Cereals and bread

Also called كشك صعيدي, Egyptian kishk, Seidi kishk, hama (the wet paste).

Hard sour balls soaked and cooked into a thick kishk soup or sauce.

1. Churn milk in a goatskin (kerba) and collect the buttermilk
2. Concentrate and sour the laban in a zeer5 days (Fayoum 2006 lab study) to at least 40 days (review of traditional practice); sources disagree
3. Boil, sun-dry and crack the wheatboil until soft; sun-dry 24 h; moisten with about 20% water; crack and winnow
4. Mix laban zeer with burghul (hama) and ferment againdays
5. Shape into balls or cakes and sun-drydays

Safety: Shelf life rests on moisture below 10%, pH about 4.2 and a non-hygroscopic product.

• Microbiological and biochemical aspects of kishk fermentation 2: Egyptian Seidi kishk, Fayoum J Agric Res Dev, https://journals.ekb.eg/article_197576.html (server refused connection; data from search summary, verify)
• Morcos S.R. et al. 1973, Fermented foods in common use in Egypt I: nutritive value of kishk, J Sci Food Agric 24:1153-1156, doi:10.1002/jsfa.2740241002
• Damir A.A. et al. 1992, Acidity, microbial, organic and free amino acids development during fermentation of skimmed milk kishk, Food Chem 43:265-269 (acids rise until about day 6)
• Google Arts & Culture, Kishk Saedi: Cooking with Egypt's Power Food, https://artsandculture.google.com/story/TgVxTR0wueUTag

Also called kue apem, apem, apam (Malaysia), serabi-related.

Soft, airy, slightly sour rice cakes.

1. Mix batter with leaven
2. Fermenthours with yeast; up to a day or more with tape or toddy (no apem-specific study gives hours)
3. Steam in cups or bake in an apem pan

• Universitas Sriwijaya thesis, Pengaruh ragi tape dan ragi fermipan terhadap karakteristik kue apem, https://repository.unsri.ac.id/14750/
• Dinus journal, apem description, https://publikasi.dinus.ac.id/unclle/article/view/16377

Also called كشك, kushk, kishk (Iraq).

Dried sour wheat-yogurt pieces for soups and kubba fillings.

1. Mix, ferment, shape and sun-dry

• Tamime A.Y., O'Connor T.P. 1995, Int Dairy J 5:109-128 (name list; not read in full)

Also called kyselo, Krkonoše sour soup.

Sour rye soup with mushrooms, potatoes and egg.

1. Thin rye sourdough with lukewarm water, salt and caraway; leave to sourovernight to one day if the kvásek is not sour enough
2. Pour into mushroom broth and cook; add fried onion, potatoes, scrambled eggsminutes

• Hradec Králové Region tourism portal, Krkonoše recipes (10 g dried mushrooms per litre), https://old.khk.cz/cz/gastrospeciality/recepty/*kopie-1:-recepty-z-kuchyne-krkonos-a-podkrkonosi-49283
• Novinky.cz, Svérázná krkonošská kuchyně, https://www.novinky.cz/clanek/zena-styl-sverazna-krkonosska-kuchyne-105602

Also called llymru, sucan, uwd sucan, Welsh flummery, sucan blawd.

Soft, sour oat jelly eaten cold with milk or with treacle in hot water; summer breakfast or supper.

1. Steep oatmeal in water and buttermilk3-4 days (Bala recipe); two nights with sugar and ginger (Mynytho recipe)
2. Strain through a very fine sieve, squeezing the meal
3. Boil hard, stirring with a wooden stick, until it falls in a thin 'tail'
4. Pour into a wet dish and let set

• Amgueddfa Cymru (Museum Wales), Welsh Foods: Llymru, recipe from Mrs Catrin Jones of Bala (Minwel Tibbott, Welsh Fare), https://museum.wales/collections/welsh-foods/?id=61
• Amgueddfa Cymru, Welsh Foods, Mynytho llymru, https://museum.wales/collections/welsh-foods/?id=63
• Storiel museum, Flummery mixer, https://collections.storiel.cymru/flummery-mixer

