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Cereals and bread from Upper Egypt

Kishk Sa'idi (Upper Egyptian kishk)كشك صعيدي

Kishk sa'idi is a dried sour food of Upper Egypt made from boiled wheat and soured milk. Wheat is boiled soft, dried, ground and sieved; milk soured in earthenware is mixed in to make a paste (hamma) that ferments for about a day, is thinned with more soured milk, ferments again and is rolled into small balls and sun-dried.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Kishk Sa'idi itself.

DocumentedCereals and bread7 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo source gives household amounts; one describes the wheat and soured milk as almost equal parts.
Wheat grainsBoiled until soft, dried on mats, ground and sieved to remove the seed coats[fao138]
Soured milkSoured by churning in skin bags and concentrated in earthenware pots[fao138]
Lightly salted boiling waterTo moisten the ground wheat[fao138]
Salt1% of the mixture in a 2022 laboratory recipe for Egyptian kishk (burghul and laban rayeb); the lab oven-dried the balls at 50 °C for 48 h instead of sun-drying[ismail2022]
Fennel seeds (optional)[nawaya]

Total time across the recorded steps: 7 days

Start
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shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteriaYeastsSugarAlcoholCO₂

What changes: Milk is churned and soured in earthenware until thick and sharp

Step 1 of 5
Sour the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts
Lactobacillus plantarum
L. brevis
L. casei

Output: soured, concentrated milk (laban zeer).

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Lactic bacteria and yeasts sour and thicken the milk.

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

Kishk sa'idi is a dried sour food of Upper Egypt made from boiled wheat and soured milk. Wheat is boiled soft, dried, ground and sieved; milk soured in earthenware is mixed in to make a paste (hamma) that ferments for about a day, is thinned with more soured milk, ferments again and is rolled into small balls and sun-dried. Made in 5 steps over 7 days. The longest step, form small balls and sun-dry on rooftops, takes up to 5 days (Nawaya (curator Laura Tabet)). Lactobacillus plantarum, L. brevis, L. casei, Bacillus subtilis and yeasts does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepup to 5 daysReported[nawaya]Form small balls and sun-dry on rooftops

What makes this one different

Kishk sa'idi uses boiled whole wheat and milk soured in earthenware and is kept as hard balls. Lebanese kishk mixes bulgur into yogurt, kneads it for days and grinds the dried balls to powder.

Related ferments

Safety

In a 2022 laboratory study of wheat and quinoa kishk made with heated laban rayeb, the authors saw no spoilage or pathogenic microbes over 3 months at room temperature and credit the acidity and low water activity. Their counts covered total bacteria, lactic bacteria, coliforms, yeasts and moulds, with no test for a named pathogen. That recipe was not kishk sa'idi, and it heated the milk first.

History and sources

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

A household craft of Upper Egyptian farm families, made in large batches in season to last the year.

  1. [fao138] Haard N.F. et al. 1999, Fermented cereals, a global perspective, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 138, chapter 2 (kishk, Fig. 10, after Morcos et al. 1973)gov
  2. [nawaya] Nawaya (curator Laura Tabet), Kishk Saedi, cooking with Egypt's power food, Google Arts and Cultureweb
  3. [ismail2022] Ismail H.A., Rayan A.M. 2022, Preparation and evaluation of Quinoa-Kishk as a novel functional fermented dairy product, Journal of Food Science and Technology, doi:10.1007/s13197-021-05110-8 (control kishk from wheat burghul and laban rayeb, method after Tamime et al. 1997)paper