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Ethiopia's injera is a sour, spongy flatbread made from fermented teff flour

the gist

Injera is a large, thin flatbread with a spongy surface and a faintly sour taste, made from teff flour that is fermented before it is cooked on a griddle. The fermentation creates its tang and the many small holes that soak up stews. In Ethiopia it is a staple eaten at most meals, and in Amhara culture it works as the base of the meal itself: stews and vegetables are spooned onto it and torn by hand. It is usually kept in a mesob, a woven basket that also serves as a low dining table.

so what

Injera ties a national food to teff, a grain grown mainly in Ethiopia and Eritrea, so the bread links everyday eating to the country's agriculture. Its long fermentation is a good example of traditional food technology doing the work that yeast and industrial baking do elsewhere.

fun fact

Teff is one of the smallest grains in the world, with each seed roughly the size of a poppy seed.

more on this

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Image: Wikimedia Commons