The choko (Sechium edule) is a member of the same plant family as cucumbers, melons, pumpkins and squashes. It is a pear shaped fruit with a deeply furrowed surface. It can be covered in prickles, and these become more pronounced as the fruit ages. The firm, crisp flesh is cream coloured, and contains a single seed.Every part of the plant is edible from the underground tuber to the leaves and the young tendrils.Today the choko, which goes by a number of different names (chocho, chuen, christophine, chow chow, mirliton), is widely cultivated in warm temperate climates, in Mexico where it is thought to have originated, throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, south-east Asia and China, India and Africa.The choko made its way to Australia in 1890 thanks to the Queensland Acclimatisation Society.
The nineteenth century has been described as a century of acclimatisation, a period when an intense scientific interest in the natural world, and in particular the natural environment of distant lands, fused with imperial zeal to foster a desire ‘to correct the unequal distribution of the earth’s natural productions’ and finish the work which nature appeared to have left incomplete.[1] The idea that plants and animals from other countries could thrive and be of benefit in other environments was certainly not new. In a general sense, as part of the network of empire, acclimatisation societies served to formalise an already established world-wide exchange of animals and plants.[2]
The first acclimatisation society was established in Paris in 1854 and thereafter similar groups were formed throughout the world - in London in 1860, in other European cities, and in the colonies such as India, Ceylon and Algeria.[3] The first in Australia was the Victorian Acclimatisation Society founded in 1861 and other states (New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland and South Australia) quickly followed suit.[4]
The operations of individual acclimatisation societies depended in large part on the personal interests and inclinations of the membership and incidentally on their stance regarding the newly articulated and hotly debated theories of evolution. Scientifically acclimatisation in the nineteenth century meant the gradual adaptation of plants and animals to conditions which differed from their original habitat but the term was often used interchangeably with domestication, adapting wild plants and animals for human use, and naturalisation.[5] In Australia acclimatisation was generally understood as the practical science of naturalisation, that is the introduction of foreign animals and plants from climates and environments similar to those found here, and their subsequent successful rearing and propagation.[6]
Thanks to the influence of Edward Wilson, proprietor of the Melbourne Argus, ardent enthusiast for acclimatisation and the first president of the Victorian Society, all the local bodies adopted roughly the same rules and objectives, principally the collection, breeding, propagation and distribution of innoxious animals and plants, both foreign and indigenous, and the dissemination of the knowledge gained.[7]
Acclimatisation societies in general have borne the brunt of much criticism. In Australia the acclimatisation movement has been accused of a desire to reshape the land for ‘aesthetics and recreation’, for undervaluing the Australian environment and trying to make it into something more interesting or more familiar, and of course for their errors of judgement such as the introduction of mynar birds and sparrows. [8]
But this fault finding fails to recognise the societies also had an interest in indigenous flora and fauna and an underlying practical motivation. The naturalist, Dr George Bennett, who had a keen interest in understanding and protecting Australian fauna and had a long association with the Australian Museum, was an advocate of acclimatisation.[9] He saw it as a means of increasing the resources of the colony, expanding commerce, providing employment, and adding to the food choices available. Whilst we might take exception to his reasoning, he did recognise that native animals both needed to be protected and could be useful. While Bennett proposed the introduction of antelope as a source of meat, he also recommended indigenous sources such as kangaroo, wombat, bandicoot, wonga pigeon, and brush turkey as worthy of investigation with a view to commercialisation.[10] As Pete Minard has made clear in his study of the Victorian Society, acclimatisation in Australia focused on ‘engineering the local ecology for human benefit’ and this is particularly evident in the activities of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society.[11]
The Queensland Society was established in 1862 at the instigation of the then Governor of Queensland Sir George Ferguson Bowen. It was granted land in Brisbane on which to conduct its investigations, which the Society imaginatively named Bowen Park. Given that Queensland had only recently become a self-governing colony it is hardly surprising that the society focused on making practical contributions to Queensland’s agricultural industry. Arguments in support of the society’s formation stressed its potential to aid in the development of the material resources of the colony and assist in establishing its prosperity.[12]
