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Fermented milk from Tanzania

Maziwa mgandomaziwa mgando

Maziwa mgando is the partly drained sour milk of Tanzania. Raw milk sours on its own for 3 to 4 days in a calabash, gourd or clay pot; then some whey is taken off and fresh milk is added, over and over, until the vessel is full of thick curd, which takes about a week.

Fully documentedFermented milk10 days – 11 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo fixed amounts. FAO describes the method, and the household vessel (2–4 litres in Tanzania) sets the batch.
Raw whole cow or zebu milkNot heated; added in batches over several days[fao-tmp]
Calabash, bottle gourd or clay potTanzanian clay pots hold 2–4 litres[fao-tmp][ryoba]
Starterspontaneous; no starter is added and the acid comes from the milk's natural flora

Total time across the recorded steps: 10 days – 11 days

Start
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What changes: Embers of a chosen wood smoke the inside of the milk vessel

Step 1 of 4
Smoke the milk vessel (pastoralist practice)
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacilli
Lactic acid bacteria

Among pastoralists such as the Maasai, milk vessels are smoked with specific woods that make embers. Ryoba and Kurwijila say the smoke appears to improve colour and flavour and to extend shelf life to 20 days to 3 months. This step is a pastoralist practice and not every household does it. Output: smoked vessel.

Flavour
smoky
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Maziwa mgando is the partly drained sour milk of Tanzania. Raw milk sours on its own for 3 to 4 days in a calabash, gourd or clay pot; then some whey is taken off and fresh milk is added, over and over, until the vessel is full of thick curd, which takes about a week. Made in 4 steps over 10 days – 11 days. The longest step, top up with fresh milk and drain the whey, takes 7 days (FAO 1990). Lactic acid streptococci and lactobacilli naturally present in the raw milk does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step7 daysReported[fao-tmp]Top up with fresh milk and drain the whey
Temperature19–30 °CReported[ryoba]Pour raw milk into the vessel and leave it covered
AciditypH 3.8–4.2Reported[ryoba]Top up with fresh milk and drain the whey

What makes this one different

Unlike plain gourd sour milks, which are drunk after a day or two, maziwa mgando is built up over about a week by draining whey and adding fresh milk until the vessel is full of thick curd.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Mashoronga and umlaza (Zimbabwe)The same FAO group; mashoronga is drained more than umlaza.
  • Borana concentrated milk (Ethiopia)Flavoured with rue leaves; whey siphoned off daily and the vessel smoked each time.

Safety

Tanzanian naturally soured milk is not boiled, so there is always a danger of tuberculosis or brucellosis (Ryoba and Kurwijila). The same paper says heating kills undesirable organisms, and that the standard method for fermented milk first boils it at 80–90 °C for 5–30 minutes to reduce its microbes. Plain naturally soured milk keeps only about 72 hours at room temperature; smoking the milk vessel is reported to extend shelf life to 20 days to 3 months. That is a keeping figure, not a safety one.

Hazards the sources name: Tuberculosis and brucellosis, a danger of Tanzanian naturally soured milk because it is not boiled.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

FAO groups maziwa mgando with other partly drained sour milks of eastern and southern Africa and suggests such concentrated milks may be ancestors of cheese, made by cattle herders to keep milk.

  1. [fao-tmp] FAO 1990, The technology of traditional milk products in developing countries, Animal Production and Health Paper 85, section II 1.4 (concentrated, partly drained fermented milks, including maziwa mgando, Tanzania)gov
  2. [ryoba] Ryoba R. and Kurwijila R.L., Milk processing requirements for satisfying the demand for various dairy products in Tanzania, Sokoine University of Agriculture (FAO-hosted paper; reports Ali 1990, Table 5)paper
  3. [karenzi2015] Karenzi E. 2015, Fermentation du kivuguto, lait traditionnel du Rwanda; mise au point d'un starter lactique, doctoral thesis, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège (Chapter I review, section 3.1, citing Isono et al. 1994 on Masai fermented milk in northern Tanzania)paper