Tony Jackman’s monkeygland drumsticks and chips. (Photo: Tony Jackman)
Would you believe that I know chefs in the upper echelons of our restaurant industry who love monkeyland sauce? I actually think it’s ripe for reinvention on a refined level, so I’ll just put that out there.
There are two versions of the supposed origins of monkeygland sauce, both relating to famous city hotels. One is London’s Savoy, where a waiter called Cavaliere Bagatta worked and, on emigrating to South Africa, took the recipe with him. That’s the theory, though the evidence is scant. But maybe we can take this further, so read on…
Bagatta supposedly then worked at Johannesburg’s Carlton Hotel, the site of the second claim about the sauce’s origins, and introduced it to the menu there.
The best-known supposed origin of the sauce is that French chefs at the Carlton, derisive of local patrons’ habit of pouring tomato sauce, chutney and Worcestershire sauce on their delicate French dishes, concocted a sauce containing those things and more, and named it after monkeys’ glands as an insult to their palates.
Legend has it that, instead of being put off, patrons loved it and started ordering monkeygland sauce more often than Béarnaise or Café de Paris.
The Savoy theory is that a sauce was concocted and named in honour (or perhaps dishonour) of Dr Sergei Voronoff’s experiments in grafting monkey testicle tissue onto human males, to give their love life a bit of a kick and extend their lives in the process. Voronoff was a customer, and staff supposedly named his favourite steak dish after his work.
Now, we may never really know which story fits best, and they appear to be linked at any rate. But there is a ring of reality about the pissed-off chefs theory. It sounds likely.
What we do know is that there were Bagatta family members – Tony and Colombo – who were prominent in the local restaurant industry in the second half of the 20th century. There are online claims that Cavaliere Bagatta, after working at the Carlton, moved to Cape Town and was based at Del Monico, a famous restaurant.
I would welcome more substantial information on Cavaliere Bagatta and the origins of monkeygland sauce – please email me at tony@dailymaverick if you can flesh out or verify any aspects of these claims.
In the meantime, I decided to make my own version of a monkeygland sauce and used it for roasting drumsticks in an air fryer.
The core elements are tomato sauce, chutney, Worcestershire sauce and brown vinegar, but I souped it up a bit more by adding chilli oil, balsamic reduction, garlic salt and paprika.
Tony’s monkeygland chicken drumsticks, air fryer-style
(Per 8 plump drumsticks)
Ingredients
8 plump chicken drumsticks
For the monkeygland marinade:
½ cup Mrs HS Ball’s chutney
½ cup All Gold tomato sauce
3 Tbsp brown grape vinegar
2 Tbsp Lazenby Worcestershire Sauce
2 Tbsp balsamic reduction
1 Tbsp Banhoek Garlic Chilli Oil (or other chilli oil)
1 tsp garlic salt
½ tsp paprika
Method
Choose a bowl or tub that can hold 8 drumsticks. Mix the monkeygland ingredients together in the bowl and stir well.
Dunk the drumsticks in it and make sure they’re coated all over. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or all day or overnight if you like.
Bring them to room temperature an hour before cooking them.
Preheat an air fryer to 190°C.
Place the chicken portions in the basket with a little space between them for airflow, and cook for 20 minutes at 190°C. Baste them halfway through, without turning them over.
After the 20 minutes has passed, turn the drumsticks over, baste the top sides, and roast for another 20 minutes, basting halfway through again.
Test for doneness by cutting to the bone. If they’re still pink, give them another 2 or 3 minutes. (Mine were done, however.)
I cooked chips in the other air fryer, an ideal accompaniment. DM
Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award, in 2021 and 2023.
Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.
This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.