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Injera

A fermented teff flour flatbread cooked in a hot pan.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Teff and flour share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 24 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

6–8

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix the flour with the water and the salt.

  2. Add your fermentation starter if using one.

  3. Set aside to ferment overnight, or at least 12 hours.

  4. Check that bubbles have formed on the surface before using.

Cook the injera

  1. Heat a large, flat pan until a droplet of water sizzles.

  2. Oil the pan very lightly, just enough to make it shine.

  3. Pour or ladle some batter onto the pan, spiralling outwards from the centre.

  4. Make the batter a thin layer, slightly thicker than a crêpe.

  5. Watch for holes or pits forming on the surface as it cooks.

  6. When the injera has changed colour and the edges lift, remove it and set aside.

  7. Pour the next batter and repeat until finished.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Teff + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Teff flour
Forms the main body of the batter and gives injera its characteristic flavour and texture.
Water
Hydrates the flour so it can ferment into a pourable batter.

The step that matters

Fermenting the batter. Fermentation by wild yeasts and bacteria creates the bubbles that become the holes on the surface and gives the sour flavour. Skipping or shortening it leaves the injera flat and bland.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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