Ball's....Mrs. Ball's..

Expats can be so funny, I actually believe it has been the expat community that have given Mrs Ball's Chutney the culinary cult status it now holds. I would not be in the least surprised if some time in the future a bronze statue of Mrs Amelia Ball is put up outside the Fish Hoek library...

But lets face it, what is a curry without a dollop of chuties?
As chutney goes, in South Africa, and among the majority of the expat community, Mrs Ball's Chutney is queen...and when Saffas leave S.A. they either track down a South African grocer, an on-line supplier or get family back home to parcel up a stock.


There are many different brands of chutney on supermarket shelves in S.A..and to be honest, any decent tuisnywerheid will stock a variety of primo de lux home made chutney. However, when it comes to commercial products, my favourite is the Wellingtons sultana chutney. But since that is impossible to obtain in my neck of the woods, I buy Mrs Ball's in bulk, as it is a quality product that has remained the same since I was a kid. It is the national staatmaker and there is no foreign made substitute to be found at the local Indian and Asian speciality grocers. The products available are not even close, and even Patak's isn't a patch on any of the South African products...and certainly not even close to Mrs Ball's.

But did you know, the success story of Mrs H.S. Ball's Chutney has very humble beginnings.

In 1852 when the SS Quanza was ship-wrecked off East London, South Africa, en route from Canada to Australia, Captain Adkins and his wife were lucky to escape with not only their lives but also the blueprint for what was to become one of South Africa's most unique and priceless culinary icons. Captain Adkins and his wife settled in King Williamstown. In 1865 their daughter, Amelia, was born who was later to marry Mr Herbert Sandleton Ball, a railway superintendent form Cape Town. As part of her coming of age, the young bride was given the coveted secret chutney recipe.

When The Great War broke out in 1914, the Ball's chutney was being made on a small scale and was either given as gifts to friends or sold at church bazaars. So popular became its wholesome, piquant and fruity flavour that the Ball kitchen was transformed into a makeshift production line. As demand continued to soar, Amelia and Herbert sought the assistance of Cape Town businessman Fred Metter, who procured both the octagonal jar and the oval label with which today's chutney lovers are so familiar.

In this house in Cape Town, Amelia Ball began making the chutney we know today as Mrs H. S. Ball’s Chutney

Notions to name the product "Mrs H.S. Ball's Chutney" were uncontested as were those to add the Ball family crest to the top of then label. The Woodstock factory opened in 1917 to meet escalating demand, and as exports to Great Britain increased, an even bigger facility was later opened in Deep River.
Amelia Ball died in 1962 aged 97.

The Afrikaans word for chutney is 'blatjang'. The word has its origin in the Javanese sambal 'blachang' that was imported before chutney was produced in the Cape. Blatjang is the pride of the Cape Malay kitchen, and it has been described as a "bitingly spicy, pungently aromatic, moderately smooth and a very intimately mixed association of ingredients".

Today, Mrs H. S. Ball's Chutney world famous, and is available world wide from Dulstroom to Dubai, it is exported to many countries, including Sweden, UK, Australia, and USA.