The market · Seasonings and ferments · West Africa

Stock cubes

Salt, fat, flavour enhancers and dried stock pressed into a cube — across West Africa, a seasoning in its own right.

salty · savoury

What to do with it

Kenji Hara's Sourdough, 100% ryeStock cube would give it depthIbu Sari's Beef rendangStock cube would give it depthAna Etxarri's ChawanmushiStock cube would season itRosa Ibarra's Clarified milk punch, mezcal and pineappleStock cube would give it depth
Classics built on it
NigerianAmalaA smooth, brown swallow of yam flour stirred into boiling water, eaten with ewedu, a slippery soup of jute leaves, and gbegiri, a bean soup.No one here has made it yetNigerianMiyan kukaA dark green, gently slippery soup of powdered dried baobab leaves, with meat or dried fish and daddawa, eaten with tuwo.No one here has made it yetNigerianEdikang ikongA rich soup of fluted pumpkin leaves and waterleaf cooked almost in their own juices, with meat, stockfish, periwinkles and palm oil.No one here has made it yetNigerianBoleRipe plantain, and often yam, roasted over coals until charred, served with grilled fish and a hot palm-oil pepper sauce.No one here has made it yet

Goes with

tomatothymecurry powderscotch bonnet

Knowing it

Where to buy
African grocers, in the same brands as in Lagos and Accra.
Worth knowing
Count it as salt. Crumble into the pot; taste before adding more.

Kitchens that keep it in

Nigeria, West AfricaNigerianBig flavours from a big country: tomato and pepper bases, smoke, groundnut and the scotch bonnet — and party food at a scale all of its own.11 classics · 2 cooked here

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