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Cereals and bread from Pakistan and India

Curd- or khamir-leavened breads (bhatura, kulcha, naan, khamiri roti)भटूरा

These North Indian and Pakistani wheat breads are leavened with curd (yogurt), an old-dough starter called khameer or malera, or yeast. A soft dough is kneaded with curd or starter and left to ferment, for 4 hours in one laboratory naan method and overnight for bhatura. It is then baked in a tandoor (naan, kulcha, roti) or deep-fried (bhatura).

Fully documentedCereals and bread4.1 h

Recipe

Curd- or khamir-leavened breads (bhatura, kulcha, naan, khamiri roti), a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: snowpea&bokchoi, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceParts by weight for naan, from the laboratory method of Rahim et al. (1993) built on a survey of restaurants, as cited in Hashmi's 1996 thesis. Bhatura and kulcha recipes vary.
Maida (plain flour)100 parts[hashmi1996]
Yoghurt12 parts[hashmi1996]
Milk6 parts[hashmi1996]
Salt1 part[hashmi1996]
Sugar2 parts[hashmi1996]
Egg3 parts[hashmi1996]
Fat4 parts[hashmi1996]
Baking soda0.5 parts[hashmi1996]
WaterFarinograph water absorption plus 1–3 % extra[hashmi1996]
Khameer or malera (old-dough starter)Used for bhatura and kulcha instead of, or with, curd[rawat2018]
Startercurd (yogurt lactic bacteria), an old-dough starter (khameer or malera), or yeast

Total time across the recorded steps: 4.1 h

Start
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Salt 1 %

What changes: Flour, curd, milk and a little salt are kneaded into a soft dough

Step 1 of 4
Knead the dough with curd or starter
Time
3 min
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
1 %
Reported
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts

Output: soft 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

These North Indian and Pakistani wheat breads are leavened with curd (yogurt), an old-dough starter called khameer or malera, or yeast. A soft dough is kneaded with curd or starter and left to ferment, for 4 hours in one laboratory naan method and overnight for bhatura. It is then baked in a tandoor (naan, kulcha, roti) or deep-fried (bhatura). Made in 4 steps over 4.1 h. The longest step, rest and ferment, takes 4 h (Hashmi I.A. 1996). Salt is 1 % (Hashmi I.A. 1996). Lactic bacteria reported for kulcha, jalebi and other sweet Indian wheat ferments does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4 hReported[hashmi1996]Rest and ferment
Salt1 %Reported[hashmi1996]Knead the dough with curd or starter

What makes this one different

These breads are leavened with curd or an old-dough starter, often with a little soda or yeast, and baked for only a minute or two in a very hot tandoor. Bhatura is the same kind of dough deep-fried.

Related ferments

Variants

  • BhaturaDeep-fried and puffed; made with wheat and a khameer or malera starter, and linked to Punjabi cuisine and to Himachal Pradesh.
  • KulchaWheat and khameer or malera starter; baked in a tandoor.
  • NaanPlain flour of about 72 % extraction with yoghurt, milk and egg; the most common tandoori bread in India.

Safety

These breads are baked in a tandoor or deep-fried.

History and sources

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

Wikipedia says the earliest mention of naan in South Asia comes from the Indo-Persian poet Amir Khusrau in the 1300s, during the Delhi Sultanate, who names a thin naan-e-tunuk and a heavy naan-e-tanuri baked in the tandoor. In the Mughal era of the 1520s naan was a delicacy for nobles, and by the 1700s it had reached ordinary people in Mughal cultural centres. Bhatura, with puri, was part of the cuisine of Hindus in the Mughal Empire.

  1. [hashmi1996] Hashmi I.A. 1996, Wheat and flour properties affecting tandoori bread quality, PhD thesis, Victoria University of Technology (citing the naan method of Rahim et al. 1993)paper
  2. [rawat2018] Rawat K., Kumari A., Kumar S., Kumar R., Gehlot R. 2018, Traditional fermented products of India, International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences 7(4):1873–1883paper
  3. [wp-naan] Wikipedia, Naan (outline only; history in South Asia)wiki
  4. [wp-bhatura] Wikipedia, Bhatura (outline only; deep-fried sourdough-leavened flatbread, malera, history)wiki