roosterkoek, noun

Forms:
roestekoek, roostekoekShow more Also roestekoek, roostekoek, rooster cock, roster-koek, roster-kook.
Plurals:
unchanged, or roosterkoeks.
Origin:
AfrikaansShow more Afrikaans, rooster grid(iron) + koek cake.
a. A bread or dough cake, leavened or unleavened, baked on a grid-iron over a fire; roaster-cake sense b; roaster cookie; rooster cake; roosterkoekie. Cf. cookie.
a1878 J. Montgomery Reminisc. (1981) 53The old people were very dark, but they received me kindly, soon made a big rooster cock (griddle cake) and grilled some meat.
1880 O.E.A. Schreiner in C. Clayton Woman’s Rose (1986) 16When she went to the house her mistress gave her a whole roosterkoek for her supper, and the mistress’s daughter had stuck a rose in the cake.
1911 D.B. Hook ’Tis but Yesterday 16Marie had everything in readiness — ‘roosterkoek’ (scones), coffee, biltong, which were all stored in the front wagon-box.
1913 W.C. Scully in F.G. Butler When Boys Were Men (1969) 250I had brought in my pocket a lump of roster-koek (a lump of unleavened dough, flattened out and roasted on a gridiron).
1936 C. Birkby Thirstland Treks 241He ate..roosterkoek, dampers made of sour dough, and over cups of the Afrikaners’ black coffee he heard their tales of misfortune.
1941 A.G. Bee Kalahari Camp Fires (1943) 179Taking a blanket, coffee, sugar..‘rooster-koeks’, meat, a shot gun,..he followed.
1950 H. Gerber Cape Cookery 47Both Vetkoek and Roosterkoek were made either with unleavened dough or with a dough leavened with suurdeeg.
1964 L.G. Green Old Men Say 133These old aias..are treated with great respect. They can bake..roosterkoek.
1978 Sunday Times 5 Mar. (Mag. Sect.) 3The women had made roosterkoek and soetsuurdeeg bread. Then they served homemade apricot jam. The wine, dry and tart, was made in the district.
1986 C. Kirstein Best S. Afr. Braai Recipes 80Bread..can be a traditonally South African ‘cook-over-the-coals’ bread such as ‘roosterkoek’.
1992 G. Etherington in Weekend Post 9 May (Leisure) 4There was freshly baked brown bread and roosterkoek.
b. askoek sense 1.
1900 B.M. Hicks Cape as I Found It 170The coffee is the most delicious you ever tasted in your life — the roestekoeks, too, that have been roasting on the ‘coals’.
1977 Fair Lady 8 June (Suppl.) 37There’s plenty for big beef eaters in braaivleis country, chops, homemade boerewors, sosaties, mealiepap and roosterkoek cooked in the ashes.
A bread or dough cake, leavened or unleavened, baked on a grid-iron over a fire; roaster-cake sense b; roaster cookie; rooster cake; roosterkoekie.
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18781992