In February, 2004, I went to Northern Kenya to study how the Samburu tribe process their milk. This is a photograph of a girl holding a wooden milk container.

I am an author, and this is my web site. I am interested in traditional foods, traditional cooking methods, and tastes that might not be those of the fashionable restaurant. My interest in the milk of the Samburu was kindled the night of my first visit to Wamba, Kenya. It was a moonlit night. I was taken, in the moonlight, on a walk to the hut of a friend’s mother. Sitting by a smoldering fire in the dark interior, a cup of milk was passed from one-to-another. The milk had a slight smokey taste. It was sweet. Delicious. Ineffable taste.

How did the milk come to have a smokey taste? The wooden containers used to store milk are sterilized with burning sticks.The smokey taste comes from a residue of ash left over from the sterilization process. Different woods leave a different flavored ash. Thus, Samburu milk is a milk of many flavors. I am hoping to complete this study on my next trip to Kenya. My study will describe the Samburu method for smoking milk in enough detail for you to make smoked milk at home. Smoked milk ice cream is delicious, as is smoked milk custard.

While it is obvious from my web site that I have many interestes, an abiding interest is fire — and the flavors of fire-kissed food. If you use your fireplace for cooking, or would like to, or if cooking on a barbecue or campfire are favorite