Also called masa, waina, Hausa rice cakes.

spongy fried cakes

1. Soak and grind grain; add some cooked rice
2. Ferment overnight
3. Fry in a multi-well clay or cast-iron pan (tanda)

Also called mawè, mawe.

sour maize dough used to make akassa, gels (eko), porridges and drinks

1. Clean, winnow, wash; crush; sieve into grits and fines; dehull grits
2. Moisten 2-4 h, mill to dough, knead2-4 h moistening
3. Ferment24 h – 3 days

Safety: Enterobacteriaceae fall below detection within 24–48 h of fermentation [s3].

• FAO 1999 ch.2 (Hounhouigan et al.), https://www.fao.org/4/x2184E/x2184e07.htm
• Hounhouigan D.J. et al. 1993, J Cereal Sci 17:291-300, doi:10.1006/jcrs.1993.1027
• Houngbédji M. et al. 2018, Food Microbiol 76:267-278, doi:10.1016/j.fm.2018.06.005
• Hounhouigan D.J. et al. 1994, World J Microbiol Biotechnol 10:410-413
• Hounhouigan D.J. 1994, Fermentation of maize (Zea mays L.) meal for mawè production in Bénin, PhD thesis, Wageningen

Also called nohut mayalı ekmek, nohut ekmeği, Turkish chickpea bread.

Fine-crumbed bread with a distinctive aroma.

1. Ferment chickpeas in warm water (chickpea liquid)overnight (typical)
2. Mix liquid with flour into a sponge, then dough
3. Bake

Safety: C. perfringens dominates the starters (Boyacı Gündüz 2020).

• Boyacı Gündüz C.P. et al. 2020, traditional chickpea liquid starters and doughs from Turkish bakeries (141 LAB isolates; C. perfringens dominant), via Erten group
• Erginkaya Z. et al. 2016, Nohut mayalı ekmek üretimi ve hakim mikroflora, Uludağ Üniv. Ziraat Fak. Derg., https://acikerisim.uludag.edu.tr/handle/11452/5653
• Çebi K., Aydın F. 2009 MSc and Çebi 2014 PhD, Atatürk University (L. brevis FK2, L. lactis FK5, L. plantarum FK25)

Also called ଚକୁଳି ପିଠା, ଏଣ୍ଡୁରି ପିଠା, chakuli, enduri, haladi patra pitha.

Rice and dehulled black gram are soaked, ground into a batter and left to ferment. The batter is either poured thin on a hot griddle as chakuli pitha, or spread on turmeric leaves around a sweet coconut filling and steamed as enduri pitha. No study has yet measured how these batters ferment.

1. Soak rice and black gram separately
2. Grind into a batter and salt it
3. Leave the batter to ferment
4. Spread on turmeric leaves with a sweet filling (enduri)
5. Steam the parcels (enduri) or fry thin on a griddle (chakuli)10 min

• Sharma A. 2021, A review on traditional technology and safety challenges with regard to antinutrients in legume foods, Journal of Food Science and Technology 58(8):2863–2883 (table entry for pitha, citing Ray et al. 2016)
• Naik G. 2012, Enduri pitha, the typical Odia pitha prepared on Prathamastami, eOdisha.org
• Wikipedia, Chakuli pitha (outline and variants only)

Also called pane di Altamura, sckuanéte, cappidde de prévete.

thick-crusted durum sourdough bread

1. Impastamento (kneading)
2. Formatura (first shaping)
3. Lievitazione (rise)not given in DOP summary
4. Modellatura (final shaping)
5. Bake in wood-fired oven

• Wikipedia (it), Pane di Altamura (citing Reg. CE 1291/2003), https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pane_di_Altamura

Also called panis Picens, Picentine bread.

Hard pot-baked bread eaten soaked in honeyed milk.