The gentleman of the Queensland Acclimatisation society did not completely disregard the introduction of animal species, but with a limited budget and small acreage at their disposal they soon concentrated their attention on economic botany.[13] Their principle aims became obtaining seeds, trees and plants with some intrinsic value and protecting and propagating the more valuable indigenous flora and distributing it both within the colony and to other countries.[14] The Queensland Acclimatisation society remained the principal government advisory body on agriculture until a Department of Agriculture was established in 1887. Although in decline both in membership and influence from then on, the Queensland society continued its activities until 1956, long after the enthusiasm for acclimatisation had waned and other Australian societies had been subsumed into zoological societies and the like.[15]
The mainstay of the Queensland Society was Lewis Adolphus Bernays (1831–1908).[16] Bernays was an enthusiastic amateur in as much as his day job was clerk of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1859 until his death in 1908. He served the acclimatisation society for thirty odd years as the first honorary secretary (1862–1868) and subsequently vice-president (1868–1881) and president (1890–1895). He was a prominent member of Brisbane society, a trustee of both the museum and the botanic gardens, and above all totally committed to the application of science in the interest of colonial progress. It was Bernays who grounded the objectives of the society in practical botany, his guiding principle being to confine the objects of the society to those of a ‘strictly utilitarian character’.[17]
In 1888 the then governor of Queensland, Sir Anthony Musgrave recommended the choko to Bernays and suggested he obtain samples from the director of the public gardens in Jamaica, where Musgrave had previously been governor. Bernays did so and a box of specimens was duly obtained, of which only two had survived the journey. In the care of the manager of Bowen Park these two ‘were nurtured into vigorous growth’ and, given that it had shown admirable adaption to the local climate, Bernays felt the ‘chocho’ was likely to become a useful addition to the local food plants as feed for both humans and animals.[18] As was the society’s usual practise samples were then sent far and wide to gardeners in Queensland and beyond, for them to experiment and determine the plant’s suitability for and adaptability to local conditions. But, as Bernays well knew the mere introduction and distribution of useful plants was not sufficient to ensure their successful commercial application.[19]
News of the choko and samples of the fruit appear to have spread almost as vigorously as the plant itself and in no time chokos were being exhibited at meetings of gardeners and beekeepers, and at agricultural shows, and were available to purchase at markets.[20] The choko quickly developed a reputation as hardy and prolific, a great attractor of bees when in flower, and all the more valuable because it could be ‘utilised on all lands to cover unsightly fences and buildings’.[21] By 1894 Mr Valder of Leichhardt, a Sydney suburb, who also happened to be the principal of Hawkesbury Agricultural College, reported that his one plant had covered 50 foot (that is around 15 metres) of fence and had yielded 3 to 4 dozen fruit every week from February through to June, some of which he had distributed to his neighbours, at least 20 of whom now had flourishing specimens of their own.[22]
Initially this phenomenal plant was of more interest to horticulturalists than to cooks. But it was clear that it was unlikely to be a commercial success. A significant problem was that, to be at their best, chokos needed to be eaten when small and young, and ideally freshly picked. They did not store well, quickly shooting and toughening and becoming unpalatable as they get older.[23] Many of the specimens available in shops were old and stale so that ‘many housekeepers, tried them once or twice, and concluded they were no good’.[24] Its potential as a food for pigs does not appear to have been extensively explored and the suggestion that there might be export potential in pickled chokos seems to have been a flight of fancy.[25]
Another issue which none of the horticulturalists mentioned was what was referred to as ‘the juice of the choko’.[26] Everyone who handled chokos, would have been aware that peeling them left the hands covered in what was variously described as ‘a sticky fluid’ or ‘a disagreeable film’, which was difficult to remove.[27] William Souter, onetime overseer of Bowen Park and confederate of Bernays, lamented that the choko was not fully appreciated by the general public’ but stale, tough and slimy, it is little wonder that it was slow to gain popularity. [28]
