob, I'll reveal the

correct answer later.

Food writer, Abena

Offeh-Gyimah, was born

in Ghana but moved to

Canada as a child.

After school she would

go for burgers and

fries with friends,

before heading home

to eat traditional

Ghanaian food with her

family, food cooked

with ingredients like

dawadawa, a spice made

from roasting

locust beans, and fufu.

Her mother's cooking

gave Abena a love of

traditional recipes - so

much so that five years

ago, she moved back

to Ghana to rediscover

her country's food

culture.

But when she

arrived, Abena was

surprised how much

things had changed.

Many traditional spices

and ingredients were

no longer being used,

and it was more

common to see tomato

ketchup than Ghanaian

chipotle sauce.

Here Abena describes

how her grandparents

used to cook in the

old days, to BBC World

Service programme,

The Food Chain.

So, they would actually

cook the yam, they

would cook the plantain,

and they would use,

you know, the mortar

and pestle to actually

pound it, you know.

Now in Ghana, you could

just buy potato flour

and just make fufu on

the stove.

But we're

losing that, right?

That communal experience

of cutting the yam

and cutting the plantain

and cooking it.

Abena's grandparents

made fufu the

traditional way, using

ingredients like yam

and green bananas

called plantains.

These were placed in

a mortar and pestle -

cooking equipment made

of a bowl - the mortar -

and a heavy stone - the

pestle - which is

used to grind

ingredients together.

The traditional method

was to pound fufu - to

crush it into a paste

or powder.

But nowadays

many people buy ready-made

flour and cook fufu the

modern way, on a stove.

For Abena, this

represented an unwelcome

departure from ancestral

ways of cooking, and

she decided that

something had to be

done.

Here's Ruth

Alexander, presenter

of BBC World Service's,

The Food Chain, to

continue the story:

Abena was so taken

aback about the loss

of know-how about

Ghana's traditional

recipes and ingredients

in the towns and

cities, that she

decided she had to

do something, and

set off to rural

areas on a

fact-finding tour.

We travelled across

the Accra East region

in Ghana, just to

document indigenous

dishes, and to ask

'what are people

eating now?', and

learning that a lot

of dishes are lost.

Abena was taken aback

by the changes in

Ghana's food culture -

she felt shocked and

surprised.

Traditionally,

recipes were passed

down orally from mother

to daughter, instead

of being written down,

so a generation of

young Ghanaians were

losing cooking

know-how - the practical

skills and knowledge

of how to do something.

Abena travelled around

Ghana to document

traditional recipes -

to record information

about them by writing

them down, or taking

photos, before they

were lost forever.

If her story has

inspired you to find out

about your own country's

traditional recipes, or

discover more about

Ghanaian cooking, you

can read more on

Abena's website,

Living the Ancestral Way.

And after all this

talk of traditional

Ghanaian food, it's time

for your question about

a traditional British

recipe, bangers and

mash - or sausage and

mashed potato.

Now,

you asked about the

name 'banger', and I

guessed that 'bang'

was an old-fashioned

word for pork.

So, was I right?

You were wrong, I'm

afraid, Rob.

The name

'banger' started in

World War One, when

meat shortages resulted

in sausages being made

using water, that

caused them to explode,

going 'bang!',

when cooked.

Well, that's certainly

one way to spice up

your cooking!

OK, let's

recap the rest of the

vocabulary, starting

with mortar and

pestle - a bowl and

a heavy stone which

is used to grind

ingredients together.

To pound something means

to crush it into

a paste or powder.

If you're taken aback,

you feel shocked

and surprised.

Know-how is the practical

skill and knowledge

needed to do something,

such as cook.

And finally, the verb

document means to record

information about

something by writing

about it or taking photos.

Once again, our six

minutes are up.

Bye for now!

Bye!