Ubushera

Ingredients

The grain

• 500 gsorghum flour
• or a mixture of sorghum
• and millet flour
• or 400 g sorghum flour
• plus 100 g malted sorghum flour
• for a better ferment

The liquid

• 3 litreswater
• boiled and cooled
• or filtered water

The sweetening

• sugar, to taste
• or honey
• added at serving

Equipment

• a large heavy pot
• a wide clean container
• with a loose cover
• a fine sieve or muslin
• clean bottles or a jug

To serve

• cool, in a cup or gourd
• with a spoon, if thick
• or thinned with more water

Directions

1. Taste it and stop when it is faintly tangy. It also requires care about mould. Put most of the water in a heavy pot. Mix the plain sorghum flour with cold water. Make a smooth thin slurry in a bowl. Work out every lump at this stage.
2. Bring the water in the pot to a boil. Pour the slurry in while stirring. Stir constantly and vigorously. Cook it for about twenty minutes.
3. Stir it often so it does not catch. Thin pots scorch grain porridge badly. Add more hot water if it is too thick. Take the pot off the heat entirely.
4. Let the porridge cool to lukewarm. Hot porridge kills the fermenting organisms. Sprinkle it over and whisk it in. Whisk until it is completely smooth. You do not want a competing one.
5. Let it dry fully before you use it. Cover it loosely with a cloth. Do not seal it tightly at all. Leave it somewhere warm but not hot. Leave it for one to three days.
6. Taste it each day with a clean spoon. Never taste with a used spoon. Discard it if it smells rotten or foul. Discard it if you see fuzzy mould. Do not skim mould off and drink the rest. Discard it if the colour looks wrong. Strain it through a fine sieve.
7. Press the solids to get all the liquid. Some households do not strain at all. Stir until it fully dissolves. Serve it cool rather than cold. It makes no medical claim about it. Discard it if it becomes unpleasantly sour. Do not seal it tightly for storage.

Technique

• Brief fermentation means low alcohol, not no alcohol. Any fermenting grain produces some ethanol, and how much depends on time and temperature — it rises the longer it stands and faster in warm weather. Traditional practice keeps it short when it is for children, and households know that timing. Ferment for one day if serving children, taste it, and stop while it is only faintly tangy. Strongly sour or fizzy means it has gone further.
• Cook the flour into a porridge before fermenting it. Gelatinised starch ferments properly; raw flour ferments poorly and unevenly.
• Let the porridge cool to barely warm before adding the malted flour. Hot porridge kills the fermenting organisms, which is a common and wasteful mistake.
• Cover loosely with a cloth, never seal tightly. Fermentation produces carbon dioxide and a sealed glass container can burst.
• Taste with a clean spoon each time, never a used one. Introducing bacteria from a used spoon spoils the batch.
• A good ferment smells sour and grainy, like sourdough. Discard it if it smells foul, if there is any fuzzy mould, or if pink or orange patches appear — and do not skim mould off and drink the rest, since the threads run through the liquid.
• Malted sorghum flour, which is sprouted grain, supplies the enzymes that turn starch into sugars. It is worth buying from an African grocer; without it the ferment is slow and weak, and malting at home is fiddly and carries its own mould risk.
• Ubushera is fermented briefly on purpose to stay a food drink. Longer fermentation of the same grain gives sorghum beer, which is a distinct thing.
• The drink is traditionally offered to pregnant and nursing women. The atlas records that as tradition and makes no medical claim; health questions belong with a doctor.

Substitutions

• Millet flour replaces some or all of the sorghum and is used in many households.
• Maize flour can be mixed in, though sorghum is the traditional grain.
• Malted sorghum flour is strongly preferred; without it, use a little of a previous batch as a starter instead.
• Honey replaces sugar and is used in some households.
• Straining is optional; unstrained ubushera is thick and grainy and eaten with a spoon.
• Cooled boiled water thins a batch that has come out thicker than you want.

Variations

• Sorghum beer, fermented much longer and considerably stronger, is the alcoholic relative made from the same grain.
• Ikivuguto is the Rwandan fermented milk drink, a quite different but equally everyday household ferment.
• A version made entirely from millet is lighter and paler.
• Some households add banana juice, which sweetens the drink considerably.
• Related lightly fermented grain drinks are made across East and Southern Africa — mahewu, obushera and others — under their own names.
• A thicker version, barely thinned at all, is eaten as a breakfast porridge rather than drunk.

History

Fermented only briefly so it stays low in alcohol, it doubles as a household breakfast and a drink for pregnant women and children.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ubushera?

Ubushera is a drink from Rwanda: lightly soured sorghum drink, sweet and grainy, given to children too. Fermented only briefly so it stays low in alcohol, it doubles as a household breakfast and a drink for pregnant women and children.

How long does Ubushera take to make?

Ubushera takes 20 minutes of preparation and 30 minutes, plus 1 to 3 days fermenting of cooking. The recipe makes makes about 3 litres. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Ubushera?

Yes, within limits. Millet flour replaces some or all of the sorghum and is used in many households. Maize flour can be mixed in, though sorghum is the traditional grain. Malted sorghum flour is strongly preferred; without it, use a little of a previous batch as a starter instead. Honey replaces sugar and is used in some households. Straining is optional; unstrained ubushera is thick and grainy and eaten with a spoon. Cooled boiled water thins a batch that has come out thicker than you want.

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

Let the porridge cool to lukewarm. Hot porridge kills the fermenting organisms. Sprinkle it over and whisk it in. Whisk until it is completely smooth. You do not want a competing one.