🇮🇩 The cattle breeds of Indonesia

Cattle play a small part in Indonesia's food traditions. Water buffalo meat appears in old Javanese dishes and in grilled satay, and beef rendang is one of the five dishes named national in 2018. Beyond that, cattle and buffalo appear mainly as meat for feasts and everyday meals.

• Old Javanese inscriptions record buffalo satay and buffalo simmered with palm sugar
• Beef rendang was one of five dishes named national in 2018
• At the Mataram court, sheep, goat and buffalo meat were grilled and fried for feasts
• Javanese cooks used coconut oil rather than butter, unlike Europeans
• Beef rendang, satay and sambal are popular in Malaysia and Singapore

Cattle in Indonesia

In Indonesia's cooking, cattle and water buffalo appear mainly on the plate rather than in the field. Water buffalo meat was minced and grilled as satay, and cooked down with palm sugar, in dishes noted in Javanese inscriptions from the eighth to tenth centuries. Grilled meats of that era could be buffalo, pork, deer or goat. Beef rendang, a slow-cooked meat dish, was named one of five national dishes in 2018. At the Mataram court in seventeenth-century Java, sheep, goat and buffalo meat was seasoned, then grilled or fried for celebrations. The cooking of the archipelago draws on Indian, Middle Eastern, Chinese and European influences, and beef dishes have travelled to Malaysia and Singapore.

Milk, butter and beef

Beef is the meat behind rendang, one of the five dishes named national in 2018 and a dish now common in Malaysia and Singapore. Water buffalo meat was minced for satay and simmered with palm sugar in old Javanese cooking. In seventeenth-century Java, sheep, goat and buffalo meat was seasoned and then grilled or fried for celebrations at the Mataram court. Javanese cooks used coconut oil rather than butter, unlike Europeans. Milk and dairy foods do not feature in this account of Indonesian eating.

Festivals, fairs and faith

At the Mataram court in Java in the seventeenth century, meat was seasoned and then grilled or fried for celebrations. From about the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, coastal trading towns took up Islamic halal law and left pork out of the diet, while inland Batak and Dayak communities kept older Austronesian ways that included pork, bushmeat and blood. Rice harvest rituals such as Seren Taun marked the farming year, and the rice goddess Dewi Sri was honoured in ancient Java and Bali.

Today

Beef rendang was among five dishes named national in 2018 by the tourism ministry, after tumpeng had been chosen as the single national dish in 2014. Satay, beef rendang and sambal are now common in neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore. Older Javanese inscriptions from the eighth to tenth centuries record buffalo dishes that resemble present-day ones, such as Balinese sate lilit.