Growing up, there was nothing quite fascinating to me as sitting by a boukan watching the fat of the fish being grilled dripping into the charcoal ambers, monitoring and smothering the flare ups and smelling the aroma of cooking fish filling the air. I was always filled with a mixture of anticipation and excitement at the thought of the meal that was sure to follow. This method of cooking is locally called boukannen. Boukannen is a cooking method whereby fish is cleaned, incised, rubbed with herbs and spices and hot smoked and grilled over charcoal ambers. A fish cooking method that is still very popular at beach picnics.
Mackerels Ready to be Grilled in a Double Boukan
Where does Boukan come from?
I will attempt to trace the origin of this method of cookery that we inherited from the Caribbean through Réunion Island (then Île de Bourbon).
The Caribbean influence
In the early 1630’s the island of Hispaniola (now divided politically into the Republic of Haiti, in the west, and the Dominican Republic in the east) and some other nearby Caribbean islands were inhabited by some ordinary European settlers and adventurers made up mostly of French and English. Most of them were hunters who earned their living by selling smoked meat of wild cattle and boars to the passing ships. They were often seen cooking the meat on the wooden frames and drying it in the sun. A method of preserving meat that they copied from the Caribbean Arawak hunters who also used similar frames, called buccan.
The Arawak Tribe Smoking Fish on a Buccan
The French Influence
The meat they caught was smoked over a slow fire, in little huts the French Hunters called ‘boucan des chasseurs’. Most of the meat was salted first and then smoked over burning aromatic plants. Pork was by far the most popular meat cooked on the boucan, but turtle, barbecued in its shell (boucan de tortue), was also a favorite. This method assisted in prolonging the life of the smoked meat as well as adding extra flavour to it, a prerequisite especially if the meat were to be sold to those who were staying a long time at sea.
This procedure gave rise to the word ‘boucanier’ that was applied to the French Hunters themselves and also to ‘boucaner’ or ‘boucannage’ which was the meat preservation method. Boucaner and boucannage were entered in the ‘Dictionnaire de l’Académie Francaise’ in 1694 and were described as “faire cuire, faire rotir la viande à la manière des Sauvages”.
The engraving below depicts a “Boucanier” in the process of smoking meat. You can also see them butchering the animals and laying out the hides to tan. (From Nicolas De Fer’s 1698 Map L’amerique.
The English Influence
The English colonists or settlers in their turn anglicised the word ‘boucanier’ to buccaneer and eventually the term was applied by extension to the corsairs and (later) privateers themselves, also known as the Brethren of the Coast. The name was applied to them because, like the hunters on land, they also lived off the bounty they plundered at sea. They called this activity ‘buccaneering’ and the term became universally adopted later around 1684.
The Spanish Influence
The Spaniards also played their part and referred to this method of preserving as well as cooking meat over an open flame as’ barbacoa’ which later became known as ‘barbecue’.
The boukan in Réunion Island and Seychelles
The word boukan, written in Seychellois creole with a ‘K’, and all its associated terms, including boukan, boukannen, boukannaz, were introduced to ‘Ile de Bourbon’ now Réunion Island, by sailors and/or the Compagnie des Indes’ personnel around 1715 and subsequently introduced in the Seychelles as early as 1770.
Boucan in Réunion Island
In Réunion Island the word ‘boucan’ is not widely used as a method of cooking or preserving meat. It was, and is still used, although rarely, to describe a small hut which is true to the origin of the word as described above.
Mr Robert Chaudenson in his book ‘Creolization of Language and Culture’ has this interesting paragraph:
“The term boucan is well attested there (in Réunion) from the end of the seventeenth century, first intoponyms (Boucan de Laleu (1685), and then as a common noun (au boucan des malades,‘in the sick hut’(1729). Incidentally, these examples show that the word did not refer to a shed specifically used for smoking, but rather designated a hut or thatched shelter, plain and simple. The term was so poorly understood by the administrative authorities who spoke ‘standard’ French that the toponym Boucan de Laleu was euphemized on high-level orders to Repos de Laleu – boucan having been confused with its homonym in French, which means ‘bad place’ (i.e., ‘whorehouse’)!”
This site below explains a little more about the ‘Boucan de Laleu’.
https://www.cparama.com/forum/saint-leu-t1354.html
“Le lieu dit Boucan de Laleu, est mentionné sur la carte de l’île dès la fin du 17 ème siècle. Il tiendrait son nom de Laleu, Garde-magasin de la région de Saint-Paul qui aimant la solitude s’y était construit un boucan, en créole se mot signifie cabane, abri. Sur la demande de la Compagnie des Indes, le nom boucan, jugé inconvenant, fut changé en Repos Laleu. Le boucan ou Repos Laleu fit partie de Saint-Paul jusqu’en 1777, la localité fut érigée en commune en 1790, sous le nom de Saint-Leu.”
