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Fermented milk from Zambia

Mabisimabisi

Mabisi is raw milk left covered at room temperature for one to three days until it sets sour, then stirred smooth. A survey across Zambia found seven ways of making it, which differ in whether whey is drained, cream is skimmed, milk is boiled first or old mabisi is used as a starter.

Fully documentedFermented milk24 h – 3 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold practice with no fixed amounts; the container sets the batch. Plastic containers are most common, with buckets, metal pots, calabashes and clay pots also used.
Raw cow's milkHand-milked and sieved, mostly through a plastic tea strainer[moonga2019]
A little old mabisi (back-slopping type only)Left in the container as the starter for the next batch[moonga2019]
Starterspontaneous in most types; back-slopped in the back-slopping and Illa types

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h – 3 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: raw milk, sieved into the fermenting container

Step 1 of 4
Milk and sieve the raw milk
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

In the survey, 64 % of makers sieved with a plastic tea strainer, 21 % with a steel strainer and 7 % with a cloth. Output: strained raw milk.

Flavour
Not documented
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

Mabisi is raw milk left covered at room temperature for one to three days until it sets sour, then stirred smooth. A survey across Zambia found seven ways of making it, which differ in whether whey is drained, cream is skimmed, milk is boiled first or old mabisi is used as a starter. Made in 4 steps over 24 h – 3 days. The longest step, leave covered to ferment, takes 24 h – 3 days (Moonga H.B 2019) and runs at 10–30 °C (Moonga H.B 2019). Lactococcus lactis and Lactobacillus and Streptococcus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 3 daysReported[moonga2019]Leave covered to ferment
Temperature10–30 °CReported[moonga2019]Leave covered to ferment

What makes this one different

Mabisi is mostly made with no starter at all. One country has seven methods, from plain tonga mabisi to barotse mabisi, which is drained and topped up with raw milk again and again.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Tonga typeThe plain method, made in every province; set, then stirred.
  • Thick tonga typeSome whey is poured off before stirring.
  • Back-slopping typePart of each batch stays as starter; fresh raw milk is added and sets in half a day to a day.
  • Illa typeThe soured milk is shaken in a calabash until butter grains form.
  • Barotse typeWhey is removed and raw milk added again and again, giving a very thick, sour product; mostly in Western province.
  • Creamy typeThe cream is skimmed off, the whey drained, and the cream stirred back in.
  • Cooked typeThe milk is boiled and cooled before fermenting, which takes longer.

Safety

Most mabisi is made from raw milk. The survey linked the rare cooked type to health advice to boil raw milk before use.

History and sources

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

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
  1. [moonga2019] Moonga H.B., Schoustra S.E., Linnemann A.R., Kuntashula E., Shindano J., Smid E.J. 2019, The art of mabisi production, a traditional fermented milk, PLoS ONE 14(3):e0213541paper
  2. [groenenboom2020] Groenenboom A.E., Shindano J., Cheepa N., Smid E.J., Schoustra S.E. 2020, Microbial population dynamics during traditional production of Mabisi, a spontaneous fermented milk product from Zambia, a field trial, World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology 36:184paper
  3. [moonga2020] Moonga H.B., Schoustra S.E., van den Heuvel J., Linnemann A.R., Samad M.S., Shindano J., Smid E.J. 2020, Composition and diversity of natural bacterial communities in mabisi, a traditionally fermented milk, Frontiers in Microbiology 11:1816 (abstract)paper