Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Fermented milk from West Sumatra, Indonesia

Dadiah / dadihdadiah

Raw swamp-buffalo milk is poured into a bamboo tube, capped with a leaf and left to set for 2 to 3 days. No starter is added; bacteria from the bamboo wall sour the milk into a thick white curd.

Fully documentedFermented milk3.5 days – 4.5 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne bamboo tube holds 120–300 ml of milk, depending on its length (Ramaiyulis et al. 2021). Households fill as many tubes as they have milk; there is no fixed batch.
Raw buffalo milk, strained through a cloth120–300 ml per tubeMilk from the 5th month of lactation onward is used for dadih[rama2021]
Bamboo tube, about 35 cm longGombong (Gigantochloa verticillata) or ampel (Bambusa vulgaris) bamboo[rama2021]
Leaf or paperCovers the open end of the tube[rama2021]
No starterBacteria come from the bamboo wall[rama2021]
Starterspontaneous (flora of the bamboo wall)

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.5 days – 4.5 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Fresh buffalo milk is strained through a cloth

Step 1 of 4
Milk and strain
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Lactococcus lactis
Lactobacillus
Streptococcus
Leuconostoc

Output: strained raw buffalo milk.

Flavour
rich buffalo milk
Texture
liquid, high fat
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

raw milk flora

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

Raw swamp-buffalo milk is poured into a bamboo tube, capped with a leaf and left to set for 2 to 3 days. No starter is added; bacteria from the bamboo wall sour the milk into a thick white curd. Made in 4 steps over 3.5 days – 4.5 days. The longest step, set at room temperature, takes 2–3 days (Ramaiyulis 2021) and runs at 18–28 °C (Ramaiyulis 2021). Lactococcus lactis and Lactic acid bacteria of the genera Lactobacillus, Streptococcus and Leuconostoc do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–3 daysReported[rama2021]Set at room temperature
Temperature18–28 °CReported[rama2021]Set at room temperature
AciditypH 4.3Measured[rama2021]Set in a warm cabinet (improved method)

What makes this one different

Dadiah is set in a bamboo tube with no starter, so the bamboo wall is the culture.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Kampar dadih (Riau)Set in small buluh bamboo, not the giant betung bamboo used in West Sumatra.
  • Incubator dadihHeld at 39 °C and 60 % humidity; ready in 36 hours.

Safety

Raw milk and an uncontrolled set. One sequencing study of dadih from producers in three Kampar villages found Klebsiella pneumoniae and Citrobacter among the dominant species.

Hazards the sources name: Klebsiella pneumoniae and Citrobacter species among the dominant species in Kampar samples.

History and sources

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

A Minangkabau food served at ceremonies and used in folk medicine.

  1. [rama2021] Ramaiyulis, Syukriani D., Nilawati, Yulia E. and Budaraga I.K. 2021, Potential and development of incubation technology to improve the quality of dadih as a specific food of Minangkabau, Livestock Research for Rural Development 33(7)paper
  2. [rossi2025] Rossi E. et al. 2025, Bacterial biodiversity and metagenomic study of dadih, traditional fermented buffalo milk from Kampar district, Riau, Indonesia, Journal of Advanced Veterinary and Animal Research 12(3):717–727paper
  3. [wp] Wikipedia, Dadiah (outline only)wiki