Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Nigeria

Wara (Nigerian soft cheese)wara

Fresh cow milk is warmed, curdled with a crushed-leaf extract of the Sodom apple (Calotropis procera) and heated to the boil, then the curd is drained in a sieve under a weight. It is a boundary entry, set by a plant enzyme and heat, not by fermentation, and it is eaten fresh within a few days.

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne laboratory batch from a Nigerian study, made the traditional way with a Sodom apple extract; studies of the traditional cheese report a wide range of heating temperatures and times.
Fresh raw cow milk1000 mlHand-milked White Fulani cows; pH 6.50[ibhaze2017]
Sodom apple (Calotropis procera) leaf extract100 ml per litre of milkA plant with documented toxicity concerns, recorded here as a tradition, not for home use. Fresh leaves crushed in a mortar and soaked in water at 1:1 (w/v) for 10 minutes, then sieved through muslin[ibhaze2017]
Starternone; calotropin, a cysteine protease in the Sodom apple, curdles the milk

Total time across the recorded steps: 55 min

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Sodom apple leaves are crushed, soaked in water and strained

Step 1 of 6
Make the Sodom apple extract
Time
10 min
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Leaves and water at 1:1 (w/v), sieved through muslin cloth.

Flavour
Not documented
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

Fresh cow milk is warmed, curdled with a crushed-leaf extract of the Sodom apple (Calotropis procera) and heated to the boil, then the curd is drained in a sieve under a weight. It is a boundary entry, set by a plant enzyme and heat, not by fermentation, and it is eaten fresh within a few days. Made in 6 steps over 55 min. The longest step, drain under a weight, takes 45 min (Ibhaze G.A 2017).

Key numbers
Main step45 minReported[ibhaze2017]Drain under a weight
Temperature50 °CReported[ibhaze2017]Warm the milk
AciditypH 6.5Measured[ibhaze2017]Warm the milk

What makes this one different

Wara is curdled by the Sodom apple's plant enzyme and heat, not by rennet or souring, and is eaten fresh. It is the Nigerian name for the same kind of cheese as Beninese wagashi.

Milk
Fresh whole cow milk
Ripening
None; eaten fresh. A 2025 review reports West African soft cheese kept up to 3 days in whey at room temperature

Related ferments

Safety

Sodom apple (Calotropis procera), the plant that curdles this cheese, raises toxicity concerns. It holds cardiac glycosides, a 2025 review says it has been shown to cause acute toxicity in plant and animal cells, including humans, and some studies suggest harm to the heart and liver. The same review reports mixed animal tests. An extract harmed guinea pigs only after more than 90 days, latex proteins by mouth caused no adverse immune reaction in mice, and the same proteins injected killed mice within an hour. One study found none of its phytochemicals in the finished cheese or whey, and its authors concluded that processing makes the cheese safe. The review says the link between the plant's bioactivity and its toxicity remains underexplored, so that one study is not proof of safety. This page records a tradition. Do not curdle milk with this plant at home; the same review names lemon or lime juice and papaya as substitutes. West African soft cheese spoils fast, and the review cites one study where it kept up to about 3 days at room temperature in whey, and that figure is a keeping time, not a safety limit. The review also reports aflatoxins in this kind of cheese, with aflatoxin M1 from 0.03 to 7.5 µg/kg across studies. The Codex limit it cites, 0.5 µg/kg, is for raw milk, not cheese. Studies have found Listeria monocytogenes and E. coli in Nigerian raw milk and in West African soft cheese made from it, and Campylobacter and Salmonella in cheese sold on Nigerian streets, so hygiene and thorough boiling matter.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli found in raw milk from local factories in Nigeria and in the West African soft cheese made from it; Campylobacter jejuni and Salmonella found in West African soft cheese sold on the streets in Nigeria; Cardiac glycosides and other compounds of Sodom apple (Calotropis procera), the coagulant plant; one study found none in the cheese or whey.

History and sources

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

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
  1. [ibhaze2017] Ibhaze G.A., Adebayo O.A., Onibi G.E. 2017, Nutritional and sensory evaluation of soft cheese made from locally sourced coagulants, Livestock Research for Rural Development 29(11)paper
  2. [tossou2025] Tossou M.W. et al. 2025, An overview of West African traditional soft cheese, processing, safety, and quality characteristics, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, doi:10.1111/1541-4337.70301paper
  3. [olajugbagbe2020] Olajugbagbe T.E., Elugbadebo O.E., Omafuvbe B.O. 2020, Probiotic potentials of Pediococcus acidilactici isolated from wara, a Nigerian unripened soft cheese, Heliyon 6:e04889, doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04889paper