While the plant naturalised happily in the garden its naturalisation in the kitchen took time. To be acceptable means had to be found of domesticating the choko, incorporating it into the diet in familiar ways which belied its foreign origins. Fortunately, the choko was sufficiently bland in flavour to be readily disguised. From the beginning the choko was recommended as an alternative to more familiar fare – it could be treated in the same way as marrow and could be made to substitute for pears or apples.[29] Mrs Hannah Maclurcan was an early adopter of the choko. The first edition of her eponymous cookbook, published in Queensland in 1898 (while she was resident in Townsville), included a recipe for chokos peeled, boiled in salted water until tender, sliced, dipped in egg, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.[30] But chokos were slow to make their way into recipe books. They do not rate a mention in either Mrs Foster Rutledge’s The Goulburn Cookery Book (1905) or Home Cookery in Australia (1904), compiled from recipes contributed by housekeepers. There are no uses for chokos in The Schauer Cookery Book published in 1909 by the Misses Schauer, who were teachers of cookery and domestic arts in Brisbane at the time. However, The Worker Cook Book, another complied collection published in 1914, did provide a recipe for Choko Pickles.[31]
Recipe exchanges in the women’s pages of the newspapers gradually established the principal ways of using chokos – fried à la Maclurcan; boiled and served plain with butter or with some sort of sauce, usually flavoured with parsley or cheese; stuffed with either a meat or vegetable stuffing; or used as a fruit extender or substitute – in apple pies in particular, or in preserves, either jam, chutney or pickles.[32] Pickled chokos for example were considered equal to pickled cucumbers. It was not the choko itself but what it could be made to represent that became its greatest attribute.
Chokos finally came into their own from the 1920s and were common on tables throughout the depression and war years. Abundant and generally cheap if not freely available, they were particularly prized when other vegetables or fruit were expensive or in short supply. Cook Maggie Beer recollects that after WWII chokos were not necessarily available in shops but because so many people grew them, there was a glut every autumn and, since thrifty households did not waste anything, they were ‘a staple’.[33] In particular ‘Mock Apple Pie’ (involving stewed chokos, sweetened with sugar and flavoured with lemon juice) became familiar to many families.
If one of the advantages of chokos was that they had 'no distinctive flavour of their own' finding imaginative savoury uses for them remained something of a challenge. [34] In 1937 Ruth Furst, the cookery expert for the Australian Women’s Weekly had few original ideas to suggest, but she did propose Choko Salad (cooked and mixed with mayonnaise or French dressing; or used as an alternative to potato in potato salad), Curried Choko and Choko Souffle.[35] As time went on however even the choko adapted to more sophisticated tastes and changing ideas of what families should be eating at home.
By 1954 boiled chokos were served with Hollandaise sauce; chokos dressed with white sauce was now Choko Mornay; Stuffed Chokos had been transformed into Choko Farci, and last but not least there was Choko and Tuna Newburg (cooked choko halves topped with a white sauce flavoured with sherry to which was added a tin of tuna, served with fingers of hot buttered toast).[36] The Leila Howard test kitchen’s ‘20 Best Choko Recipes’ published in the Australian Women’s Weekly in 1971[37] included, along with the more traditional ideas, exotica like Creamy Minted Choko Soup, Chokoes à la Polonaise, Choko and Zucchini Salad, and Chokoes with Pineapple.
Chokos at last achieved culinary stardom, more than 100 years after first imported to Queensland, when Stephanie Alexander devoted a chapter to them in the second edition of her kitchen bible, The Cook’s Companion.[38] Alexander’s recipes for Chinese-style Pickled Choko (with ginger and chilli), Mexican Choko Salad (cooked choko mixed with tomato and onion, dressed with lime juice, extra virgin olive oil and coriander), and Choko Sautéed Mauritian-style (with chilli, garlic and oregano) recognised the versatility of the choko while acknowledging its foreign origins and international acclimatisation. Perhaps most significantly Mock Apple Pie finally shook off its derisory title to revel in the name Choko Tart from Jamaica, although Alexander did note that prepared in this way, that is cooked with cloves and favoured with the juice and zest of limes, the choko was said to be indistinguishable from apple. Maggie Beer also challenged the stereotype of the now ‘delicate’ rather than tasteless choko with recipes for sautéed chokos in olive oil with fresh thyme and garlic, and raw choko salad–with crab and a dressing of coconut milk and lemon juice or with witlof, bacon, croutons and a vinaigrette flavoured with chervil. [39]
Although these new recipes dragged the choko into the twenty first century it was, sadly, too late. Not yet rediscovered as fashionable, the choko is now only rarely available to buy at the greengrocer or farmer’s market. Many people can still remember chokos growing rampant in the back yard but today choko vines have all but disappeared from suburban gardens for a number of reasons not least the greater choice of vegetables and fruit available in the marketplace, and the gentrification of the garden along with the disappearance of the outhouse over which the vine was proverbially grown. Not everyone remembers the choko fondly, partly because it was such a regular feature of mealtimes and remains a reminder of days of scarcity and hardship.
