The Art of Making Goan Toddy Vinegar
A look at the history and heritage of toddy vinegar, an indispensable ingredient in Goan Catholic cooking.
Goan food is incomplete without the magical ingredient — vinegar. As a child, I would watch curiously as my mother and grandmother would ferment an opalescent white fluid called toddy, or sur in Konkani, to a tangy and tart vinegar. It was probably these sessions that ignited my love for microbiology.
Vinegar fermentation in Goa is as much as art as it is a science and definitely holds its own in history and heritage. Toddy or sur is the sweet sap collected traditionally by men known as toddy tappers or renders. Renders are Goan natives and are from both the Catholic and Hindu communities. Although toddy tapping was known to the native Goans before the Portuguese arrived, it was definitely the Portuguese influence that led to a more efficient way of using toddy. The Portuguese missionaries used their knowledge to establish alembics (distilleries) to distill toddy from agaurdente (literally translates to ‘burning water’ but means the distillate of fermented pulps). Feni itself is derived from the word froth or feno in Konkani, referring to the froth seen in the sur or toddy as it begins to ferment.
Goan Toddy Vinegar
The Process of Toddy Tapping
Toddy can be freshly had as a refreshing drink or used to make soft fluffy sannas (rice cakes) or fermented to make alcohol, which is traditionally obtained by passing through a clay distillation unit known as the laune. Toddy is also used to produce jaggery, or the the black madachem godd. Toddy, if left as such, gets quickly converted to a mild alcohol, and a prolonged incubation yields vinegar — also known as a ‘sour wine’ or le vinaigre in French.
Renders are usually adult males, and they climb the 5-8 meter tall coconut trees by carving out hampam /grooves into the trunk. A traditional render like Jose from Majorda is seen with a kati, a dudhinem and a kollso. The sap is extracted or tapped from the cluster of unopened flowers/poi through zig-zag cuts made using a sickle known as the kati.The poi is tied with vaie which are strands made from treated coconut leaves. A single poi exudes sur for little over a month. This sap trickles into an earthen vessel known as the dammonem. Toddy is collected twice a day from the dammonem, which is then accumulated in an earthen pot. One pot yields about 13 to 15 litres of toddy.
Wide shot of a toddy tapper/render
Close up of a toddy tapper/render
Home Fermentation 101
For the home fermentation of vinegar, the toddy is filtered through a dry muslin cloth into a stone ware vessel called buyão. However, some folks would prefer using bellied glass bottles, often tinted, known as garrafão. A piece of red hot roof tile is placed inside. My mother, on the other hand, prefers a burnt piece of a bangle-shaped bread known as the kakonn. The buyão is covered with a muslin cloth and left undisturbed for 22 days. After 22 days, it is taste-tested for tartness. The slimy cottony white layer of ‘mother vinegar’ is removed, and the vinegar is ready for consumption. The vinegar is strained and then filled into glass bottles or garrafãoes. These huge glass graffaoes or ceramic buyaos which were present in several households are sadly collectors’ items today.
Garrafãoes
It was Louis Pasteur who discovered that wine can become sour due to fermentation by a type of bacteria belonging to the genus Acetobacter. The fermentation bacteria forms a white cellulosic film over the toddy as fermentation progresses, and this is called the ‘mother vinegar’. The mother can be used as starter culture for other fermentations too.
The renders have ritual that they perform for their safety and prosperity. After a day of tapping, they pour a little sur near the last coconut tree. This is meant for God to protect them from mishaps in this risky occupation. Back in the day, after distillation, a little feni used to be thrown on the flames. These practices could be an offshoot of the older Goan practices for appeasing the devchar/ devil.
Vinegars have multitude of uses apart from their obvious culinary applications. They are used as disinfectants for wounds or burns and also as kitchen cleaners. Goan Catholic cuisine depends heavily on vinegar as an ingredient as well as a preservative. Hindu cuisine, on the other hand, uses tamarind pulp, dry mango solam, kokum or lime for tanginess. Recheado is a popular masala made from a paste of dry red chillies and other spices ground in vinegar and this is used to stuff fish like mackerel and pomfret. The tartness or the tanginess of the recheado bangdo (mackerel) would not have left a lasting imprint if not for the vinegar. Several dishes like the world famous sorpatel, vindalhos, the Goan tossed salad, feijoada (a preparation of beans and sausages), sweet and sour prawns all rely heavily on this exotic vinegar obtained from the hard work of the humble render. Today, toddy tapping is a dying art, and tappers have gone in pursuit of greener pastures. For now, let us savour this home-crafted vinegar while it lasts.
Judith Maria Braganca is a microbiologist and enjoys exploring various cultures, in particular, her Goan heritage.
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