Top of the Food Pops: The recipes you loved the most in 2022

A new recipe every weekday, five a week, 20-plus a month, amounting to 260 in a whole year. Welcome to my little food world. So I got to choose my top picks for the year, from those 260, based on my personal preferences and also knowing what went into devising so many of them. But you get to have a say too, and we can work out what most of you favour simply by crunching the numbers. The results are interesting…

When comparing these numbers, bear in mind that 5,000 clicks is a pretty good rate for a single story, and anything above 10,000 is a big score indeed. And the top five in the list all scored well above 20,000. And in South African book publishing, 4,000 sales is a bestseller. So these numbers are very good to see from where I’m sitting.

Here’s a little statistic that knocked me out: Of the eight most popular recipes cooked, written and published in TGIFood this year, eight were Throwback Thursdays. These are based purely on numbers. They’re the most clicked and read recipes of them all, the ones you liked the most.

So, here’s the People’s Choice Top 10. Let the countdown begin (and don’t look down!)…

In 10th position: Rice pudding (12,514 clicks)

There’s not much more traditional than good old rice pudding, and this Throwback Thursday recipe is based on my mom’s rice pudding she made almost every week when I was growing up. It contains sultanas (or raisins) and is set with no fewer than three beaten eggs. There’s citrus peel in it, and spices too.

In 9th place: Air fryer hasselback potatoes with thyme butter (14,378, and that number will climb)

Well how about this; if it isn’t our recipe from only a week ago. Honestly, the reluctant air fryer that I somewhat churlishly allowed into my kitchen has become something akin to a favourite pet. Expect much more from it in the year ahead. These hasselbacks were ridiculously good, crispy, soft inside, and the thyme butter, well, need I say more… oh, it was also in my personal top five, by the way.

In 8th position: Dark Malva Pudding (15,976 clicks)

This was a favourite of mine too though it did not quite make my Top 5. Another Throwback Thursday, for which I used muscovado sugar that my family had brought as a gift from Mauritius. It lent the malva a dreamy depth of flavour that I just adored. For my own top picks though, I chose another malva recipe, one with orange and brandy and topped with drunken blueberries.

In 7th place: Chilli con carne (16,242 reads)

And here’s another Throwback Thursday choice: my chilli con carne, from June, the key to which is to cook it very slowly to develop all that flavour. It’s a family favourite but it does not deserve shortcuts. Give it time and attention and you will be rewarded.

In 6th position: Rich dark chocolate cake (16,774 clicks)

This was No 2 in my personal Top 5, so we’re all agreed that this one was a winner. I set out to do a better job of that ubiquitous chocolate cake you find at a café and when you take a bite it’s a huge disappointment. It’s the recipe I receive the most compliments about, and a friend of a friend even had it made as her wedding cake.

In 5th place and the first in the Top 5: Drunken Irish Stew (20,502)

All five recipes in our top 5 achieved more than 20,000 clicks. This was published on the 17th of March, St Patrick’s Day, and the secret to it is two things: genuine Guinness, and strong beef stock. These two elements make a simple dish extraordinary. Oh, and time, for the meat to become perfectly tender and all those lovely flavours to get richer and richer.

In 4th position: Macaroni cheese (25,028)

Well, I didn’t expect this. Yet another Throwback Thursday recipe (as were the chocolate cake and the Irish stew). It’s made with bacon, cream, garlic, and three kinds of cheese and is both creamy and packed with flavour.

In 3rd place: Bacon & Cheese muffins (25,295)

Really? This recipe from July was one of those that I knocked together one morning when I didn’t have a recipe for the day, spotted some bacon in the fridge, and thought, that’ll do. And now look: the third most popular recipe of the year. You just never know.

In 2nd place, and the tension builds (don’t look down!): Durban Curry (27,158)

I take my curries very seriously so I’m delighted that this one was such a hit. It was about what Durban Curry is as much as the recipe. I wrote, last March, that Durban curry was “the end result of trial and circumstance; a distillation of the India that indentured labourers had come from and what they made of the strange land they had made their new home. Durban Curry. Arguably, and for some of us undoubtedly, the greatest curry in the world.” And I do believe it is.

People’s Choice Recipe of the Year: Boontjiesop (27,426 clicks)

Well, well, well. This is a pleasant surprise and it proves my firm belief that you all appreciate our lovely old traditional recipes. It’s a national treasure and it was a Throwback Thursday piece in which I trawled the world for bean soups everywhere. But the best of them all, surely, comes from the kitchens that populate the Karoo. When the summer is finally gone, the idea of a steaming bowl of boontjiesop makes the onset of winter much more welcome.

Cheers to all that, and here's to many more lovely recipes in 2023. DM/TGIFood

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks. Share your versions of his recipes with him on Instagram and he’ll see them and respond.

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