The choko may not have fulfilled the hopes of the Queensland acclimatisation society but it has been absorbed into Australian culture in ways Bernays and his colleagues could not have anticipated. Since the choko’s reputation is forever tarnished by the association with ersatz food, in particular, mock pears and mock apple pies, two of the more persistent Australian urban myths are that canned pears are really sweetened chokos and that McDonalds use choko in their hot apple pies. And the choko vine’s vigour and ability to naturalise in the Australian back yard has given us this wonderful metaphor for someone or something totally hopeless or incompetent:
[1] Warren Anderson, ‘Climates of opinion: acclimatization in nineteenth century France and England’, Victorian Studies, 32 (2), 1992, pp. 135-57, p. 135. Quote from Linden Gillbank, ‘A tale of two animals – Alpaca and Camel. Zoological shaping of Mueller’s botanic gardens’, Victorian Historical Journal, 67 (1), 1996, pp. 83-102, p. 85.
[2] Anderson, 136. Pete Minard, All things harmless, useful and ornamental: environmental transformation through species acclimatization, from colonial Australia to the world (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019), p. 1.
[3] Acclimatisation societies were subsequently set up in Berlin, London (Society dated from 1860), Amsterdam, Brussels and Moscow and acclimatisation was an active interest of most zoological or botanical societies and institutes. Anderson, p 146.
[4] Tasmania 1862; South Australia 1864 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article159522742; Queensland 1862; NSW 1861.
[5] George William Francis, The acclimatisation of harmless, useful and interesting animals and plants: being a paper read before the Philosophical Society, Adelaide, South Australia on May 13th 1862 ‘The correct meaning of the word acclimatisation is evidently the process of rendering a plant or animal adapted to a climate different to that natural to it. If brought from a similar climate it may be introducing, domesticating, naturalising but not strictly acclimatisation.’ p. 5.
[6] Helen Clements, ‘Science and colonial culture: scientific interests and colonial institutions in Brisbane 1859–1900’ PhD thesis, Griffith University, 2019, pp. 97–98, quoted Dr George Bennett, 1872, Sydney naturalist.
[7] https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wilson-edward-4866
[8] Thomas R. Dunlap, 'Remaking the land: the acclimatisation movement and Anglo ideas of nature', Journal of World History, 8 (2), 1997, pp. 303–319, p. 303. Peter Osborne, ‘The Queensland Acclimatisation Society: challenging the stereotype’, Queensland Historical Journal, 20 (8), 2008, pp. 337–50.
[9] https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bennett-george-1770
[10] Dr. George Bennett, Acclimatisation: Its eminent adaptation to Australia, a lecture delivered in Sydney by Dr. George Bennett, W. M. Goodenough & Co., Melbourne 1862 ‘p. 5. See also Minard, p. 23.
[11] Minard, p. 10.
[12] Queensland was self-governing from 1859. Osborne, p. 340; Brisbane Courier, 15 August 1862, p. 341; 7 April 1863, p. 2.
[13] Brisbane Courier, 4 February 1868 p. 3; Brisbane Courier, 31 August 1869, p. 3; Brisbane Courier, 17 January 1871, p. 2.
[14] Clements, p. 105
[15] https://www.qhatlas.com.au/content/queensland-acclimatisation-society. The Victoria society folded in 1872.
[16] https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bernays-lewis-adolphus-2982
[17] Brisbane Courier, 4 February 1868, p. 3.
