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Fermentation Atlas

Cereals and bread from Punjab, North India, Pakistan, Hyderabad, Lucknow

Curd- or khamir-leavened breads (bhatura, kulcha, naan, khamiri roti)भटूरा

These North Indian and Pakistani wheat breads are leavened with curd (yogurt), an old-dough starter called khameer or malera, or yeast. A soft dough is kneaded with curd or starter and left for hours to rise and sour slightly. It is then baked on the hot wall of a tandoor (naan, kulcha, khamiri roti) or deep-fried (bhatura). Made in 4 steps over 4.1 h. The longest step, rest and ferment, takes 4 h (Hashmi I.A. 1996). Salt is 1 % (Hashmi I.A. 1996). Lactic bacteria reported for kulcha, jalebi and other sweet Indian wheat ferments does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4 hReported[hashmi1996]Rest and ferment
Salt1 %Reported[hashmi1996]Knead the dough with curd or starter

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceParts by weight for naan, from the laboratory method of Rahim et al. (1993) built on a survey of restaurants, as cited in Hashmi's 1996 thesis. Bhatura and kulcha recipes vary.
100 partsMaida (plain flour)[hashmi1996]
12 partsYoghurt[hashmi1996]
6 partsMilk[hashmi1996]
1 partSalt[hashmi1996]
2 partsSugar[hashmi1996]
3 partsEgg[hashmi1996]
4 partsFat[hashmi1996]
0.5 partsBaking soda[hashmi1996]
Water · Farinograph water absorption plus 1–3 % extra[hashmi1996]
Khameer or malera (old-dough starter) · Used for bhatura and kulcha instead of, or with, curd[rawat2018]
Startercurd (yogurt lactic bacteria), an old-dough starter (khameer or malera), or yeast

Total time across the recorded steps: 4.1 h

Start
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Salt 1 %

What changes: Flour, curd, milk and a little salt are kneaded into a soft dough

Step 1 of 4
Knead the dough with curd or starter
Time
3 min
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
1 %
Reported
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts

Output: soft dough.

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

These breads are leavened with curd or an old-dough starter, often with a little soda or yeast, and baked for only a minute or two in a very hot tandoor. Bhatura is the same kind of dough deep-fried.

Related ferments

Variants

  • BhaturaDeep-fried; made with wheat and a khameer or malera starter.
  • KulchaWheat and khameer or malera starter; baked in a tandoor.
  • NaanPlain flour of about 72 % extraction with yoghurt, milk and egg; the most common tandoori bread in India.

History and sources

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

  1. [hashmi1996] Hashmi I.A. 1996, Wheat and flour properties affecting tandoori bread quality, PhD thesis, Victoria University of Technology (citing the naan method of Rahim et al. 1993)paper
  2. [rawat2018] Rawat K., Kumari A., Kumar S., Kumar R., Gehlot R. 2018, Traditional fermented products of India, International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences 7(4):1873–1883paper