Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Starters and koji from Manipur, India

Hamei

Hamei is the dry rice starter cake of Manipur. Soaked rice is pounded and mixed with a filtrate of yanglee bark, pressed into flat cakes, kept warm over the hearth for 4–5 days until water droplets show on them and they smell of alcohol, then air-dried. The dry cakes start atingba rice beer and its spirit, yu.

Fully documentedStarters and koji4 days – 5 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne batch from about 3 kg of rice (Singh and Singh 2006).
White rice3 kgSoaked about 30 min and dried 15 min, then pounded[singh2006]
Dried yanglee bark (Albizia myriophylla)250–300 gSoaked and filtered; the filtrate wets the rice. Devi and Suresh Kumar give 8–10 g per kg of rice[singh2006][devi2012]
Previously made starter powderSha et al. say north-east Indian starters, hamei among them, are mixed with 1–2 % starter powder from an earlier batch as inoculum; Singh and Singh do not mention it[sha2018]
Starterback-slop of earlier starter powder, reported for north-east Indian starters including hamei (Sha et al. 2018)

Total time across the recorded steps: 4 days – 5 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Soaked rice is pounded to a flour

Step 1 of 5
Soak, dry and pound the rice
Time
45 min
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Bacillus sp.
Aspergillus niger
Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Output: rice flour (yam).

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

Hamei is the dry rice starter cake of Manipur. Soaked rice is pounded and mixed with a filtrate of yanglee bark, pressed into flat cakes, kept warm over the hearth for 4–5 days until water droplets show on them and they smell of alcohol, then air-dried. The dry cakes start atingba rice beer and its spirit, yu. Made in 5 steps over 4 days – 5 days. The longest step, keep warm over the hearth on paddy husk or straw, takes 4–5 days (Singh P.K 2006). Pichia anomala (Wickerhamomyces anomalus), 41.7 % of yeast isolates and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, 32.5 % of yeast isolates do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4–5 daysReported[singh2006]Keep warm over the hearth on paddy husk or straw
AciditypH 4.1–5.4Measured[anupma2020]Air-dry and keep

What makes this one different

Hamei is the Manipuri member of the north-east Indian starter family that includes marcha. Singh and Singh wet the pounded rice with a filtrate of yanglee bark (Albizia myriophylla), while Tamang et al. describe hamei as made from rice with wild herbs and spices. The cakes are kept warm over the hearth for 4–5 days, where Sha et al. describe other north-east Indian starters as fermented at room temperature for 1–3 days.

Related ferments

Safety

Dry hamei measured 8.0–9.6 % moisture and pH 4.1–5.4 in three samples. Devi and Suresh Kumar say it keeps for over a year in a cool, dry place. Tamang et al. found that none of the lactic acid bacteria isolated from hamei and marcha produced biogenic amines.

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. [singh2006] Singh P.K., Singh K.I. 2006, Traditional alcoholic beverage, Yu of Meitei communities of Manipur, Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 5(2):184–190paper
  2. [devi2012] Devi P., Suresh Kumar P. 2012, Traditional, ethnic and fermented foods of different tribes of Manipur, Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 11(1):70–77paper
  3. [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)paper
  4. [jeyaram2008] Jeyaram K., Singh W.M., Capece A., Romano P. 2008, Molecular identification of yeast species associated with 'Hamei', a traditional starter used for rice wine production in Manipur, India, International Journal of Food Microbiology 124:115–125 (abstract)paper
  5. [tamang2007] Tamang J.P., Dewan S., Tamang B., Rai A., Schillinger U., Holzapfel W.H. 2007, Lactic acid bacteria in Hamei and Marcha of North East India, Indian Journal of Microbiology 47:119–125 (abstract)paper
  6. [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, Frontiers in Microbiology 9:2237paper