Samp Explained

Country:	Zambia (Barotseland)/South Africa
Creators:	-->
Serving Size:	100 g

Samp is a food made from dried corn kernels that have been pounded and chopped until broken, but not as finely ground as mealie-meal or mielie rice. The coating around the kernel loosens and is removed during the pounding and stamping process. It is eaten across South Africa and by the Lozi and Tonga people of Zambia with sugar and sour milk.^[1] It can also be served with gravy and various additives. It is cooked with beans in the Xhosa variant of umngqusho and sometimes eaten with chakalaka. It can also be served with beef, lamb, poultry and in stuffings.

"Samp" is of Native American origin, coming from the Narragansett word "nasàump."^[2] New Englanders since early colonial times have referred to cornmeal mush or cereal as "samp."

Like hominy, samp is prepared from groats (dehulled kernels) of maize, but the two are produced by different processes.

Unbroken and unhusked maize (corn) kernels can also be cooked (boiled) until tender. This food is called "stampmielies" in Afrikaans. Samp is often served with beans, as in "samp and beans".

See also

• List of maize dishes
• Dikgobe

Notes and References

1. Toi. Cheryl Sam. Cleaton-Jones. Peter. April 2006. The effect of traditional African food mixtures on growth, pH and extracellular polysaccharide production by mutans streptococci in vitro. Anaerobe. 12. 2. 99–105. 10.1016/j.anaerobe.2006.01.001. 16701622. 1075-9964.
2. Book: Stavely. Keith. https://books.google.com/books?id=MVLqCQAAQBAJ&q=nas%C3%A0ump.&pg=PA22. America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking. Fitzgerald. Kathleen. 2006-03-08. Univ of North Carolina Press. 978-0-8078-7672-5. 22. en. Corn Samp and Hominy. Roger Williams [...] was an open-minded and acute observer of the native way of life, [...] In his account of the Narragansett group with which he was most familiar, written in the 1640s, Williams referred to a corn preparation called “Nasàump" [...“...] From this the English call their samp, which is the Indian corn, beaten and boiled, and eaten hot or cold with milk or butter, which are mercies beyond the natives’ plain water, and which is a dish exceedingly wholesome for the English bodies.”.