Adjective
Pronunciation: kihr-ahp’-ihr-rap
Astringent; the aftertaste that remains in the back of the throat after swallowing smoke-cured and fermented milk. 

Keirapirap is appreciated when mild, but not when it produces a harsh sensation in the back of one’s throat. It is one of the culturally attractive flavor and sensory components of lmala-prepared milk. The astringency might come from forage, for example, when the goats have eaten loisuk; from the process of preparing the lmala interior with burning botanicals; or from an unusually long period of storing milk in the lmala before consumption. In the latter case, the astringency can become overpowering and unbalance the milk’s flavor profile. Kerirapirap astringency is analogous to the heat of pili pili (chili pepper), or the skin of orange that burns the tongue and can be felt in the back of the throat near the tonsils. It is like many small thorns hitting the throat, such as when one ingests loisug and other medicinal plants.

Samburu tend to translate this word as “bitter,” but bitter is also kodua, one of the five fundamental tastes along with sweet kemelok, sour keisiicho, salty makakai, and umami (a term the Samburu do not have in the northern Maa language) that are experienced in our tongue and mouth taste receptors.  Keirapirap is more sensation than taste. It is especially pronounced when bitter woods, like serai — a wood esteemed by many — are used to clean the lmala, but which overpowers the taste balance if the lmala is not wiped well after the ash is poured out. 

Return to Milk Taste and Texture terms.

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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