Adjective
Pronunciation: XXX
Strong, unpleasant smell and taste. Used in a general context, not just for milk.

Lngusul’s most common usage applies to milk from the poorly prepared lmala of a nkalani woman, in which odiferous bacteria are plentiful. When goats eat sukuroi or lopitara, their milk and their meat will be lngusul in smell and taste. Native Samburu speaker Robin Leparsanti’s goats eat lopitara and people from Wamba say they can taste it in the milk.

The word also is used to refer to anything with a strong smell, such as a poorly cleaned restaurant or bar. 

“Some people may not like it, but those who are used to it like it, or are at least used to it.” — Robin Leparsanti, Longhiro Lekudere, in conversation with William Rubel, April 1, 2016.

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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