Historical Gastronomy of Coto Makassar

Abstract

Coto Makassar is a soup dish originally from the Kingdom of Gowa, from Gowa region, South Sulawesi. The soup dish is usually eaten with rice cakes called Burasa. It is also consumed with additional of taoco sauce. The use of taoco shows that this food is influenced by Chinese food that was known in the 16th century. Coto Makassar is suspected to exist since the time of Somba Opu, during the reign of the Kingdom of Gowa, which was victorious in 1538. As a food that has been around for generations and has a deep historical value, Coto Makassar is a superior product but not many people know about its gastronomic history and value. The first step that can be taken is starting from summarizing the complete history of Coto Makassar. The purpose of this research is to know the complete history of Coto Makassar, its function, its development to date, and also to document it so that this traditional dish is better known by the public and its originality is maintained. This research uses the descriptive qualitative method. Sources of data used are sources, places of events, and documents. The data collection techniques used were interviews, observation, and documentation. The data analysis technique is carried out interactively and takes place continuously on the field and continuously until the data collection is complete. The results showed that Coto Makassar is one of the typical culinary delights from the city of Makassar which is made from various cow’s meat parts with different values. This dish has a deep historical and philosophical value since the days of the kingdom of Gowa - Somba Opu. Some well-known Coto Makassar sellers have started making efforts so that this dish can be distributed to other cities by selling the specific spices used in the dish outside South Sulawesi.