Amasi

Amasi (so called in isiZulu and isiXhosa, and "maas" in Afrikaans) is the common word for fermented milk that tastes like cottage cheese or plain yoghurt. It is very popular in South Africa, where it is also known known as inkomazi. 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.

Amasi in South African culture

 * Traditionally, Zulus believe that amasi makes a man strong 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 Mandela 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 because whites do not drink amasi.