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Starters and koji from Cambodia

Dombea / medombae (Cambodian dried starter)មេដំបែ

Dombea is a dried Cambodian starter made from rice flour, plants, herbs and spices, with microorganisms carried over from earlier batches. Mixed into cooled steamed rice, its Rhizopus mould turns the starch to sugar in a few days, then its yeasts turn the sugar to alcohol once water is added.

Fully documentedStarters and koji10 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceNo source found gives amounts for the starter itself; Chim et al. list only its ingredients. The wine amounts are the lab-scale method Ly et al. adapted from local rice-wine makers.
Rice flourThe main ingredient of the starter[chim2015]
Plants, herbs and spicesDifferent types are used[chim2015]
Old medombaeMicrobes carried over from earlier batches[chim2015]
Red rice, for a lab-scale wine100 g[ly2018]
Dried starter, crumbled, for the wine2 %[ly2018]
Water100 mL + 100 mLThe first 100 mL before steaming, the second on day 3 to start the alcoholic phase[ly2018]
Starterback-slop: microorganisms from previous batches of medombae

Total time across the recorded steps: 10 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countMouldsYeasts

What changes: Rice flour, herbs and old starter are mixed and dried

Step 1 of 5
Mix rice flour, herbs and old medombae and dry the starter
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Yeasts
Rhizopus
Saccharomyces

Chim et al. name the ingredients only; no source found gives times or amounts for this step. Output: dried medombae.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

the old starter seeds moulds and yeasts into the new batch

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

Dombea is a dried Cambodian starter made from rice flour, plants, herbs and spices, with microorganisms carried over from earlier batches. Mixed into cooled steamed rice, its Rhizopus mould turns the starch to sugar in a few days, then its yeasts turn the sugar to alcohol once water is added. Made in 5 steps over 10 days. The longest step, add water and let the yeasts make alcohol, takes 7 days (Ly S 2018). Rhizopus oryzae and Yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomycopsis fibuligera do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step7 daysReported[ly2018]Add water and let the yeasts make alcohol
Temperature120 °CReported[ly2018]Steam the rice and cool it

What makes this one different

In the five starters Ly et al. studied, the mould side is almost all Rhizopus oryzae and the bacteria are mostly Weissella and other lactic acid bacteria.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Three-strain synthetic community (lab study)Ly et al. 2019 isolated Rhizopus oryzae, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Lactobacillus plantarum from dombea and set them against the natural starter community in red rice wine. The natural community gave the highest ethanol yield but also built up more acetic and lactic acid.

Safety

Starters and rice wine are made in uncontrolled conditions that differ from maker to maker. In the five starters Ly et al. studied, potential foodborne pathogens were not detected after 10 days of rice-wine fermentation (Ly et al. 2018).

History and sources

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

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
  1. [ly2018] Ly S., Mith H., Tarayre C., Taminiau B., Daube G., Fauconnier M.-L., Delvigne F. 2018, Impact of microbial composition of Cambodian traditional dried starters (dombea) on flavor compounds of rice wine, Frontiers in Microbiology 9:894paper
  2. [chim2015] Chim C., Erlinda I.D., Elegado F.B., Hurtada A.W., Chakrya N., Raymundo C.L. 2015, Traditional dried starter culture (Medombae) for rice liquor production in Cambodia, International Food Research Journal 22(4):1642–1650 (abstract)paper
  3. [ly2019] Ly S., Bajoul Kakahi F., Mith H., Phat C., Fifani B., Kenne T., Fauconnier M.-L., Delvigne F. 2019, Engineering synthetic microbial communities through a selective biofilm cultivation device for the production of fermented beverages, Microorganisms 7(7):206paper