1. Soak alica flournine days
2. Knead with raisin juice on day ten into long rolls
3. Bake in earthen pots in an oven until the pots break
4. Soak in milk with honey to eat

• Pliny, Natural History XVIII.27, Project Gutenberg 61113

Also called பழைய சாதம், പഴങ്കഞ്ഞി, neeragaram (the liquid), pazhaya soru.

Cool, faintly sour rice eaten in the morning; the liquid (neeragaram) is drunk.

1. Cover cooked rice with water in a clay pot overnightovernight (8-12 h)
2. Mash with curd, salt, shallots and chilli

• Afrin S. et al. 2024, Microbiome profile and nutritional benefits of traditional overnight soaked cooked rice, Food and Humanity, https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/24585/
• Shanlax Int J Arts Sci Humanit 2026, cultural review of pazhaya sadham, https://www.shanlaxjournals.in/journals/index.php/sijash/article/download/10212/8811/

Also called পইতা ভাত, poita bhaat.

Overnight rice eaten with mustard oil, onion, chilli; shelf life only 24-48 h.

1. Soak cooked rice in water overnight12 h

• Indian J Traditional Knowledge 2026, spray-dried fermented rice (Gauhati University), https://or.niscpr.res.in/index.php/IJTK/article/view/26753

Also called poto poto, poto-poto.

sour maize gruel

1. Steep, grind, sieve, ferment slurry (ogi-like)24 h – 3 days
2. Cook as gruel (bouillie)

• Tamang et al. 2016, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00377/full
• Abriouel H. et al. 2006, Int J Food Microbiol 111:228-233
• Ben Omar N. et al. 2008, Int J Food Microbiol 127:18-25

Also called puto Calasiao, Calasiao rice cakes, Calasiao puto.

Rice is soaked, ground wet and left to ferment in old earthen jars with a little sugar, then steamed in small cups into bite-size white cakes. Local accounts say only rice, water and sugar go in, and the seasoned jars carry the fermentation. No study has measured the process.

1. Soak rice and grind it wet into galapong
2. Ferment in old earthen jarsat least 3 days
3. Sweeten and steam in small cups

• Wikivoyage, Calasiao, Pangasinan (rice, earthen jars, three days or more, villages)
• Meryenda newsletter, 25 Nov 2022, Friday Food for Ferment (rice, water and sugar only; banga seasoned at least a year)
• Sandoval M. 2023, Puto Calasiao, the delightful rice cake from Pangasinan, Our Pangasinan (overnight fermentation; lists yeast)
• Oxford Companion to Food via ckbk, Rice cakes of the Philippines (galapong soaked overnight and ground wet)
• Sunday Punch, 4 Feb 2007, Calasiao, 'the puto town' forges ahead (28 stands, One Town, One Product)
• The Manila Times, 15 Dec 2023, Makers of Calasiao puto seek to export products (more than 50 years of sidewalk sales; Puto Festival)

Sour pseudocereal-based bread or wheat bread enriched with quinoa sourdough.

1. Backslop daily10 days of daily backslopping
2. Use at 20% (w/w) in wheat bread or as base for gluten-free bread

• Sterr Y., Weiss A., Schmidt H. 2009, Evaluation of LAB for sourdough fermentation of amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa, Int J Food Microbiol 136:75-82, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2009.09.006
• Rizzello C.G. et al. 2016, Use of fermented quinoa flour for wheat bread, Food Microbiol 56:1-13, doi:10.1016/j.fm.2015.11.018

miso analogue from bread (upcycled)

1. Blend bread with rice koji and salt, pack into barrelsat least 3 months

• Noma Projects, Flavor Box 1 page. https://nomaprojects.com/pages/tb26-box1 (via search summary)

Also called sagagnèga, sagagnega.

Smooth, cold, sour cereal drink-porridge taken by farm workers against fatigue and thirst.