[18] See Telegraph (Brisbane) 11 February 1889, p. 3 ‘Acclimatisation Society’, for receipt of ‘box of seeds’; Brisbane Courier, 12 October 1889, p. 6 ‘Queensland Acclimatisation Society’ ‘the choko introduced last year from Jamaica has again commenced to grow vigorously’; Brisbane Courier, 14 June 1890, p. 6.
[19] Louis Bernays, Cultural Industries for Queensland, Brisbane: J. C Beal, 1888, preface.
[20] Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 19 May 1893, p. 3 (Field Naturalist’s Society), Windsor and Richmond Gazette, 29 July 1893, p. 4 (The Beekeepers Association); Macleay Argus, 7 March 1984, p. 5 (the Port Macquarie Agricultural Show); available to purchase The Cumberland Mercury, 28 July 1894, p. 1; Windsor and Richmond Gazette, 26 May 1894, p. 3; Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Advertiser, 12 May 1894, p. 6.
[21] Dungog Chronicle, 27 November 1894, p. 3.
[22] Australian Town and Country Journal, 30 June 1894, p. 22.
[23] Wm Souter, Brisbane Courier, 25 February 1904, p. 2.
[24] Sydney Morning Herald, 15 May 1918, p. 7.
[25] Australian Town and Country Journal, 3 November 1894, p. 22.
[26] Queenslander, 26 October 1918, p. 30.
[27] The Propeller (Hurstville), 26 October 1923, p. 7; Sunday Times (Sydney), 16 May 1926, p. 22. Suggested ways of overcoming the problem involved either peeling under water, smearing the hands with dripping before peeling, or cutting off the stem end of the fruit and allowing it to sit and ‘bleed’ before peeling.
[28] See Australian Town and Country Journal, 3 November 1894, p. 22 suggesting pickling whole small fruit in brine and vinegar and the potential for this as an export product and Australian Town and Country Journal 23 November 1985, p. 25 suggesting consuming the young leaves of the choko. William Souter to the editor Brisbane Courier, 25 February 1904, p. 2 re correspondence on ‘a phenomenal plant’.
[29] The Week (Brisbane), 27 May 1892, p. 3.
[30] Mrs Maclurcan’s Cookery Book: A collection of practical recipes specially suitable for Australia, Hannah Maclurcan, Townsville, 1898. Recipe number 393.
[31] Mrs Foster Rutledge, The Goulburn cookery book, Sydney, 1905; Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union of Victoria, Home cookery for Australia, Melbourne: Arbuckle, Waddell & Fawckner, 1904; Miss A. and Miss M. Schauer, The Schauer cookery book, Brisbane: Edwards, Dunlop & Co., 1909; Mary Gilmore, The Worker cook book, Sydney: The Worker Trustees, 1915.
[32] See for example recipes supplied by Miss Amie Munro, lecturer in charge of the Domestic Science Department of Sydney Technical College, Sunday Times (Sydney), 16 May 1915, p. 6. ‘Delphia’ who wrote the Woman’s Corner for the Brisbane Courier advised readers that the usual fault with chokos was that they were not cooked for long enough and arrived at the table ‘hard and indigestible’. She recommended boiling for about an hour and serving with melted butter, or with parsley sauce. Brisbane Courier, 18 May 1901, p. 13. Recipes for Choko Pickles appeared in The Worker on 5 June 1913, p. 21 and 24 July 1913, p. 11.
[33] Maggie Beer, Maggie’s Harvest, Melbourne: Penguin, 2007, p. 66.
[34] The Queenslander, 27 October 1906, p. 4.
[35] AWW, 1 May 1937, p. 39 ‘New food values found in chokos’.
[36] The Farmer and the Settler, 30 April 1954, p. 22.
[37] Australian Women’s Weekly, 24 November 1971, pp. 79–81. ‘Chokoes’ is the preferred spelling in AWW.
[38] Stephanie Alexander, The Cook’s Companion. The complete book of ingredients and recipes for the Australian kitchen, Melbourne: Penguin Books, 2004, pp. 321–325.
[39] Maggie Beer, Maggie’s Harvest, Melbourne: Penguin, 2007, pp. 66–68.
