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Starters and koji from Philippines

Bubod (tapuy starter)

Bubod is the Philippine rice starter cake. Glutinous rice is ground wet, mixed with water, ginger and the roots of a local plant (unwad), shaped into flat cakes or balls and dusted with powdered old bubod. After about three days of mould and yeast growth the cakes are dried and kept to start tapuy rice wine.

Fully documentedStarters and koji6 days – 7 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe amounts are one batch made at a 2003 PhilRice and DTI-Ifugao training, with non-glutinous rice flour. The FAO flow chart gives the method only, with no amounts, incubation temperature or drying conditions.
Glutinous riceGround while wet[fao138]
Water[fao138]
Unwad rootsA local plant root named in the FAO flow chart, which gives no species; one study describes the roots as wild grass roots (Bidens pilosa)[fao138][delarosa2022]
Ginger[fao138]
Powdered bubodFrom an earlier batch, sprinkled over the new cakes[fao138][delarosa2022]
One bubod batch made at a PhilRice and DTI-Ifugao training (Bubod A)3.8 kg non-glutinous rice flour, 35 g chopped dried onuad roots, ginger extract from 400 g ginger in 12 cups of water, about 15 g powdered mother yeast per 200 g cakeThe training used non-glutinous NFA rice flour, not wet-ground glutinous rice as in the FAO flow chart[philrice2003]
Starterback-slop: powdered bubod from an earlier batch

Total time across the recorded steps: 6 days – 7 days

Start
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What changes: Glutinous rice is ground while wet

Step 1 of 5
Grind glutinous rice while wet
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Yeasts
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: wet rice meal.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

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

Bubod is the Philippine rice starter cake. Glutinous rice is ground wet, mixed with water, ginger and the roots of a local plant (unwad), shaped into flat cakes or balls and dusted with powdered old bubod. After about three days of mould and yeast growth the cakes are dried and kept to start tapuy rice wine. Made in 5 steps over 6 days – 7 days. The longest step, dry, takes 3–4 days (Badonill E.H. et al. 2003). Moulds and Yeasts do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3–4 daysReported[philrice2003]Dry

What makes this one different

The FAO bulletin groups bubod with Indonesian ragi and Korean nuruk as starters made by natural fermentation of raw cereal powder moulded into cakes or balls. Bubod is made from glutinous rice with ginger and wild grass roots. Japanese koji differs, being made from cooked cereal grains that are commonly inoculated with Aspergillus oryzae.

Related ferments

Safety

The FAO chapter reports mould counts in bubod of 10³–10⁷ per g, varying with the source and district.

History and sources

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

Dela Rosa and Medina, citing Sanchez (1999), write that tapuy-making methods were developed by trial and error and passed down from one generation to another, and, citing Tanimura et al. (1977), that the methods differ between Northern Luzon provinces, so tapuy quality varies from maker to maker. They add that the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) has headed efforts to standardise tapuy production for commercial purposes (Ablaza et al. 2008; Bandonill et al. 2009).

Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [fao138] Haard N.F., Odunfa S.A., Lee C.H., Quintero-Ramírez R. et al. 1999, Fermented cereals, a global perspective, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 138, chapter 3 (Cereal fermentations in countries of the Asia-Pacific region), Figure 3 (bubod flow chart) and text citing Tanimura et al. 1978gov
  2. [philrice2003] Badonill E.H. et al. 2003, Development and pilot scale production of rice-based products, in Rice R and D highlights 2003, Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), standardisation of tapuy starter culture and rice wine standardisation traininggov
  3. [delarosa2022] Dela Rosa J.G.L. and Medina P.M.B. 2022, Philippine rice wine (Tapuy) made from Ballatinao black rice and traditional starter culture (Bubod) showed high alcohol content, total phenolic content, and antioxidant activity, Food Science and Technology (Campinas) 42, e45120 (introduction)paper
  4. [wp-tapuy] Wikipedia, Tapuy (outline only)wiki