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Fermented milk from Rwanda and Burundi

Amacunda (sour buttermilk)amacunda

Amacunda is the sour buttermilk left when kivuguto, the Rwandan fermented milk, is churned for butter. Milk sours for at least 2 to 3 days in a wooden jar or large gourd, then is churned in the churning gourd for at least 2 hours until the butter comes away; the liquid left is drunk as it is.

Fully documentedFermented milk2.1 days – 3.1 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo fixed amounts. The churning gourd (igisabo) sets the batch.
Cow, sheep or goat milk, soured into kivugutoBoiled or raw; soured by its own flora or, in FAO's entry, with 2–3% of earlier sour milk[fao-tmp-ii][karenzi2013]
Kivuguto from an earlier batchUsed from time to time in small quantity as a starter; FAO gives 2–3% of earlier sour milk[karenzi2015][fao-tmp-ii]
Starterspontaneous, or backslop with a little kivuguto from an earlier batch (FAO's entry gives 2–3%)

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.1 days – 3.1 days

Start
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What changes: A vessel is held over smoke from a grass stem and a shrub, then wiped inside

Step 1 of 4
Smoke the milk vessel
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Leuconostocs

In eastern Rwanda the vessel is held over smoke from a grass stem and the shrub Combretum molle, then wiped inside with a cloth made of tree bark, several times. Larger vessels are smoked over one large stem of the shrub. Output: smoked vessel ready for milk.

Flavour
smoky
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Amacunda is the sour buttermilk left when kivuguto, the Rwandan fermented milk, is churned for butter. Milk sours for at least 2 to 3 days in a wooden jar or large gourd, then is churned in the churning gourd for at least 2 hours until the butter comes away; the liquid left is drunk as it is. Made in 4 steps over 2.1 days – 3.1 days. The longest step, sour the milk into kivuguto, takes 2–3 days (Karenzi E 2013). Lactococcus lactis and Leuconostoc pseudomesenteroides, the strains that acidify kivuguto, with Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. mesenteroides does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–3 daysReported[karenzi2013]Sour the milk into kivuguto
AciditypH 4.5Measured[karenzi2015]Sour the milk into kivuguto

What makes this one different

Amacunda is not soured on its own; it is the by-product of churning kivuguto for butter, and is drunk as it is.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Roab (Sudan) and rouaba (Chad)The same sour buttermilk in FAO's group, from churning raib.

Safety

Made from soured milk that may be raw; the lactic flora lives alongside pathogens whose load depends on the maker's hygiene. Drink it fresh.

Hazards the sources name: Pathogenic flora that varies with the hygiene of the person making the kivuguto.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

FAO notes that amacunda making spread from Rwanda and Burundi into North and South Kivu. Smoking the milk vessels with Combretum molle and a grass stem is reported from eastern Rwanda.

  1. [fao-tmp-ii] FAO 1990, The technology of traditional milk products in developing countries, Animal Production and Health Paper 85, section II 1.2 (amacunda, roab, rouaba)gov
  2. [karenzi2013] Karenzi E., Mashaku A., Nshimiyimana A.M., Munyanganizi B., Thonart P. 2013, Kivuguto traditional fermented milk and the dairy industry in Rwanda. A review, Biotechnologie, Agronomie, Société et Environnement 17(2)paper
  3. [karenzi2015] Karenzi E. 2015, Fermentation du kivuguto, lait traditionnel du Rwanda; mise au point d'un starter lactique, doctoral thesis, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège (Chapter I section 2, Chapter III results)paper