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Other from Northern Benin

Tayohounta (fermented baobab kernels, Benin)tayohounta

Tayohounta is a pungent flavouring ball made by the Otamari of northern Benin from dehulled baobab seed kernels. The kernels are roasted briefly, boiled about half an hour, covered with leaves and left two days to ferment, then kneaded into balls and sun-dried. Bacillus dominates, and the pH rises from 6.4 to about 7 as the proteins break down.

Fully documentedOther2 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold craft with no fixed amounts; the sources record times and temperatures, not quantities.
Baobab seed kernelsObtained by decorticating baobab seeds[Chadare2010]
Leaves for coveringUsually Annona senegalensis, in contact with the kernels[Chadare2010]
Starterspontaneous; no inoculum or additive

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days

Start
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What changes: Dehulled baobab kernels are roasted for a few minutes

Step 1 of 5
Roast the kernels
Time
5–10 min
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Bacillus

Output: roasted kernels.

Flavour
roasted
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

Tayohounta is a pungent flavouring ball made by the Otamari of northern Benin from dehulled baobab seed kernels. The kernels are roasted briefly, boiled about half an hour, covered with leaves and left two days to ferment, then kneaded into balls and sun-dried. Bacillus dominates, and the pH rises from 6.4 to about 7 as the proteins break down. Made in 5 steps over 2 days. The longest step, cover with leaves and ferment, takes 2 days (Chadare F.J. 2010) and runs at 24–31 °C (Chadare F.J. 2010). Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus thermoamylovorans do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2 daysReported[Chadare2010]Cover with leaves and ferment
Temperature24–31 °CReported[Chadare2010]Cover with leaves and ferment
AciditypH 6.4 → 7Measured[Chadare2010][Chadare2010efn][Chadare2013]Cover with leaves and ferment

What makes this one different

Tayohounta uses dehulled, roasted baobab kernels fermented two days under leaves with no potash. Dikouanyouri, from the same villages, uses whole seeds that are boiled for hours and fermented with potash.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Tayohounta type 2Locust beans are cooked, decorticated and mixed with baobab kernels; both are boiled 45–60 min, spread and covered, fermented 48 h, then sun-dried, ground and shaped [Chadare2010].

Safety

Samples from village producers carried Bacillus cereus and, in one case, Staphylococcus aureus; the study calls for starter cultures to standardise the product [Chadare2010]. The sources set no numerical limit.

Hazards the sources name: Bacillus cereus (in two of three producers' samples); Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae (each in one of three samples).

History and sources

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

Tayohounta was among up to 35 baobab food products that 253 processors in Benin reported in a survey from December 2006 to January 2007. The Otamari are among the largest consumers of baobab products in Benin [Chadare2010, Chadare2010efn].

  1. [Chadare2010] Chadare F.J. 2010, Baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) foods from Benin: composition, processing and quality, PhD thesis, Wageningen University, ch. 3, 5 and 6 (ch. 6 is marked there as submitted, not yet published)archive
  2. [Chadare2010efn] Chadare F.J., Gayet D.P., Azokpota P., Nout M.J.R., Linnemann A.R., Hounhouigan J.D., van Boekel M.A.J.S. 2010, Three traditional fermented baobab foods from Benin, Mutchayan, Dikouanyouri and Tayohounta: preparation, properties and consumption, Ecology of Food and Nutrition 49(4):279–297, doi:10.1080/03670244.2010.491051paper
  3. [Chadare2013] Chadare F.J., Nout M.J.R., van Boekel M.A.J.S. 2013, Ethno-food knowledge of baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) and characterisation of its traditional fermented novel foods from Benin, Acta Horticulturae 979:187–194, doi:10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.979.17 (abstract)paper