Noun
Pronunciation: XXX
Literally, “cold milk.” Milk that is no longer warm from the cow and is beginning to undergo fermentation in the lmala.

When kule nairewa (milk fresh from the animal and thus warm) cools, it becomes kule nairobi. 

Kule nairobi is used after it begins to ferment in the lmala, a period of hours that varies by seasonal temperature and geography. In Wamba, Kenya, it generally takes three to four hours after milking to reach the kule nairobi stage. Depending on the weather, and in a freshly smoked lmala, it would take less time in a warmer climate at a lower elevation from Wamba, like that of Archers Post (just one day), and more time in higher elevations, such as Marsabit and Maralal (four to five days).   

You can make tea with kule nairobi until it shifts to a later stage of fermentation, kule naisukutan. 

“It does not make the tea taste sour. It is still nairewa (fresh) and supati (good).” — Robin Leparsanti in conversation with William Rubel, Feb. 1, 2016.

Return to the Stages of Milk Fermentation.

This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel. 

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Published by William Rubel

I am an author who writes about traditional food and foodways. My book, The Magic of Fire (2002) is about hearth cooking. I have written an introductory history of bread, Bread, a global history (2011) and am currently writing a history of bread for the University of California Press. Other areas of interest include wild mushrooms, and specifically the treatment of Amanita muscaria in the historic record. I also write about Early Modern British Gardens, and for a more general audience, I write for Mother Earth News on bread, gardening, and more. I have an ongoing research project into the smoke-cured fermented milk of the Kenyan Samburu tribe. I am a co-director of the Samburu Lowlands Research Station, Lengusaka. I am the founding editor (1972) of Stone Soup, the magazine of writing and art by young people.

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