Mahewu

Ingredients

Base

• 400 gleftover cooked sadza, or 150 g maize meal
• 2.5 litreswater

Starter

• 3 tbspmillet meal, or raw maize meal, or wheat flour

Optional

• sugar, to taste
• a pinch of salt

Directions

1. This is the leftover version, and that is the point of it: mahewu exists because there is cold sadza in the pot and nobody wastes maize.
2. Break up the cold sadza and whisk it into the water until no lumps remain.
3. Work the lumps out properly with your hands or a whisk. Cold sadza is stiff and it will sit in stubborn balls otherwise, and those balls never ferment.
4. If you are starting from raw maize meal instead, slake it in cold water and cook it into a thin porridge for 15 minutes, then thin it further.
5. It must be thin, closer to milk than to porridge. Mahewu is drunk from a bottle, not spooned.
6. Bring it briefly to a simmer if you want it to keep longer, then cool it.
7. Let it cool to lukewarm, around 35°C (95°F), and check it with a finger.
8. Cool it before the starter goes in. Anything hotter kills the lactic bacteria and the batch goes rancid instead of sour.
9. Stir in the millet meal, which is the traditional Zimbabwean starter.
10. The raw meal carries the wild lactic bacteria. It is not there for flavour or thickness, it is the inoculation, and there is no substitute for adding something raw.
11. Cover the container with a cloth and stand it somewhere warm for 24 hours.
12. Stir it once during that time, which keeps the ferment even through the container.
13. Taste from 24 hours. It should be sharply sour, tangy rather than bitter, and it will smell like sourdough starter.
14. In hot weather it can be ready in 12 hours and can go too far by 36, so taste rather than trusting the clock.
15. Strain it if you want it smooth, or drink it as it is with the grain in.
16. Sweeten if you like, though many Zimbabweans drink it plain and consider sugar a townie habit.
17. Chill it hard and shake the bottle before pouring, because the maize settles to the bottom within minutes.
18. It is drunk cold as a filling, cheap refreshment by farm and factory workers, and it is sold bottled across Zimbabwe.
19. The alcohol content is negligible, which is why it is given to children, and it should not be confused with the maize beers that are fermented much longer.
20. Mageu in South Africa, amahewu among the Zulu and Xhosa, and ting made from sorghum are all the same idea under different names.

Technique

• Keeping a cup of one batch to start the next gives a faster and more predictable ferment.
• Refrigerating it stops the souring going further.
• It is genuinely nourishing and is drunk as a light meal rather than only as a drink.

Substitutions

• Sorghum or millet meal in place of maize.
• A few spoonfuls of a previous batch as a starter.

Variations

• With milk stirred through.
• Left a further day for a sharper drink.
• Mageu, the South African name and version.

History

Maize porridge fermented for a day into a thick sour drink, sold bottled and drunk cold by farm and factory workers.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mahewu?

Mahewu is a drink from Zimbabwe: fermented maize drink often made from leftover sadza. Maize porridge fermented for a day into a thick sour drink, sold bottled and drunk cold by farm and factory workers.

How long does Mahewu take to make?

Mahewu takes 15 min plus 24 hr fermenting of preparation and 20 min of cooking. The recipe makes about 2.5 litres. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Mahewu?

Yes, within limits. Sorghum or millet meal in place of maize. A few spoonfuls of a previous batch as a starter.

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

This is the leftover version, and that is the point of it: mahewu exists because there is cold sadza in the pot and nobody wastes maize.