Mageu

Ingredients

Porridge

• 200 gmaize meal
• 2.5 litreswater
• a pinch of salt

Starter

• 100 gmaize meal or wheat flour, raw

Optional

• sugar, to taste

To serve

• chilled

Directions

1. Make a thin porridge: slake 200 g of maize meal in cold water, then stir it into the rest of the boiling water.
2. Slake the meal in cold water first. Dry maize meal into boiling water seizes into lumps that never break down.
3. Cook it, stirring, for 15 to 20 minutes until the raw starch taste has gone.
4. It must be thin, much thinner than a porridge you would eat, closer to single cream. Mageu is a drink.
5. Let it cool to lukewarm, around 35°C (95°F).
6. Cool it properly before the starter goes in. Hot porridge kills the bacteria you need and the batch simply spoils instead of souring.
7. Now stir in the raw maize meal or wheat flour.
8. This is the starter and the whole trick: the raw flour carries wild lactic bacteria on it, and adding it to the cooked porridge is what begins the ferment.
9. Cover the container with a cloth and leave it in a warm place for 24 to 48 hours.
10. Stir it once or twice a day, which keeps the ferment even throughout the container.
11. Taste it from about 24 hours. It is ready when it smells and tastes pleasantly sour, sharp but not unpleasant.
12. It is a short lactic ferment, the same process as sourdough or yoghurt, and it carries almost no alcohol, which is why it is drunk by everyone including children.
13. Strain it if you want it smooth, or leave it as it is.
14. Sweeten to taste, which many people do and traditionalists do not.
15. Chill it thoroughly and drink it cold.
16. Shake before pouring, because the maize settles hard to the bottom as it stands.
17. It is drunk across southern Africa as a filling, cheap, mildly sour refreshment, and it is sold in cartons in every South African supermarket.
18. It goes by many names across the region, including amahewu, mahewu and ting, and the method is essentially the same throughout.

Technique

• It is genuinely filling and is drunk as a light meal by farm and mine workers.
• Commercial mageu is pasteurised and stabilised, which is why it keeps and why it tastes milder.
• Refrigerating it stops the fermentation going further.

Substitutions

• Sorghum meal in place of maize, which is traditional in parts of the region.
• A few spoonfuls of a previous batch as a starter, which is faster and more reliable.

Variations

• With milk stirred in.
• Flavoured with banana or vanilla, as the cartons are sold.
• Left to ferment longer for a sharper drink.

History

A Nguni and Sotho fermented porridge drink taken up by mining companies as worker refreshment and later bottled commercially.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mageu?

Mageu is a drink from South Africa: thin sour maize drink, barely fermented, sold cold in cartons. A Nguni and Sotho fermented porridge drink taken up by mining companies as worker refreshment and later bottled commercially.

How long does Mageu take to make?

Mageu takes 20 min plus 24 hr fermenting of preparation and 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes about 3 litres. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Mageu?

Yes, within limits. Sorghum meal in place of maize, which is traditional in parts of the region. A few spoonfuls of a previous batch as a starter, which is faster and more reliable.

What is the most important thing to get right in Mageu?

Slake the meal in cold water first. Dry maize meal into boiling water seizes into lumps that never break down.