Milk Taste and Texture Terms

December 5, 2024February 21, 2025 William Rubel Milk Taste and Texture Terms

kelili

Adjective
Pronunciation: XXX
A disgusting bad smell or taste so extreme it makes you gag or want to vomit.

Examples of things that are kelili are rotten food, donkey’s milk, and the smell of rancid fat and sweat emanating from women’s bead necklaces that have been polished with butter or rubbed with sheep fat or ghee to protect against lice. Beads cleaned with cow or goat fat tend not to get as stinky.

Kelili can be the taste of milk fermented in a poorly prepared lmala. This milk tends to be super keirapirap (astringent) and is usually attributed to the careless work of a woman who is nkalani (sloppy, slovenly, and dirty).

“That is alani but still developed to kule nawato, with flies or cockroaches in it.” — Robin Leparsanti, Longhiro Lekudere, in conversation with William Rubel, April 1, 2016.

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December 5, 2024March 12, 2025 William Rubel Milk Taste and Texture Terms

The Samburu people’s dialect features very specific words describing the taste and texture of milk. These expressions are elegant, detailed, and unique.

Explore Samburu words about milk taste and texture.

Each link below will take you to an in-depth description of the term, including a pronunciation guide, and how the word relates to milk taste and texture.

loishiamunoi – taste, especially of milk
kebebek – thin mouthfeel
kelili – disgusting smell or taste
keidukulan – tasteless; neutral
keirapirap – astringent
keirucha – thick
keisamis – rotten smell
keisiicho – sour; hint of bitter
keisukut – mild sour
kemelok – sweet
kemelok nesiicho – sweet-sour
kemelok nodua – sweet-bitter
kodua – bitter
kong’u – bad smell
koropili – nice smelling
lata – creamy
lkiraeu – smell of milk; negative
lngusul – strong, unpleasant smell and taste
meishiamu – taste that lacks its essence
nkuama – wood aroma in fermented milk
ulaash – tasteless like water

More

Use the following links to explore additional content collected through the Samburu Milk Project.

Introduction to the Samburu Milk Project
Dictionary Methodology and Acknowledgements
Stages of Milk Fermentation
Types of Milk Containers (Lmalasin)
Botanicals for Lmala Preparation
The Culture of Milk — Idioms and Expressions
Other Samburu Words
Milk, Music, and Religion — scheduled completion in late 2025
Milking Songs — scheduled completion in late 2025

December 5, 2024February 19, 2025 William Rubel Milk Taste and Texture Terms, Uncategorized

kebebek

Adjective
Pronunciation: keh-beh-bek’
Used to describe a thin mouthfeel, or milk diluted with water. The opposite of keirucha.

By nature, this is a relative term. Comparing milk textures, camel is the most kebekek, followed by cow, sheep, and goat.

Milk texture changes seasonally. For example, cow milk, typically less kebekek than camel milk, is seasonally perceived as kebekek when rainy season fodder naturally dilutes its texture. The strongest diluting effect is felt from the spring “little rain” that fosters strong growth of tender leaves in shrubs, rather than from the “big rain” in late autumn and early winter, which has a more immediate effect on the grasses.

When new growth supports lots of milk, then that milk will be kebebek. Elders monitor the condition of forage from their manyatta in part through changes in milk texture, as plants adjust to the natural wet and dry cycles of the Northern Kenyan interior climate.

The first white milk from the cow that follows the manang (colostrum) is kebebek compared with the more keirucha (thick milk) that follows in two to three weeks. Goat milk becomes more kebebek for one or two milkings when, after one week on the lkees (lowland savannah range), the animals are finally taken to water. The diluted milk of unscrupulous market women is kebebek.

Chai (tea, milk, water, and sugar) that is more dilute (1:4 milk to water) than the standard recipe (1:2) is kebebek. You can tell this by looking, as it is not dark. Ill people may ask for their tea kebebek, as would people who simply prefer it that way. Increased dilution is referenced by two further words: kardadai, which might be as much as 1:5 milk to water, and ulaash, which is so diluted that the underlying ingredient is an “ingredient.” In general terms, ulaash is tasteless.

“Milk is said to be kebebek during the green season, like now. The milk doesn’t have the fat in it. So when there is plenty of milk, they are kebebek. Also, when the calves are young, the milk is kebebek. Cow which has given birth the first time and one that has given birth several times — milk of the multiple-birth cow gets thick faster. In terms of time, it turns from kebebek to keirucha, takes one or two weeks for the first-time mother to one week at most for multiple births mother. Sheep and cow milk is thinner than goat milk. Sheep and cow can be kebebek. Kebebek cow and sheep, only.” — Longhiro Lekudere, Robin Leparsanti in conversation with William Rubel, April 1, 2016.

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December 4, 2024December 5, 2024 William Rubel Milk Taste and Texture Terms

loishiamunoi

Adjective
Prononciation: XXX
Taste, especially of milk.

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