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Fermentation Atlas

Cereals and bread from Aotearoa New Zealand

Rēwena parāoa (Māori potato-starter sourdough)rēwena parāoa

Boiled, mashed potato is stirred with flour and sugar and left warm for one to three days, until wild yeasts and lactic bacteria make this starter (the "bug") rise and bubble. Part of the bug is kneaded with flour, sugar and water, proofed and baked into a slightly sweet, sour loaf, and the rest is fed and kept, sometimes for decades. Made in 5 steps over 27 h – 3.1 days. The longest step, make and ferment the bug, takes 24 h – 3 days (Manihera S). Lacticaseibacillus paracasei and Saccharomyces cerevisiae do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 3 daysReported[sbs][wp]Make and ferment the bug
Temperature180 °CReported[sbs]Bake
Fully documentedCereals and bread27 h – 3.1 daysMore cereals and breadMore from Oceania

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne 1-litre loaf from an SBS Food recipe by Suzy Manihera. The starter recipe makes more bug than one loaf needs; the rest is kept and fed.
400 gFloury potatoes · For the starter; boiled in salted water and mashed[sbs]
300 gPlain flour · For the starter[sbs]
55 gCaster sugar · For the starter[sbs]
260 g (1 cup)Potato starter (bug) · For the bread[sbs]
350 gPlain flour · For the bread[sbs]
110 gCaster sugar · For the bread[sbs]
125 mlHot water[sbs]
1 tbspMelted butter, and 1 tsp sugar to sprinkle · Brushed on near the end of baking[sbs]
Starterother: potato starter (bug) of mashed potato, flour and sugar, back-slopped and fed like a sourdough

Total time across the recorded steps: 27 h – 3.1 days

Start
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What changes: Sliced potatoes boil until tender and are mashed and cooled

Step 1 of 5
Boil and mash the potatoes
Time
10 min
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts
L. paracasei
Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Output: cooled mashed potato.

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

Rēwena is leavened by a starter built on cooked potato, flour and sugar instead of flour and water alone. The one starter studied held a single lactic species, Lacticaseibacillus paracasei, and a single yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Related ferments

Safety

No published safety study covers the potato bug. The potatoes are boiled before the starter is made, and the loaf is baked through for an hour.

History and sources

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

Māori have baked rēwena for more than a century. Rēwena transliterates the English word "leaven" and parāoa the word "flour", which also came to mean bread or dough.

  1. [sun2022] Sun J., Silander O., Rutherfurd-Markwick K., Wen D., Davy T.P., Mutukumira A.N. 2022, Phenotypic and genotypic characterisation of Lactobacillus and yeast isolates from a traditional New Zealand Māori potato starter culture, Current Research in Food Science 5:1287–1294, doi:10.1016/j.crfs.2022.08.004paper
  2. [sbs] Manihera S., Māori potato bread (rēwena parāoa), SBS Food recipeweb
  3. [wp] Wikipedia, Rēwena bread (outline and word origins)wiki