Amasi
Encyclopedia
Amasi is the common word for fermented milk that tastes like cottage cheese or plain yogurt. It is very popular in South Africa
. Amasi is traditionally prepared by storing unpasteurised
cow's milk in a calabash
container (igula in isiZulu) or hide sack to allow it to ferment. The fermenting milk develops a watery substance called umlaza; the remainder is amasi. This thick liquid is mostly poured over the mealie meal (maize flour)
porridge called pap
, or drunk straight. It is traditionally served in a clay pot (ukhamba in isiZulu) and eaten with wooden spoons. Amasi is also produced commercially using Lactococcus lactis subsp lactis and L. lactis subsp cremoris and is pasteurised before distribution and consumption, with a shelf life of 21 days at 4°C. When produced as such, amasi may be an ideal vehicle for the delivery of probiotics.
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. Amasi is traditionally prepared by storing unpasteurised
Pasteurization
Pasteurization is a process of heating a food, usually liquid, to a specific temperature for a definite length of time, and then cooling it immediately. This process slows microbial growth in food...
cow's milk in a calabash
Calabash
Lagenaria siceraria , bottle gourd, opo squash or long melon is a vine grown for its fruit, which can either be harvested young and used as a vegetable, or harvested mature, dried, and used as a bottle, utensil, or pipe. For this reason, the calabash is widely known as the bottle gourd...
container (igula in isiZulu) or hide sack to allow it to ferment. The fermenting milk develops a watery substance called umlaza; the remainder is amasi. This thick liquid is mostly poured over the mealie meal (maize flour)
Mielie-meal
In South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and many other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, a relatively coarse flour made from maize ....
porridge called pap
Pap (food)
Pap , a traditional porridge made from mielie-meal , is a staple food of the Bantu inhabitants of South Africa...
, or drunk straight. It is traditionally served in a clay pot (ukhamba in isiZulu) and eaten with wooden spoons. Amasi is also produced commercially using Lactococcus lactis subsp lactis and L. lactis subsp cremoris and is pasteurised before distribution and consumption, with a shelf life of 21 days at 4°C. When produced as such, amasi may be an ideal vehicle for the delivery of probiotics.
Amasi in South African culture
- Traditionally, Zulus believe that amasi makes a man strong, healthy and desired. During taboos (e.g. menstruation or when there has been contact with death) the affected person must abstain from amasi. Milk is hardly ever drunk fresh ('green milk'), but it is sometimes used to thin amasi which has gone too thick to be used.
- The Zulu expression kwafa igula lamasi translates to the calabash of sour-milk broke, i.e. our last hopes were dashed.
- Nelson MandelaNelson MandelaNelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
mentions how he cautiously left a comrade's apartment—his hiding place in a white area when he was wanted by the Apartheid government—after he overheard two Zulu workers comment that it was strange to see milk on the window sill (left out to ferment) because whites seldom drank amasi.
- It is also popular in South African Indian cuisine where it is used similarly to dahi, usually as the main ingredient in raitaRaitaRaita is an Indian/Pakistani condiment based on yogurt.Raita may also refer to:* Henna Raita, Finnish alpine skier* Marjatta Raita, Finnish actress* Mikko Raita, Finnish music mixing and recording engineer and producer- See also :...
.