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Cereals and bread from Mexico

Birote saladobirote salado

Birote salado is the salty, crusty roll of Guadalajara, shaped like a baguette and used above all for tortas ahogadas. Its dough is fermented, and one birote sourdough held in the Puratos Sourdough Library is made with eggs, lime and beer.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Birote salado itself. Its own sources do not record how it is made, so the steps and scenes below are those of Salinātā rudzu rupjmaize (Latvian scalded rye bread, TSG), the closest documented cereals and bread ferment, shown as a guide to the method, not as a record of Birote salado.

Short entryCereals and bread

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo source gives a tested recipe with amounts.
Wheat flour[informador2024]
Water[informador2024]
Salt[informador2024]
LardListed with yeast for the standard birote in a news feature[informador2024]
Sourdough starterThe birote starter in the Puratos library is made with eggs, lime and beer[puratos-birote]

Total time across the steps of Salinātā rudzu rupjmaize (Latvian scalded rye bread, TSG): 20 h – 39 h

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
85–95 °C

What changes: Part of the rye flour is scalded with near-boiling water and caraway

Step 1 of 8 · steps of Salinātā rudzu rupjmaize (Latvian scalded rye bread, TSG)
Scald 30 % of the flour with caraway
Time
Not documented
Temperature
85–95 °C → 63 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: hot scald.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
like thick cream
Colour
greyish brown

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Birote salado is the salty, crusty roll of Guadalajara, shaped like a baguette and used above all for tortas ahogadas. Its dough is fermented, and one birote sourdough held in the Puratos Sourdough Library is made with eggs, lime and beer.

What makes this one different

Local accounts credit the birote salado's character to a fermented dough and a stone oven. The one documented starter adds eggs, lime and beer, which none of the other starters in that sourdough library contains.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Puratos tells that Camille Pirotte, a Belgian volunteer baker with the French army of the 1864–1867 intervention, found no yeast in Guadalajara and left the dough to ferment for a few days. This is a popular story, not documented history, and El Informador gives it as one theory beside another legend, of a ship's captain called M. Barrott. A 2020 Puratos page says birote makers were working with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) to file for a Denomination of Origin.

  1. [puratos-birote] Puratos, The Quest for Sourdough, Birote sourdough (Sourdough Library no. 72), archived copy of 18 July 2020web
  2. [informador2024] El Informador 2024, ¿Qué es lo que hace diferente al birote de Guadalajara del resto del país?, 15 October 2024web
  3. [eswiki-birote] Wikipedia (es), Birotewiki