Nono

Ingredients

Soured milk

• 2 litreswhole milk
• 4 tbsplive nono or plain yoghurt, as starter

To serve

• millet balls (fura), or cooked millet
• sugar and a pinch of salt

Directions

1. Warm the milk to about 30°C (86°F) — blood heat. Fulani practice starts from milk still warm from the animal, so there is nothing to heat at all.
2. Stir in the starter until evenly distributed.
3. Pour into a calabash or a jar and cover with a cloth rather than a lid.
4. Leave at warm room temperature for 24 to 36 hours until it has thickened and tastes sharply sour.
5. Churn or stir it hard for several minutes. Traditionally the calabash is rocked, and a little butter rises and is skimmed off for cooking.
6. Skim off any butter and keep it. What is left is nono: thin, tangy and pourable.
7. Chill thoroughly. Sweeten with sugar and add a pinch of salt just before serving — the salt sharpens the sourness rather than making it salty.
8. Serve cold over crumbled millet balls, or drink it plain from a calabash.

Technique

• Keep four spoonfuls back for the next batch. A calabash used regularly carries the culture in the wood itself.
• Sweeten at the end, never at the start. Sugar added before the ferment feeds yeasts and the milk goes fizzy and off.
• Cover with cloth. A sealed vessel makes the curd rise and separate.

Substitutions

• Buttermilk as a starter.
• Reconstituted powdered milk, which is common across the Sahel and sours perfectly well.

Variations

• Fura da nono mixes it with millet balls into a meal in a bowl.
• The Burkinabè lait caillé and Cameroonian pendidam are the same preparation.

History

Fulani herders sour milk in gourds and sell it in markets, where it is mixed with millet balls or drunk plain.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nono?

Nono is a fermented & pickled from Mali: fulani soured milk, sharp and thick, sold in calabashes and drunk with millet. Fulani herders sour milk in gourds and sell it in markets, where it is mixed with millet balls or drunk plain.

How long does Nono take to make?

Nono takes 10 min plus 1 to 2 days souring of preparation and no cooking at all. The recipe makes makes about 1.5 litres. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Nono?

Yes, within limits. Buttermilk as a starter. Reconstituted powdered milk, which is common across the Sahel and sours perfectly well.

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

Pour into a calabash or a jar and cover with a cloth rather than a lid.