Kombo Natural Salt for Cooking African Food | Taste of South Sudan

Kombo, a traditional salt from South Sudan.Kombo is a strong alkali solution, an alternative name is lye. Chemically it contains a mix of sodium hydroxides, potassium phosphates and potassium carbonates. In South Sudan and many parts of Africa it is made by running water through ashes from cooking. Place the ashes in a pot with holes at the bottom, run water through the ashes, and the liquid that leaches out into a receiving container is called Kombo. To get a quality Kombo solution, our grandmothers knew to select dried stems from legumes, groundnuts, and papaya stems. The strong alkali solution breaks down the hard cellulose fibers in dark leafy greens that otherwise take forever to cook. Kombo is hard to measure, it is titrated based on taste, and based on the quantity of food being cooked.Kombo imparts to meals an extra taste that is unlike salty, sweet, acidic or bitter; an additional taste highly favored in African cuisine. A taste that is similar to savory Umami flavor. Kombo is