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Battle With Batter

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by jskls, Dec 12, 2018.

  1. BoysMom

    BoysMom Bronze IL'ite

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    Very nice write up on idly making, with lot of variables from proportion, fermenting hand, temp, rice and urad dal quality.

    Art of perfecting idly in cold climates needs special skills. I treat my idly batter with due respect from switching on the oven light , covering it with the nice blanket and offering some warm water and what not to please the batter.
     
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  2. DocDough

    DocDough New IL'ite

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    Luckily I don't have to deal with really cold weather anymore. But what temperature have you settled on? Or do you know? For a good approximation of average temperature, you can put a gallon jug of water in the same place as your idli batter and measure the temperature of the water in the morning. It is best if the initial water temperature is close to what you want the average to be so that it does not fight you too much.
    I have been fermenting at controlled temperatures of 25°, 30°, and 40°C. And here does not seem to be any penalty from running at the upper end - and there is some evidence that you can go higher yet (I just haven't had the time to expand the range of experimentation yet).
     
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  3. BoysMom

    BoysMom Bronze IL'ite

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    Thanks @DocDough! I shall measure the temperature inside the oven with water next time and adjust accordingly.
     
  4. jskls

    jskls IL Hall of Fame

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    This is good to know. I will observe next time. But I doubt if we get fresh Urad dal at all. Thanks for the information. Consistently fermenting in Instapot yogurt mode works.
     
  5. jskls

    jskls IL Hall of Fame

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    Thanks for stopping by and sharing your tips too. I had tried pre-heating the oven and leaving it on or again warming it up after few hours etc. but fermenting in insta pot is very helpful now.
     
  6. DocDough

    DocDough New IL'ite

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    Well, I was successful in transferring a sourdough starter from wheat flour to a mixture of rice flour and urad dal flour, but after a few trials I did not like the resulting flavor of the idli, so while it can be done I do not recommend it.

    One byproduct of that project was a comparison of fermentation times when using salt vs no salt in the batter. A batch of urad gota was soaked for 6 hrs and exhibited all of the signs of active fermentation prior to grinding (lots of small bubbles rising to and collecting on the surface). The resulting batter was ground in a wet grinder with 3X idli rava without salt and was then split into two parts of ~300g each. Three grams of salt was added to one half and both were fermented at (~26°C) an unfortunately lower temperature than I wanted, but successful for both halves, with the pH dropping to 4.45 for the no salt batch after 25 hrs and to 4.40 for the salted batch after 27 hrs. The volume increase for the unsalted batch was 40% and for the salted batch only 33%. So the conclusion is that fermenting without salt is a little faster if you use as an end point pH<4.5. I want to run a second trial at a much warmer temperature so that the fermentation time is much shorter and reassess the relative volume expansion. The resulting idli were fine (though they suffered from having been made with rava).

    Doc
     
  7. jskls

    jskls IL Hall of Fame

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    @DocDough
    I use urad gota with idly rice 1:4 proportion and two handfuls of tapioca pearls. This has been my ingredient list consistently for years now. No idly rava.

    We grind Urad separately rice separately mix salt by hand in the end. Then ferment. That’s it.
     
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  8. DocDough

    DocDough New IL'ite

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    @jskls:
    What does the tapioca starch do for the idli? Is it just a different starch that is perhaps more easily broken down by the amylase enzymes? Or is it principally there as a viscosity enhancer to trap the bacterial CO2 and perhaps get more volume growth? The Leuconostoc mesenteroides in idli seems able to use almost any sugar you give it (except that sometime it does not metabolize arabinose) so that it becomes dependent on the particulars of the amylase that comes to the batter from either the urad or the rice and I don't know the details of either.

    Do you have any guidance on when to use 3:1 vs 4:1 rice:urad? I have seen some suggestion that it varies by season but I don't understand why.

    It is my opinion based on only my own observation, that idli made with rava is not as soft as idli made with parboiled short/medium grain rice and the rava seems to give a more granular mouth feel. But I had the end of a bag that I elected to use for the previous experiment simply because it was not going to be served to guests and if I used it, it would then be gone from the kitchen. My preference is to grind idli rice along with, but after the urad has already been ground to a smooth paste. And it seems to work best if I grind a fraction of the rice first and then add and grind the remainder until the particle size is like very fine sand or popcorn salt.

    I continue to experiment with different amounts of total water but have thus far had the best success with grinding everything with less water than I know will be required, and then adjust it at the end with small additions until it pours smoothly but leaves a trail on the surface for a few seconds.
     

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