1. Soak and dry-mill the grain; form a doughsoak time not given
2. Dilute and ferment25–35 °C
3. Dilute for drinking through the daysame day

Safety: JFQ2024 found no E. coli, thermotolerant coliforms or moulds in the porridges sampled; sagagnèga had the highest total ash of the eight (63.19 g/100 g as reported, likely per dry-matter basis or a unit error; check the paper).

• KARIMOU2022; KARIMOU2023; JFQ2024
• FERMDB row Sagagnega

Also called 酒種, 天然酵母, sakadane anpan.

anpan and soft breads

1. Make sakadane (cooked rice + koji + water)25–30 °C
2. Dough and bake

Also called 酒饅頭, さかまんじゅう, sake manju.

Soft, chewy steamed bun with a sake aroma.

1. Make sakadane from cooked rice, koji and waterabout 2 days in summer, 5-6 days in winter (MAFF)
2. Mix starter with flour and sugar; rest until risenhours
3. Fill with anko and steam

Safety: Sake-lees versions carry some alcohol.

• MAFF, Our Regional Cuisines: sakamanjū, https://www.maff.go.jp/e/policies/market/k_ryouri/search_menu/2535/index.html
• Wikipedia, Sake Manjū, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sake_Manj%C5%AB

Salt-rising bread is an Appalachian loaf raised without yeast. A starter of scalded milk, cornmeal and a little flour is kept very warm overnight until it foams and smells of cheese, because Clostridium perfringens grows in it and makes the gas. The starter is built into a sponge, then a dough, which rises in pans and is baked.

1. Make the starter and keep it warm9–11 h · 41–46 °C
2. Build the sponge1.5–2 h
3. Mix the dough and rise in pans2–3 h
4. Bake35–40 min · 177 °C

Safety: The leavening bacterium is Clostridium perfringens type A, a common cause of food poisoning. In 2008 every starter tested grew it, but no culture carried the enterotoxin. Baking appears to reduce the bacteria to safe levels, and no illness has been linked to the bread.

• Juckett G., Bardwell G., McClane B., Brown S. 2008, Microbiology of salt rising bread, West Virginia Medical Journal 104:26–27 (abstract read)
• Board G. 2014, Bake bread like a pioneer in Appalachia with no yeast, West Virginia Public Broadcasting for NPR The Salt, 23 April 2014 (republished by KQED), with the Pearl Haines recipe
• JAMA 1923, Salt-rising bread and the Welch bacillus, JAMA 80(19):1384 (abstract read)

Also called skābputra, sour porridge.

cold sour barley drink

1. Cook barley; cool; add sour milk/buttermilk; ferment1-several days (typical)

Also called sowans, sowens, sùghan, virpa (Shetland), овсяный кисель, swats (the sour liquor).

Oat husks with meal still on them, or oat flakes, are steeped in water until they sour. The liquor is strained off and left to settle; the starch that sinks is boiled with water and salt into a sour porridge or jelly, and the thin sour liquid on top (swats) is drunk.

1. Steep the oats until sour24 h – 7 days
2. Strain and squeeze
3. Let the liquor settle (sowans)
4. Boil with water and salt5 min

Safety: No safety study was found. The starch is boiled before it is eaten; the raw sour liquid (swats) is drunk uncooked.

• Robinson C. (Scottish Language Dictionaries), SOWANS, fermented oat bran or husks, Scots Language Centre word article
• British Food, A History 2022, Sowans (sowens), 17 September 2022 (blog, with the author's own trials and a summary of McNeill's The Scots Kitchen)
• Azbyka.ru, Овсяный кисель (постный холодец) [Oat kissel (Lenten aspic)], recipe
• Wikipedia, Sowans (outline only)

Also called ترخینه, tarxêne, tarkhina, tarkhana (Iran).

Hard sour discs crumbled into a winter soup (ash-e tarkhineh).

