Fermented Milk · Rural Staple
Amasi
Photo: JerryMathema1807 / Wikimedia Commons · CC0 1.0
Amasi ferments with no starter culture at all — just raw milk, a gourd or clay pot, and a few days of ambient warmth.
Amasi is raw cow's milk left to ferment naturally for a few days in a gourd, calabash or covered container until it thickens and turns pleasantly sour. It's eaten on its own, poured over sadza, or stirred into dishes like umxhanxa.
Why it's made this way: Long before refrigeration reached rural Zimbabwe, fermentation was how households preserved milk, and amasi remains a favourite comfort food, especially in the cattle-keeping communities of Matabeleland.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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