Noun
Pronunciation: XXX
Sour milk. 

As milk continues to ferment in a lmala, it becomes demonstrably sour: kule naisicho. This is the fermentation stage after kule naisukutan (milk with a relatively neutral taste).

People used to drinking commercially processed milk from a container will say, “This milk has gone sour,” but pasteurized milk does not really sour. Instead, it goes bad. Sour milk was an esteemed drink in many parts of Europe prior to the spread of industrial milk. In interpreting the Samburu concept of “sour milk,” one has to remember that this is not milk prepared in sterile metal containers. Besides the sourness, there is a range of taste sensations that local people note, such as the wood used to clean the lmala, the type of animal milk fermented, the length of time the milk is from the start of lactation (which affects mouthfeel and taste), and the seasonality and type of forage the animal has consumed. For most non-Kenyan readers, our language impoverishes the product. 

Because the way the lmala is cleaned affects the milk’s taste, one becomes accustomed to one’s mother’s method. There is no sour milk like the sour milk of one’s mother, unless of course, she is nkalani (slovenly), in which case (like those of us who grew up with mothers who were horrible cooks) one prefers to consume this type of milk at a friend’s house. 

“Moving towards bad but still edible. More separation of liquid and solid. The water is salty. It is shaken to mix again. Lemon taste. Gives you the ‘balloon ear’ feeling. Nowadays some people add sugar to this one to eat on its own, or eat with ugali. Although you can use it as milk, you are more likely to leave it to become kule nataroitie. Happens about two days after kule naoto.” — 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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