Ting is sorghum meal mixed with water and left to sour, then cooked into porridge. It is eaten in Botswana and in South Africa,
where it is most closely associated with Tswana people and is also called ting ya mabele (Pereira, 2021). Both words
are Setswana: ting comes from Setswana leting (Dictionary of South African English), and mabele, sorghum, is the
Setswana word too, with related forms such as amabele in isiZulu and isiXhosa (DSAE: mabele). In Botswana,
porridge is bogobe; when the meal is soured first, the dish is called ting (Wikipedia: Botswana cuisine), and FAO’s
recipe collection names the fermented porridge motogo-wa-ting (FAO, 1995).
Ting is cooked to more than one thickness. FAO’s 1999 review of fermented cereals calls fermented bogobe a soft porridge and the
unfermented one thick (FAO, Fermented cereals), but its recipe collection files the same dish under stiff porridges
(FAO, 1995). Researchers note that ting “is commonly consumed as bogobe or motogo”
(Adebo et al., 2019). A South African chef who grew up in Soweto on his mother’s ting ya mabele wrote that he preferred it as a sour breakfast
porridge with sugar and butter, while “a lot of the older generation prefer it as a stiff pap” (Taste).
Ting also names the soured sorghum itself: a study from the University of Alberta calls it “a sorghum-based sourdough product” that
is “used to prepare porridges of different consistencies” (Sekwati-Monang and Gänzle, 2011). FAO’s notes say it is
normally eaten with meat and vegetables in the morning and evening, and record the unfermented sorghum porridge as mosokwana, generally
eaten at lunch (FAO, 1995); ting is also eaten with milk and sugar (Wikipedia). Not all ting is pure
sorghum: in South Africa it is often made from maize meal or a blend of sorghum and maize, and some cooks add more maize meal for a
lighter, less sour porridge (DSAE; Taste).
A South African study of sorghum describes a colleague who grew up eating ting ya mabele: her mother’s people, the Batswana, tend to
have it for dinner. The same study notes that ting ya mabele is on Slow Food’s Ark of Taste, a list of traditional foods at risk of
disappearing (Pereira, 2021). Children eat it too: caregivers in Odi, a peri-urban and rural community in Gauteng, told
researchers their children ate fermented foods as soft ting porridge (Chelule et al., 2014).
Ting From Botswana Measures pH 3.5 to 4.0
When researchers tested 10 samples of ting from Botswana, the pH ranged from 3.5 to 4.0. Lactic acid bacteria counts were between
1.2×108 and 1.2×1010 per gram, yeasts stayed below 105 per gram, and Enterobacteriaceae (the gut-bacteria
family that includes E. coli and Salmonella) were below 10 per gram. Each sample was dominated by two to four strains,
among them Lactobacillus fermentum, L. plantarum and L. reuteri
(Sekwati-Monang and Gänzle, 2011).
That is why the study calls ting a sorghum sourdough: like a wheat or rye starter, it is a flour-and-water ferment run by lactic acid
bacteria. Our page on what lives in a sourdough starter explains how those bacteria take over.
Speed is the other number. Traditionally processed ting takes 2 to 3 days to fall below pH 4. With pairs of strains isolated from
ting as a starter, the pH fell from 6.3 to 4 within 8 hours (same study). A study that followed spontaneous ting fermentations in South
Africa for 54 hours found two phases. For the first 6 hours the pH stayed fairly high; from 12 hours on, acidity rose and more kinds of
lactic acid bacteria appeared, but so did some members of the Enterobacteriaceae (Madoroba et al., 2011). Souring
holds unwanted bacteria back without promising they are gone, which is one reason ting is always cooked.
pH 4.0 is below 4.6, the line that matters for food safety; our pH chart of fermented foods explains that line and
how to test with strips or a meter, which is the quickest check that your slurry has soured.
FAO’s Botswana Quantities, and What FAO Leaves Out
FAO’s book Sorghum and millets in human nutrition gives the Botswana quantities: 300 g of coarsely ground, dehulled sorghum
meal, 30 g of starter (sorghum meal fermented in water for 48 hours) and 1,500 to 1,800 ml of water. Mix the starter into the dry meal,
stir in 250 to 300 ml of lukewarm water to make a slurry, cover it and leave it for 24 hours. Then bring 1,500 ml of water to the boil,
add the fermented slurry, stir often and cook for 12 to 15 minutes (FAO, 1995). FAO’s flow diagram for the same
porridge has the same order: dehull, grind to a coarse meal, add lukewarm water at 1:1, ferment closed for 24 hours, cook in boiling
water (FAO, Fermented cereals). FAO’s recipe collection files these amounts under stiff porridges, while its review calls ting soft; for a stiffer pap, cook it longer or use less of the cooking water.
FAO doesn’t give a temperature, and doesn’t say how wet the 48-hour starter should be. In laboratory studies, ting slurries of meal
and water at 1:1 were fermented for 24 hours at 34°C or 72 hours at 28°C (Adebo et al., 2019), so keep it somewhere warm,
about 28–34°C (82–93°F); a cooler kitchen can take two or three days, as traditionally made ting did in the Botswana study
(Sekwati-Monang and Gänzle, 2011). Go by sourness, not the clock: the slurry should smell clearly sour before you cook
it, and if you have pH strips, the Botswana samples measured 3.5 to 4.0. If it still isn’t sour after 3 days, throw it out instead of
cooking it.
FAO’s method makes a fresh 48-hour starter for each batch, and so does the recipe below. The texture should be medium to coarse, and
FAO’s notes add that a dark colour from the grain pigments is not acceptable to people who eat it, so look for white or pale sorghum meal
(FAO, 1995).
Clean Grain, Then Cook It Through
Sorghum can carry mycotoxins from moulds in the field and in storage. In one study, raw whole-grain sorghum contained fumonisins,
T-2 toxin and zearalenone. Fermenting it with chosen L. fermentum strains cut fumonisin B1 by up to 98%; the cuts were smaller
in naturally fermented ting (79% for fumonisin B1 in low-tannin sorghum, less in high-tannin sorghum)
(Adebo et al., 2019). So fermenting lowers mycotoxins only partly, and most mycotoxins are chemically stable and survive
food processing (WHO). The fix is at the start: buy sorghum meal from a fresh, sealed bag (in South African shops it
is sold as mabele meal or sorghum meal; Pereira, 2021), and don’t use grain or meal that smells musty or shows mould.
The order matters too. Ting sours raw meal and cooks it afterwards, which is the safer way round for any soured porridge: boiling the
fermented slurry for 12 to 15 minutes kills the bacteria that grew in it, though it won’t undo toxins from mouldy grain, which is why the
slurry should be clearly sour and free of mould before it goes in the pot. Like other cooked porridges, it then needs the usual leftovers
care: USDA’s food-safety agency says to refrigerate cooked food within 2 hours (1 hour if the room is above 32°C/90°F) and eat it within 3
to 4 days (USDA FSIS). When feeding babies and young children, cook it fresh and serve it promptly, not from leftovers.
Where Ting Sits Among Africa’s Soured Grains
Ting is the sorghum porridge of the group. South Africa’s maheu sours maize into a drink, and
umqombothi turns sorghum and maize into beer. Sudan’s kisra sours sorghum batter for a
flatbread. West Africa’s ogi is the closest relative in the bowl: maize, sorghum or millet soured and cooked into
porridge (FAO, Fermented cereals), but from soaked, wet-milled grain where ting starts from dry meal.