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EveryCow

Curd and fermented milk

Amasi

Thick sour milk of southern Africa, set in a calabash and eaten with maize porridge.

Amasi, maas in Afrikaans and mafi in Sesotho, is milk left to sour into a thick curd with a strong, sharp flavour. It was a staple of the cattle-keeping peoples of southern Africa long before colonial times. It is eaten with crumbly maize porridge, drunk on its own, or used in baking. Today it is sold in cartons across South Africa and Zimbabwe.

What goes in

Raw cow milk: 77%77%Calabash or clay pot: 15%15%Old amasi: 8%3parts
  • Raw cow milk1077%, Left to sour naturally.
  • Calabash or clay pot215%, With a plug to drain the whey.
  • Old amasi18%, Carries the culture on.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each input's share of the product.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house and herd to herd; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Milk Milk the cows and pour the milk into a calabash or pot.
  2. Step 2: Ferment Leave it to sour for a few days.
  3. Step 3: Strain Draw off the whey through the plug at the bottom.
  4. Step 4: Serve Serve the thick curd over maize porridge.
  5. Raw cow milk: 77%77%Calabash or clay pot: 15%15%Old amasi: 8%
    Finished Amasi, by share.

The calabash

Traditionally fresh milk was poured into a calabash or a clay pot and left to ferment. Among the Zulu the vessel is the igula. The whey collects at the bottom and is drawn off through a small plug, leaving a thick curd behind. Older amasi was topped up with fresh milk so the culture carried on.

Cattle and kinship

For the Nguni-speaking peoples, cattle are wealth, and they are part of lobola, the bride wealth negotiated between families. Amasi from the family herd was shared within the homestead. Umphokoqo, dry crumbly maize porridge with amasi, is a well-known Xhosa dish. Most amasi is now bought in cartons, but some rural families still sour their own milk in the old way.

Where it is used

With maize porridgeUmphokoqoEveryday food

The breeds behind it

NguniThe cattle of the Zulu, Xhosa and Swazi peoples.

Also part of it, and being written: Tuli cattle (Sanga breed of south-western Zimbabwe.), Tswana cattle (Sanga cattle of Botswana.).

More on EveryCow

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Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCow desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and dairy makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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