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Bush Meat Pepper Soup

Bushmeat Pepper Soup is a forest community therapeutic soup that has sustained Southern Nigerian communities for centuries. Wild game — most commonly grasscutter (greater cane rat), porcupine or bush pig — is cooked in the pepper soup spice broth, creating a soup with a distinctly deep, complex, gamey flavour that domestic animal meat cannot replicate.

Bush Meat Pepper Soup, Nigerian cooking

Ingredients

  • a big portion of grasscutter (greater cane rat) or any available wild game, cleaned and cut into pieces
  • Lemon juice, salt and potash solution for cleaning
  • 1 tablespoon of ground uziza seeds — generous
  • 1 teaspoon of ground ehuru
  • 1 teaspoon of ground Cameroon pepper
  • Half a teaspoon of ground selim pepper (uda)
  • 4 to 5 Atarodo (very hot chilli peppers) — whole
  • 3 big handfuls of ground dried crayfish
  • 2 big onions, sliced
  • 2 seasoning cubes (Knorr), crushed
  • Salt to taste
  • 6 glasses of water
  • A generous handful of fresh scent leaves, torn
  • A handful of uziza leaves, shredded

Method

  1. 01

    Thorough Cleaning of Wild Game. Singe off remaining fur. Rub very thoroughly with potash solution, lemon juice and coarse salt. Rinse repeatedly — wild game requires more thorough cleaning than domestic meat. The cleaning removes the initial intensity of the wild smell while preserving the characteristic game depth.

  2. 02

    Building the Forest Broth. Place cleaned wild game in a large pot with 6 glasses of water. Add sliced onion, whole Atarodo, all ground pepper soup spices, ground crayfish, seasoning cubes and salt. The extra uziza is particularly important for bushmeat — it complements and enhances the natural gamey flavour.

  3. 03

    Long Simmering. Bring to a vigorous boil. Skim foam. Reduce to medium-low. Cover and simmer for 50 minutes to 1 hour until wild game is completely tender. Cooking time varies by animal.

  4. 04

    Adding the Therapeutic Herbs. Add scent leaves and uziza leaves in the final 5 minutes. Serve immediately, piping hot.

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