Dawdim
Dawdim is a dried rice-beer starter cake from Mizoram. Laboratories have listed its yeasts and moulds; no source gives how it is made, kept or used safely.
Ingredients
1086 articles on substrates, cultures and additives.
Fruit, vegetables and seaweedsFruit, vegetables, roots, alliums, seaweeds and algae.
Grains, legumes and nutsGrains, flours, malts, starches, beans, pulses, nuts, seeds and the coffee, cocoa and tea crops.
Mushrooms and fungiCultivated and wild mushrooms, truffles and other edible fungi, and lichens.
Meat and fishMeat, offal, fat, casings, fish, shellfish and insects.
Dairy and eggsMilk by animal, cream, butter, milk powders, rennets, dairy additives and eggs.
Cultures and startersYeasts, bacteria, moulds, koji, SCOBYs, grains and kept starters that begin a ferment.
Salt and mineralsCooking, named and curing salts, brines, alkalis and mineral additives.
Sugars and sweetenersRefined and unrefined sugars, honeys, syrups, molasses and malt sugars.
Herbs and spicesHerbs, seed and bark spices, peppercorns, chillies, aromatic roots, brewing botanicals and resins.
Oils, sauces and drinksPlant oils, condiments, vinegars, waters and the wines, beers and pickles other recipes use.
Additives and aidsFood acids, sulphites, preservatives, enzymes, leaveners, gelling agents, brewing additives and wrapping leaves.
All cultures103
Koji and amylolytic starters33
Yeasts19
Dairy starter cultures15
Ripening moulds and yeasts11
Meat starter cultures8
SCOBYs and grain cultures6
Back-slopped and retained starters5
Leavens and sourdough starters3
Lactic cultures2Legume mould starters1
Koji and amylolytic starters33Yeasts19Dairy starter cultures15Ripening moulds and yeasts11Meat starter cultures8SCOBYs and grain cultures6Back-slopped and retained starters5Leavens and sourdough starters3Lactic cultures2Legume mould starters1Cultures and starters
Tempeh starter (Rhizopus)
The Rhizopus starter for tempeh is a fungal culture, labelled Rhizopus oligosporus or R. microsporus var. oligosporus. Its growth binds prepared soybeans into a firm cake.
Pee
Pee is a sun-dried rice starter from Arunachal Pradesh, India, made like other Eastern Himalayan dry starters. Its recorded bacterial population was high, and its named beverages are opo and apong.
Paa
Paa is a sun-dried rice starter from Arunachal Pradesh, India, made from soaked rice flour and wild herbs. Families use it as the culture for mildly alcoholic rice drinks.
Defined vegetable lactic acid bacteria cultures
A defined vegetable lactic acid bacteria culture is a chosen strain or blend added to a vegetable ferment. Its effect depends on the strain, the vegetable, the salt level and the process.
Defined lafun starter cultures
A defined Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain, 2Y48P22, was screened in 2010 for softening cassava in lafun experiments. It is an experimental candidate, not a household starter with a verified method.
Rhizopus (amylolytic mould in parakari)
A Rhizopus mould stage converts starch in cassava for the Wapishana drink parakari. The published abstracts name the mould and its role but not the full culture method.
White-koji starter for shōchū
A seed culture of a white-spored Aspergillus koji mould, used to make the koji that starts Japanese shōchū mash, and named in the literature as Aspergillus luchuensis mut. kawachii.
Wickerhamiella versatilis
A yeast named in soy-sauce research for its contribution to aroma, especially in early moromi, where the strain and the product decide what it does.
Gutian hongqu
A regional form of hongqu, the red rice starter of southeastern China, named for Gutian and distinguished in Fujian studies from Wuyi hongqu. Documented only through modern regional comparisons.
Low-temperature daqu
A shaped grain starter (daqu) from Chinese baijiu production, classed as low-temperature because its bricks reach the lowest peak temperatures of the three daqu types; used mainly for light-flavor baijiu.
Medium-temperature daqu
A formed grain starter (daqu) for Chinese baijiu, classed as medium-temperature because its bricks reach a higher peak than low-temperature daqu; used mainly for strong-flavor baijiu.
Tetragenococcus halophilus
A salt-tolerant lactic acid bacterium that works in soy-sauce moromi and is also recorded in miso, where strain differences decide how it behaves.
Zygosaccharomyces rouxii
A salt-tolerant yeast that works in soy-sauce moromi after koji has supplied fermentable sugars, and that the sources link to alcohol and aroma formation.
Phab
Bhutanese Phab, called Pho in a 2018 study, is a Drukpa starter associated with Ara. Bhutan sample studies document it separately from Ladakhi phabs; matching names elsewhere do not establish one culture.
Khekhrii
Khekhrii is a dried starter reported from Nagaland, made from naturally fermented sprouted rice and used for zutho. A 2018 study sampled five Khekhrii preparations but does not define every producer's practice.
Phut
Phut is a dry rice starter cake made by the Monpa (Mongpa) community of Arunachal Pradesh, India, and used to start rice beverage fermentations. Published sources describe its making only in outline.
Kombucha culture and tea
Kombucha culture is the mixed starter, a retained liquid with a cellulose pellicle, that ferments sweetened tea into kombucha. Its organisms vary between samples, and a visible mat does not identify them.
Farmhouse brewing cultures
Farmhouse brewing cultures are retained yeast populations used in farm and home beer in the Baltic region and northern Europe. Sampled cultures differ widely and share no single method.
Seed Pei starter
Seed Pei is a retained solid starter from the acetic-acid stage of some Chinese solid-state vinegar processes, carried from one batch to the next.
