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Starters and koji from Meghalaya, India

Thiat

Thiat is a rice starter of Meghalaya. Soaked glutinous rice is ground with the leaves and roots of Amomum aromaticum, seeded with 1–2 % old thiat, rolled into balls, left 1–3 days for moulds and yeasts to grow, then sun-dried for 3–5 days. It is used to make kiad.

Fully documentedStarters and koji4 days – 8 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceA household craft with no fixed batch size. The only amount the sources give is the 1–2 % of old thiat.
Glutinous riceSoaked, then ground[sha2017]
Leaves and roots of Amomum aromaticumGround with the rice[sha2017]
Old thiat1–2 %Powdered starter from an earlier batch[sha2017][sha2018]
WaterTo make a dough[sha2017]
Starterback-slop: 1–2 % old thiat

Total time across the recorded steps: 4 days – 8 days

Start
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What changes: Soaked glutinous rice is ground with Amomum leaves and roots

Step 1 of 4
Grind soaked glutinous rice with Amomum leaves and roots
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Yeasts

Output: rice and herb 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

Thiat is a rice starter of Meghalaya. Soaked glutinous rice is ground with the leaves and roots of Amomum aromaticum, seeded with 1–2 % old thiat, rolled into balls, left 1–3 days for moulds and yeasts to grow, then sun-dried for 3–5 days. It is used to make kiad. Made in 4 steps over 4 days – 8 days. The longest step, sun-dry, takes 3–5 days (Sha S.P 2017). Moulds Aspergillus penicillioides, Aureobasidium pullulans and Mucor circinelloides and Moulds isolated from thiat, including Mucor circinelloides and Rhizopus delemar do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3–5 daysReported[sha2017]Sun-dry
AciditypH 4.5–5Measured[anupma2020]Sun-dry

What makes this one different

Thiat is the Meghalaya cousin of marcha. Moulds outnumber yeasts in it, and its bacteria are mostly Enterobacteriaceae rather than the acetic and lactic bacteria of marcha.

Related ferments

Safety

Cronobacter, Escherichia–Shigella and Salmonella were among the bacteria found by sequencing thiat. Sha et al. name hygiene, rice, water and back-slopping as factors that shape what grows in the starter.

Hazards the sources name: Cronobacter (21.4 % of bacterial reads); Escherichia–Shigella (15.5 %) and Salmonella (3.2 %).

History and sources

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

A 2019 review (Nath et al.) cites Samati and Begum (2007) for a study of kiad made by the Pnar of Jaintia Hills district, which describes two parts: thiat preparation and kiad brewing. Sha et al. (2017) report the first complete profile of the bacteria and fungi in thiat and marcha by sequencing.

  1. [nath2019] Nath N., Ghosh S., Rahaman L., Kaipeng D.L. and Sharma B.K. 2019, An overview of traditional rice beer of North-east India, ethnic preparation, challenges and prospects, Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 18(4), pp. 744–757paper
  2. [sha2017] Sha S.P., Jani K., Sharma A., Anupma A., Pradhan P., Shouche Y., Tamang J.P. 2017, Analysis of bacterial and fungal communities in marcha and thiat, traditionally prepared amylolytic starters of India, Scientific Reports 7:10967paper
  3. [sha2018] Sha S.P., Suryavanshi M.V., Jani K., Sharma A., Shouche Y., Tamang J.P. 2018, Diversity of yeasts and molds by culture-dependent and culture-independent methods for mycobiome surveillance of traditionally prepared dried starters for the production of Indian alcoholic beverages, Frontiers in Microbiology 9:2237paper
  4. [anupma2020] Anupma A., Tamang J.P. 2020, Diversity of filamentous fungi isolated from some amylase and alcohol-producing starters of India, Frontiers in Microbiology 11:905 (Table 1, thiat from Shillong)paper