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Cereals and bread from China

Xinjiang nang (Uyghur naan) with sour dough starter馕

Nang is a staple bread of the Uyghurs of Xinjiang, made from a dough that is fermented before baking. Doughs from six Xinjiang regions held 14 yeast species, with Saccharomyces cerevisiae the main one, and doughs from Xinjiang and from Toksun in Turpan also held lactic acid bacteria such as Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis.

Fully documentedCereals and bread

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold and bakery practice; the sources used here give no amounts.
Wheat flourNamed for hemek nan, the most common style of Uyghur nan[wp]
WaterNamed for hemek nan[wp]
SaltNamed for hemek nan[wp]
Fermented nang dough (sourdough)The doughs sampled in the studies were already fermented[abdurusul2015][zhang2024][anwar2017]
Startersourdough (fermented nang dough)
Start
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What changes: Wheat flour, water and salt are mixed into a dough

Step 1 of 3
Mix the dough
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts
L. sanfranciscensis

Hemek nan, the most common style of Uyghur nan, is made with wheat flour, salt, water and vegetable oil. Output: wheat 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

At a glance

Nang is a staple bread of the Uyghurs of Xinjiang, made from a dough that is fermented before baking. Doughs from six Xinjiang regions held 14 yeast species, with Saccharomyces cerevisiae the main one, and doughs from Xinjiang and from Toksun in Turpan also held lactic acid bacteria such as Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis. Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the main yeast and Yeasts of 14 species in 10 genera in all, including Pichia fermentans, Pichia membranifaciens, Candida humilis, Torulaspora delbrueckii and Wickerhamomyces anomalus do most of the fermenting.

What makes this one different

The dough is fermented by yeasts, mainly S. cerevisiae, together with lactic acid bacteria such as L. sanfranciscensis, as in a sourdough. Doughs from Toksun, Turpan also held Bacillus amyloliquefaciens as a predominant bacterium.

Related ferments

History and sources

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

Nan is described as one of the oldest components of Uyghur cuisine and an integral part of the diet (Wikipedia, Uyghur cuisine). Anwar and colleagues (2017) call fermented naan a traditional staple of the Uyghurs and note that the dough fermentation method differs between the regions where Uyghur families live.

Process times
The sources we found give no figure for how long any of its steps take.
Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [abdurusul2015] Abdurusul M., Kurban M., Anwar N., Ahat A., Mamtimin T., Muhtar A., Abdukerim M., Yunus Z., Rahman E. 2015, Yeast diversity in traditional Xinjiang 'Nang' dough (新疆传统馕发酵面团中酵母菌的多样性分析), Food Science (食品科学) 36(19):199–203, doi:10.7506/spkx1002-6630-201519036paper
  2. [zhang2024] Zhang T., Liu Y., Ding Z., Yu J., Wang J. 2024, Isolation of dominant flora from fermented naan dough and its application in Mantou fermentation (发酵馕面团中优势菌群的分离及其在馒头发酵中的应用研究), China Brewing (中国酿造) 43(3):136–144, doi:10.11882/j.issn.0254-5071.2024.03.022 (abstract)paper
  3. [anwar2017] Anwar A., Abdurahman E., Mamatemin Y., Rahman N. 2017, Microbial diversity and volatile component analysis in Turpan traditional sourdough, Microbiology China 44(8):1908–1917 (abstract)paper
  4. [wp] Wikipedia, Uyghur cuisine (nan section)wiki