How to Make Ting, the Fermented Sorghum Porridge of Botswana
Ting is a fermented sorghum porridge from Botswana, also eaten in South Africa, where it is called ting ya mabele: sorghum meal is mixed with water and a…
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Fermented Foods of East and Southern Africa
Sorghum, maize and banana beers, fermented milks, injera and other ferments from Ethiopia to South Africa.
Urwagwa Recipe: Rwanda’s Banana Beer, How It’s Made and How Strong It Gets
Urwagwa is Rwanda's traditional banana beer. Bananas are ripened under grass and leaves for about six days, peeled, and kneaded with spear grass to release their juice, which…
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Thobwa Recipe: Malawi’s Sweet-Sour Fermented Maize Drink
Thobwa is a non-alcoholic fermented drink from Malawi. Maize porridge is cooled to about 45°C, mixed with ground malted grain (in central Malawi, malted maize), left overnight to…
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Maheu (Mahewu): South Africa’s Fermented Maize Drink and How to Make It
Maheu (mahewu, amahewu) is a Southern African non-alcoholic drink made by fermenting thin cooked maize porridge. Cook maize meal with water for 15–20 minutes, cool it, stir in…
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Umqombothi: South Africa’s Traditional Sorghum and Maize Beer and How It’s Brewed
Umqombothi is a traditional South African opaque beer made from maize meal and sorghum malt. The malt's enzymes turn cooked maize starch into sugar, and wild lactic acid…
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Hwahwa: Zimbabwe’s Traditional Opaque Sorghum Beer, and the Iron Question
Hwahwa (Shona for beer, also doro) is Zimbabwe's traditional opaque beer of sorghum or finger millet malt, often with maize, soured by lactic acid bacteria and then fermented…
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Kisra: Sudan’s Fermented Sorghum Flatbread, and How to Make It
Kisra is Sudan's thin fermented sorghum flatbread. Sorghum flour mixed with twice its weight of water ferments in about a day at 30°C, its pH falling from about…
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Busaa: Kenya’s Traditional Maize and Finger Millet Beer and How It’s Brewed
Busaa is the traditional opaque beer of western Kenya: maize grits are soured in water for 2–3 days, roasted into a crumb, then brewed with finger millet malt…
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Tonto: Uganda’s Banana Beer, How It’s Made, and Why Ripe, Peeled Bananas Matter
Tonto is Uganda's traditional banana beer. Ripe beer bananas are peeled and squeezed with grass, and the juice is diluted, mixed with roasted sorghum and fermented by wild…
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Mbege: The Chagga Banana and Finger Millet Beer of Kilimanjaro
Mbege is the traditional beer of the Chagga people of Mount Kilimanjaro, brewed from cooked bananas and finger millet malt and fermented by wild yeasts and bacteria. Tanzanian…
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Tella: Ethiopia’s Gesho-Bittered Home Beer and How It’s Brewed
Tella is Ethiopia's traditional home-brewed beer: barley malt (bikil) and ground gesho leaves are fermented, then kita flatbread and dark roasted grain flour (asharo) are added over two…
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Mursik: Kenya’s Charcoal-Lined Fermented Milk and What the Research Shows
Mursik is the fermented milk of Kenya's Kalenjin communities: boiled milk fermented for 3–5 days in a gourd lined with fine charcoal from selected trees, which makes it…
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Togwa: Tanzania’s Sweet-Sour Fermented Grain Drink (Recipe and Research)
Togwa is a Tanzanian sweet-sour fermented drink made by cooking a maize (or sorghum or millet) flour porridge, sweetening it with finger-millet malt and fermenting it for about…
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Injera Recipe: Ethiopian Fermented Teff Flatbread With Ersho and Absit
Injera is Ethiopia's and Eritrea's spongy, sour teff flatbread. Teff flour and water ferment for about 2–3 days with ersho, the yellow liquid saved from the last batch;…
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Tej Recipe: How to Make Ethiopian Honey Wine with Gesho
Tej is Ethiopian honey wine: roughly 1 part honey to 3 parts water, fermented with gesho (Rhamnus prinoides) sticks for about two to three weeks at 20–28°C, then…
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Amasi Recipe: How to Make South African Fermented Milk (Maas) at Home
Amasi (maas) is Southern Africa's thick, tangy fermented milk, soured at room temperature by lactic acid bacteria such as Lactococcus and Leuconostoc. To make it safely at home,…
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