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Fermentation Atlas

Cereals and bread from South India and Sri Lanka

Dosaதோசை

Rice and dehulled black gram are soaked, ground fine and fermented overnight into a sour batter. The batter is thinned, spread in a thin circle on a hot griddle with a little oil and cooked into a crisp pancake. Made in 4 steps over 12 h – 14 h. The longest step, add salt and ferment overnight, takes 12–14 h (CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Inst…) and runs at 28–32 °C (CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Inst…). Salt is 2–2.5 % (CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Inst…). Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Enterococcus faecalis do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step12–14 hReported[cftri-batter]Add salt and ferment overnight
Temperature28–32 °CReported[cftri-batter]Add salt and ferment overnight
Salt2–2.5 %Reported[cftri-batter]Add salt and ferment overnight

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceNo tested recipe with weights was found. Studies give proportions only, rice to black gram 3:1 by weight, and a CSIR-CFTRI process uses raw rice, parboiled rice and black gram with 2–2.5% salt.
3 partsRice (raw, parboiled, or both)[kumari2022][cftri-batter]
1 partDehulled black gram (urad dal)[kumari2022][cftri-batter]
2–2.5% of the dry mixSalt · Level used in a tested dried-batter process[cftri-batter]
Water · For soaking, for grinding, and to thin the batter before cooking
No starter · The bacteria come in on the grains, as in idli[fao138]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 h – 14 h

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a grain

What changes: Water soaks into the rice and black gram and softens them

Step 1 of 4
Soak rice and black gram
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
L. mesenteroides
Enterococcus faecalis
L. fermentum
B. amyloliquefaciens

Soaked as for idli; one study soaked the grains overnight. Output: soft, swollen grains.

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

What makes this one different

Dosa uses almost the same batter as idli, but both grains are ground fine and the batter is spread thin and cooked on a griddle instead of steamed. Raw rice is often used with or instead of the parboiled rice that idli needs.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Masala dosaFilled with spiced potato.
  • Set dosa and benne dose (Davangere)Thick and spongy (set dosa) or rich with butter (benne dose).
  • UttapamThick pancake with toppings cooked into it.
  • Ragi dosaFinger millet with black gram or horse gram.
  • Dried dosa batter mixFermented batter dried at about 50 °C and powdered; mixed with 2.5–2.8 parts water to cook.
  • Neer dosa, adai, pesarattu and rava dosaNot fermented; watery rice batter, mixed pulses, green gram or semolina batters cooked at once.

Safety

The overnight ferment sits close to the 28–35 °C range where Bacillus cereus grows best (FDA). It cannot grow below pH 4.9, so the batter should be well soured before it is kept. Cooking kills the bacteria but may not destroy toxin already made, so do not hold unsoured batter warm for long, and refrigerate leftover batter at 4 °C (40 °F) or lower. Do not taste raw batter, since raw grain and flour can carry Salmonella and E. coli (FDA).

Hazards the sources name: Bacillus cereus (spore-former linked with rice and other starchy foods).

History and sources

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

The food historian K.T. Achaya dates the first written mention to 8th-century Tamil literature, with Kannada texts about a century later. The 12th-century Sanskrit Manasollasa gives a recipe.

  1. [fao138] Haard N.F. et al. 1999, Fermented cereals, a global perspective, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 138, chapter 3 (idli, dosa)gov
  2. [tamang2016] Tamang J.P., Watanabe K., Holzapfel W.H. 2016, Review, diversity of microorganisms in global fermented foods and beverages, Frontiers in Microbiology 7:377, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2016.00377paper
  3. [soni1986] Soni S.K., Sandhu D.K., Vilkhu K.S., Kamra N. 1986, Microbiological studies on dosa fermentation, Food Microbiology 3(1):45–53, doi:10.1016/S0740-0020(86)80025-9 (abstract)paper
  4. [kumari2022] Kumari V.B.C. et al. 2022, Probiotic potential Lacticaseibacillus casei and Limosilactobacillus fermentum strains isolated from dosa batter, Microorganisms 10:1195, doi:10.3390/microorganisms10061195paper
  5. [gupta2014] Gupta A., Tiwari S.K. 2014, Probiotic potential of Lactobacillus plantarum LD1 isolated from batter of dosa, a South Indian fermented food, Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins 6:73–81, doi:10.1007/s12602-014-9158-2paper
  6. [cftri-batter] CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute, Indian patent 199772, A process for preparation of fermented and dehydrated batter useful for making idli, dosa and like (abstract)other
  7. [fda-bbb] US Food and Drug Administration 2012, Bad Bug Book, 2nd edition, Bacillus cereus and other Bacillus speciesgov
  8. [fda-flour] US Food and Drug Administration, Handling Flour Safely, What You Need to Knowgov
  9. [wp] Wikipedia, Dosa (food) (history only, citing Achaya 2003)wiki