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Roots and tubers from Cameroon

Mintoumba (Cameroonian fermented cassava and palm-oil cake)mintoumba

Mintoumba is a Cameroonian cake of fermented cassava paste mixed with red palm oil, a little salt and chilli, then cooked in a pot and dried. The cassava is soaked until soft and sour, pressed and ground before the oil goes in. It is eaten with a sauce or as a snack.

Fully documentedRoots and tubers3 days – 4 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedMarket practice with no fixed amounts in the sources read.
Fermented fresh cassava pasteFrom roots soaked until soft, then pressed and ground[tanyitiku2024][afrik2022]
Red palm oil, salt and chillia littleMixed into the paste before cooking[afrik2022]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 days – 4 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteriaYeastsStarchSugarAlcoholCO₂

What changes: Peeled cassava soaks in water for three to four days and sours

Step 1 of 4
Soak the peeled roots until soft
Time
3–4 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts

Output: soft fermented roots.

Flavour
turns sour
Texture
roots soften
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

lactic acid bacteria and yeasts grow while the roots soak

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

Mintoumba is a Cameroonian cake of fermented cassava paste mixed with red palm oil, a little salt and chilli, then cooked in a pot and dried. The cassava is soaked until soft and sour, pressed and ground before the oil goes in. It is eaten with a sauce or as a snack. Made in 4 steps over 3 days – 4 days. The longest step, soak the peeled roots until soft, takes 3–4 days (Tanyitiku M.N. 2024). Lactic acid bacteria, 3.10 log10 CFU/g in Yaoundé market mintoumba, lower than in products without palm oil does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3–4 daysReported[tanyitiku2024]Soak the peeled roots until soft
AciditypH 4.9Measured[tanyitiku2024]Cook in leaves, then dry

What makes this one different

Mintoumba is the only one of the Yaoundé cassava products with palm oil mixed into the fermented paste before steaming. Like garri toasted with palm oil, it had a low lactic acid bacteria count, which the study links to the palm oil.

Related ferments

Safety

Mintoumba is sold ready to eat. Yaoundé market samples carried coagulase-positive staphylococci (5.66 log10 CFU/g), E. coli and coliforms. The author says E. coli and coliforms suggest poor cleanliness in handling and improper storage. Cassava also holds compounds that release cyanide, most of them in the peel [codex-rcp73] [fao1990]. FAO says prolonged soaking lets the cyanide dissolve out, squeezing is a fundamental step in removing it, and simple boiling of fresh root is not always reliable [fao1990]. The Yaoundé study did not measure cyanide and no source we read measures it in mintoumba, so do not shorten the soak or skip the pressing, and do not assume they remove all of it.

Hazards the sources name: Coagulase-positive staphylococci (5.66 log10 CFU/g), Bacillus cereus, E. coli and coliforms in market samples.

History and sources

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

Afrik.com published an interview on 8 February 2022 with a seller at the Saker market in Deïdo, Douala, who described mintoumba as a traditional Cameroonian cake of fermented cassava and red palm oil. Tanyitiku sampled it at six Yaoundé markets between November 2022 and April 2023. A second Afrik.com article, published on 24 July 2024, calls it a cake of the forest regions of Cameroon, often present at weddings, births and community feasts, and says the red palm oil gives it its colour and flavour [afrik2024].

  1. [fao1990] FAO 1990, Roots, tubers, plantains and bananas in human nutrition, ch. 7, Toxic substances and antinutritional factors (cassava toxicity)gov
  2. [codex-rcp73] Codex Alimentarius, CAC/RCP 73-2013, Code of practice for the reduction of hydrocyanic acid (HCN) in cassava and cassava products (copy hosted by the Slovenian food administration)spec
  3. [tanyitiku2024] Tanyitiku M.N. 2024, Microbiological contamination of fermented cassava products sold in local markets, Yaounde (Cameroon), African Journal of Agriculture and Food Science 7(2):1–14, doi:10.52589/AJAFS-DPAMM68Wpaper
  4. [afrik2022] Bâ M. 2022, Miondo, bobolo et mintoumba, l'art de transformer le manioc, Afrik.comweb
  5. [afrik2024] Savoura A. 2024, Les Mintoumba, trésor culinaire du Cameroun, Afrik.com, published 24 July 2024web