>is anybody interested in South
>Indian Idli! Sourdough rice and beans dumpling?! I'm on it!


Indian sourdough?. Or what makes idli batter from the other...A
fascinating subject to discuss from the microbiological point and how
it differs from the standard sourdough we know in the west.
In particular idli batters.. See.this referrence
Venkatasubbaiah,P. Dwarakanath C.T. and Srinivasa Murthi.
W.investigated the microbiology in the early 1980's and published the
results in Journal of Food science & Technology,21:59-62.This study was
also quoted Jalal Qarooni in Flat Bread Technology puiblished by
Chapman and Hall in 1996
The suggested that coliform organism are involved in the enzymatic
conversion of starch to sugars to be used the lactic acid bacteria and
wild yeasts.
This seems surprising at first as coliforms are associated with fecal
matter and how did it come to the microbial flora of idli. Maybe they
are not pointing a finger to Eschrerichia Coli but other forms of
enterobacteriaceae such as the Yersenia,Serratia and Proteus species
which are ,more hamless( and less notorious from the pathological
point of view.
The wild yeast were identified as Trichosporum pullulans, Torulopsis
holmii and T. Candida.. The bacteria that responsible for gassing and
acidification was identified as leuconostoc mesenteroides which is the
predominant lactobacteria.
Now if we compare this with Injera which according to that book by
Qarooni to contain in addition to the lactobactera and wild yeast
strain of candida specie;; var. guillermonde in addition also had a
substantial fungal population derived from Teff which are from the
Aspergillus,Pullularia and Penicillium.. Extraneous presence of other
yeast strains were also discovered in the Ethiopian Injera such as the
Rhodotorula and Hormodendrum species
Roy