Culinary practices: preparation techniques and consumption of Basotho cereal breads in Lesotho

Abstract

Lesotho is a small country (30,350 sq.km with about 2.233 million population), completely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. The people of the Kingdom of Lesotho are referred to as Basotho. This study aimed to investigate the culinary practices with regard to traditional Basotho bread, thus serving as a basis for documenting an aspect of Basotho traditional food knowledge. The study was conducted in five districts of Lesotho using focus groups, each consisting of ten housewives in each district, and face-to-face interviews with 253 women respondents who completed a questionnaire related to their knowledge, preparation and consumption of traditional Basotho bread. Recipes for ten traditional Basotho breads were obtained during five focus group sessions. The survey revealed that most of the respondents (99%) prepare bread at a household level using wheat flour. A few (15%) use maize flour and sorghum flour is used by only (5%). The main preparation steps were identified as sorting, cleaning of grains, dry milling and/or wet milling, mixing ingredients, fermentation and cooking. Bread is used for household consumption and social functions, such as weddings and funerals. This paper documents the culinary practices for ten Basotho breads from maize, wheat and sorghum. Research geared to the improvement of the quality characteristics of maize and sorghum breads should be given the highest priority to encourage the use of local ingredients.

Sub-Saharan African Maize-Based Foods - Processing Practices, Challenges and Opportunities

“…wheat), susceptibility to staling, storability issues (e.g., lipid in maize is more than two times higher than in wheat so relatively it becomes rancid faster during storage) and a lack of functional gluten, which is needed to produce an elastic dough and bread with characteristic light and spongy properties. [4,37] To minimize rancidity issues, heat treatment is used to inactivate lipase; local users commonly grind maize for short-term use and in some communities, maize bread is eaten during winter months. In general, the higher the proportion of polar lipid, the better the baking properties (e.g., increase in loaf volume); the ratio of polar to nonpolar lipid in cereal flour decreases in the order wheat > rye > maize.…”

“…[38] Maize bread has a low volume and a heavy, dry, fibrous and brittle crumb with a relatively strong malty and fermented flavor. [37] At times, in local communities, water is sprinkled on it, after which it is covered with a cloth to keep it fresh. In most cases, maize bread contains wheat flour as a source of gluten.…”

“…Furthermore, pre-gelatinized cereal flour and composite flour made by inclusion of malted grains have been shown to improve dough and bread qualities. [37,43,44] Composite flour made from pre-gelatinized starch or alkaline treated maize exhibit improved rheological properties Guguru, azikpeli and maputi are salted or sweetened dry maize roasted and eaten with groundnut or coconut. The snacks in the group (A) are prepared in a similar way as bread but without fermentation except for tale tale, atififi and bamfo-bisi, which require fermentation (6-72 hours); tale tale and bladzo kaklo are mixed with ripened banana.…”

Utilization of Pepeta, a locally processed immature rice-based food product, to promote food security in Tanzania

“…Wheat, maize and rice comprise at least 75% of the world’s grain production [ 49 ]. Consumption of immature maize as a roasted product or boiled whole kernel, and/or traditional processed products is common in Africa [ 50 , 51 ]. Mohlefe or malitsibana is a common green maize bread in Lesotho, prepared by wet-milling maize kernels to a thick dough, shaped into cob-like forms, covered with maize leaves and steamed until completely cooked [ 51 ].…”

“…Consumption of immature maize as a roasted product or boiled whole kernel, and/or traditional processed products is common in Africa [ 50 , 51 ]. Mohlefe or malitsibana is a common green maize bread in Lesotho, prepared by wet-milling maize kernels to a thick dough, shaped into cob-like forms, covered with maize leaves and steamed until completely cooked [ 51 ]. Similar to pepeta , the preparation of mohlefe is done during the harvest season when households are waiting for crops to mature in the field.…”