1. Cook the wheat0-3.5 h tested; 1 h cooking recommended (Ferdowsi study)
2. Mix with doogh and ferment8 days in the aflatoxin study (sampled days 0, 2, 6, 8)
3. Shape and sun-drydays; industrial hot air 60-65 °C for 5-6 h to about 10% moisture

Safety: Wet tarkhineh carries high LAB counts and is less stable. See Moradi 2022 on aflatoxin reduction.

• Moradi L. et al. 2022, Fate of aflatoxins M1 and B1 during production and storage of Tarkhineh, Food Sci Nutr 10(3):945-952, doi:10.1002/fsn3.2728, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8907732/
• Kiani A. et al. 2025, LAB isolated from Tarkhineh, Sci Rep 15:20651, doi:10.1038/s41598-025-07549-7
• Kiani A. et al. 2021, Tarkhineh fermented product for probiotic potato chips, Front Microbiol 12:657579, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2021.657579
• Ferdowsi University study on wheat cooking time and drying for tarkhineh, https://ifstrj.um.ac.ir/article_33922.html (Persian; summary only)

Also called τραχανάς, ξινός τραχανάς, trahanas, xinos trahanas (sour), glykos trahanas (sweet, unfermented boundary), Cypriot trahanas.

Coarse sour granules boiled into a thick winter soup or porridge, often with feta or halloumi (Cyprus).

1. Sour the milkdays (until clearly sour)
2. Boil cracked wheat in the sour milk to a porridge
3. Lactic fermentation of the milk-wheat mix2.1 days
4. Sun-dry, crumble and sievedays

Safety: Low pH plus low moisture. The sweet trahanas (glykos) is made with fresh milk and is not fermented, so it is a boundary twin.

• Lazos E.S., Aggelousis G., Bratakos M. 1993, The fermentation of trahanas: a milk-wheat flour combination, Plant Foods Hum Nutr 44(1):45-62, doi:10.1007/BF01088482
• Tamang J.P., Watanabe K., Holzapfel W.H. 2016, Front Microbiol 7:377 (lists tarhana for Cyprus, Greece, Turkey), doi:10.3389/fmicb.2016.00377

Also called uji, obushera-like.

sour thin porridge

1. Mix flour with water into slurry
2. Ferment24 h – 3 days
3. Cook to thin porridge, sweeten

• Tamang et al. 2016, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00377/full
• FAO 1999 ch.2, https://www.fao.org/4/x2184E/x2184e07.htm

Also called 宇和島麦みそ.

soy-free barley-and-salt paste sold as 'mugi miso'

1. Naked-barley koji
2. Mix with salt; age in wooden vats (no soybean)

Safety: allergy-relevant: contains no soybean

• Japanese Wikipedia, 味噌
• Mainichi Shimbun 2022-11-04 https://mainichi.jp/articles/20221104/k00/00m/040/325000c
• Data Max article 50211 (reported)

Also called 馕, نان, nang, Uyghur naan, girde nan (variant).

Round flatbread with a stamped, thin centre and thick rim.

1. Mix dough with old dough and fermenthours (typical)
2. Shape, stamp, slap onto the wall of a tonur (tandoor) oven

• Chinese study of fermented nang dough microbiota, summarised in the HAUT and Food Science reviews above (verify the original Xinjiang paper)

Also called yèkè-yèkè, yêkè-yêkè, couscous de maïs, maize couscous.

Maize couscous eaten with meat or fish sauce.

1. Clean, crush and partly dehull maize; wash and sieve into fines, grits and bran
2. Soak grits6 h (improved process, to keep the meal white and unfermented)
3. Mill grits with fines into mawè; knead
4. Roll and calibrate into granules
5. Steam in a couscoussier15-20 min
6. Dry and sieve (shelf-stable form)

• IFDC 2020 / CORAF MITA, Fiche technique couscous de maïs (yêkè-yêkè), https://mita.coraf.org/assets/files/fiches/Mita--couscousdeman-syn-kn-yn-kn-.pdf
• HOUN1994 Fig. 1