Boucané
Strangely enough, it is the French word boucané, derived from ‘boucan’, that is used to describe the smoked and preserved meat. Pork is usually the preferred meat to be ‘boucané’, known as ‘boucané de porc’. Boucané, apart from meaning the product is also used to describe the smoking process. The meat is prepared with all its spices and hooked up on top of a wooden fire located in an outside kitchen, away from any strong draft, and smoked for up to two days. The smoked meat is then used to prepare a variety of dishes like ‘rougail boucané’.
Another word derived from boucan is ‘boucanage’ and it is used to describe in the preparation of the ‘boucané’.
Boukan in Seychelles
In Seychelles ‘boukan’, spelt with a ‘k’, became associated with the equipment used to perform the smoking. We will discuss how the Seychellois boukan is made a bit later. The term ‘boucanner’ (French) or boukannen (creole) became the method used to hot smoke or grill fish and meat.
Boukannen, was introduced in the Seychelles by the first settlers who needed to find ways to preserve their precious food because the tropical heat of the islands would have very quickly spoiled their meat. Boukannen was probably, apart from salting and sun drying, one of the only other ways for them to preserve their meat. Their new environment would have been very conducive for such a method of cookery and preservation because there was plenty of hard wood to be used as fuel; an abundance of fish to grill and smoke, as well as endless supply of coconut leaves from which they could prepare their ‘boukan’.
As the years progressed, the term boucané, or Boukannen progressively moved away from its original process which was purely that of a drying and preservation method to that of a cooking method. Furthermore , this method is now mainly applied to fish and not as much to meat.
Coincidentally, boukannen is also a game of marbles. I will explain this game in a future post.
Boukan around the world
Interestingly, the ‘boukan’ did not find its way only to the Seychelles, but also to many of the islands and countries that were occupied by the French. For example, in Haiti, as expected, they have their famous ‘Pwason Boukannen’ written exactly like we would write it in Seychelles and cooked in the open air. In Guadeloupe and Martinique, they have a dish called ‘poulet boucané’- a sugar cane smoked chicken. In Canada the word ‘boucanière’ or ‘boucannerie’ is a factory where fish is smoked, especially herring.
How do we make the Seychellois boukan?
The boukan was and is still being made from the green mid-rib of the coconut leaf from which the leaflets have been removed and along which a slit is made. It is tied initially at one end to stop the slit from splitting completely. It is about a meter long.
Jacques Pool making a boukan ——————- Maya holding a Boukan ready to use
Other types of non-toxic timber can also be used to make the boukan but the coconut mid-rib is the preferred choice because it is easily accessible and most importantly it does not burn that easily because of its high moisture content. Furthermore, it is also very flexible.
The fish, especially mackerel, is cleaned, incisions are made in the flesh and a spice mixture is inserted in the incisions as well as inside the belly cavity. The spice mixture consists of chopped onion, pounded garlic and ginger, chopped tomato, chilli, lime juice and oil.
Fish is skewered from head to tail and placed five or six in a row into the slits. The skewers stop the fish from breaking up during the cooking process. Once all the fish have been inserted in the slit, the other end of the boukan is tied so that the fish is held tightly. Small fish are usually inserted at a 90-degree angle in the boukan, but larger fish are inserted lengthwise into the boukan and no skewers are required
Large fish in a Boukan
It is critical that the fish is held tight because the boukan is usually turned a few times so that the fish can be grilled evenly and also to facilitate the basting of both sides of the fish with the prepared marinade.
Boukan Doub
Boukan doub literally means double boukan. Sometimes when the fish to be boukannen is a large one, two boucan are placed parallel to each other to minimse the possibility of the fish breaking up or falling off .
Boukan Doub
How to cook a fish ‘boukannen’
Once the boukan is completed and the fish is securely inserted into it, the charcoal is lit. A few rocks are placed at opposite ends of the lit charcoal. The boukan is placed on these rocks and stabilised. Once the charcoal turns to ember, the fish is oiled, brushed with lime juice and the boukan is laid approximately one third of a meter over the smoking embers. It is turned occasionally to ensure even grilling. If the fish is to be used the next day it is not fully cooked, but only hot smoked.
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