Vinegar mother
Vinegar mother is the acetic-acid-bacteria culture, often seen as a gelatinous film, that turns alcohol to vinegar; it is carried over from one batch of vinegar to the next.
Water kefir grains
Water kefir grains are gelatinous polysaccharide aggregates that carry a mixed community of lactic-acid bacteria and yeasts, used to ferment sugar water into a lightly sparkling drink.
Neurospora intermedia culture
Neurospora intermedia is the orange-red mould that ferments the okara of red oncom, an Indonesian soy-pulp cake, and the culture used to start it.
Geotrichum candidum
Geotrichum candidum is the yeast-like fungus that forms the pale, velvety coat on many soft-ripened cheeses and lowers the rind's acidity so that other ripening microbes can grow.
Penicillium camemberti
Penicillium camemberti is the white mould of Camembert and Brie, a domesticated fungus whose white, fluffy coat ripens soft cheese from the outside in.
Rhizopus microsporus
Rhizopus microsporus is a fast-growing mould of the Rhizopus group, found in fresh Indonesian tempeh, where it is the species that most tempeh strains belong to.
Aspergillus luchuensis
Aspergillus luchuensis is the black koji mould used in Japanese shochu and awamori, valued for the citric acid it makes alongside the starch-converting enzymes of koji.
Saccharomyces pastorianus
Saccharomyces pastorianus is the hybrid lager yeast, a cross of the ale yeast S. cerevisiae and the cold-tolerant S. eubayanus, that ferments beer at cool temperatures from the bottom of the tank.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the budding yeast that raises bread, ferments most wine and ale, and is sold as named strains whose behaviour in dough or wort differs.
Aspergillus sojae
Aspergillus sojae is a koji mould of the Aspergillus flavus group, closely related to A. oryzae, used as a starter in soybean fermentations such as Korean meju, doenjang and ganjang.
Penicillium nalgiovense
Penicillium nalgiovense is a mould sold as a selected starter culture for ripened foods, most often dry sausage, and tested in laboratory and cheese starter studies.
Ginger beer plant
The ginger beer plant is a retained, grain-like mixed culture of yeasts and bacteria in a polysaccharide gel, used to ferment a ginger-flavoured sugary drink; it is not a ginger bug.
Meat acidification starter cultures
Meat starter cultures are blends of selected lactic acid bacteria, often with staphylococci, added to fermented sausage to drive acidification in a controlled way. Blends differ by product.
Ale brewing yeast
Ale yeast is a broad group of Saccharomyces cerevisiae brewing cultures, not one strain. Style labels such as English, American, Belgian or wheat beer do not identify an interchangeable culture.
Fish-sauce starter cultures
Fish-sauce starters are salt-tolerant bacteria, chiefly Tetragenococcus halophilus strains, tested for flavour and for holding down histamine in fish-sauce mash. Results differ strain by strain.
Surface mould cultures for dry sausage
Selected mould cultures, often Penicillium, are applied to the casing of some dry-fermented sausages to grow a white surface cover. A white surface alone does not identify the organism or show safety.
Meat colour and aroma adjunct cultures
Selected coagulase-negative staphylococci, mainly Staphylococcus carnosus and S. xylosus, are added to fermented sausage for colour and flavour, usually inside a blend with acidifying bacteria.
Xiaoqu (small-form Chinese starter)
Xiaoqu (小曲) is a family of small Chinese grain starters for rice wines and baijiu: mixed moulds, yeasts and bacteria that convert starch and ferment it, not one strain or formula.
Bubod (Philippine starter)
Bubod is the Philippine rice starter behind Cordillera tapuy and tapey: dry mixed-culture cakes of molds, yeasts and bacteria, plus a standardized granular version developed by DOST.
Ragi tapé
Ragi tapé, also ragi tapai, is a dried mixed starter cake from Indonesia and Malay traditions, used to ferment sweet rice, cassava and related starchy foods.
Kudeme
Kudeme is described in research as a traditional Ghanaian inoculant for fermenting cassava dough into Agbelima. Its exact microbial composition and a single canonical preparation are not established by the sources reviewed.
Rye sourdough starter
A rye sourdough starter is a refreshed flour-and-water culture used to ferment rye dough. Its microbial community shifts with the flour, feeding routine and bakery environment.
Ipguk
Ipguk (입국) is Korean steamed rice grown with a selected koji mould, used as an enzyme-rich starter in makgeolli and yakju. It is not the same product as traditional nuruk.
Wuyi hongqu
Wuyi hongqu is a regional red rice starter from the Wuyi area of Fujian, described as a mixed Monascus and Aspergillus culture used in rice wine and, in one report, cereal vinegar.
Kombucha culture
The kombucha culture is a mixed community of yeasts and bacteria carried in an acidic starter liquid and a floating cellulose pellicle, used to turn sweetened tea into kombucha.
Ginger bug
Ginger bug is a liquid starter of ginger and sugar kept going by feeding and used to start ginger beer and other drinks; the name does not fix one microbial community.
Dombae
Dombae (dombea, medombae) is a Cambodian dried mixed starter for rice fermentation; studied samples differ, so the names do not specify one formula.
Lievito madre
Lievito madre, or pasta madre, is the maintained Italian sourdough culture used to raise panettone and other rich festive doughs; names alone do not fix its strains or its routine.
Men / banh men (Vietnamese starter)
Men or bánh men is a mixed Vietnamese starch-based rice fermentation starter. Published samples vary; their isolates and performance do not define a standard culture or household formula.
Loog-pang / luk paeng (Thai starter)
Loog-pang (luk paeng/look-pang) is a Thai mixed starter used with rice in distinct foods and drinks, including sato and khao mak. Studies describe different samples and one reported cake-making account, not a universal formula.