RA 00110.pdf - OAR@ICRISAT

Table 1. Traditional foods made with pearl millet.
Type of food
Common names
Countries
Unfermented bread
roti,
rotti
India
Fermented bread
Thick porridge
Thin porridge
Steam cooked products
Boiled, rice-like
Snack foods
kisra, dosa, dosai, galletes, injera
ugali, tuwo, Saino, Dalaki, aceda, map, bogobe, ting, tutu,
kalo, karo, kwon, nshimba, nuchu, td, tuo, zaafi,
asidah, mato, sadza, sangati
uji, ambali, edi, eko, kamo, nasha, bwa kal, obushera
ogi, oko, akamu, kafa, koko, akasa
couscous, degue
annam, acha
Africa, India
Africa, India
Africa, India
Nigeria, Ghana
West Africa
Africa, India
Africa, Asia
Alcoholic beverages, sweet/
sour opaque beers
burukutu, dolo, pito,
talla
West Africa
Sour/opaque beers
Nonalcoholic beverages
marisa, busaa, merissa, urwaga, mwenge, munkoyo.
utshwala, utywala, ikigage
mehewu, amaheu, marewa, magou, leting, abrey, huswa
Sudan,
Southern Africa
Africa
other abrasive dehullers (Reichert 1982). In rural
Africa, a wooden mortar and pestle is used to thresh,
decorticate, and grind flour or meals. Sieves are used
to produce flour or meal with acceptable particle size
for specific products.
Pearl millet is usually milled daily in quantities of
2-3 kg. Water is added to moisten the pericarp and
facilitate bran removal. The moisture often promotes
fermentation and microorganism growth,
both of which affect the keeping properties of the
products. In addition, the higher oil content of pearl
millet can lead to rancidity problems during storage.
Decortication of 2.5 kg of pearl millet takes two
women about 1.5 h, including winnowing (Chinsman
1985). Processing into flour with a mortar and
pestle requires an additional 2.0-2.5 h. Size, shape,
and hardness of the kernel and thickness of the
pericarp affect milling yields and time. The extraction
rate is lower for pearl millet (74%) than for
sorghum (79%).
Unfermented Breads
Rotis are unleavened, flat breads made from wheat,
sorghum, or pearl millet in India (Pushpamma and
Rao 1981, Subramanian and Jambunathan 1980).
The grain is often milled on small electrical or dieselpowered
stone attrition mills to produce a fine flour.
The ground grain is sifted to remove coarse pieces of
pericarp, leaving flour of about 95-99% of the initial
grain mass. Usually warm or boiling water is added
in increments and the flour and water are kneaded
into a dough. When the proper amount of water has
been added, the dough can be hand pressed into a
thin circle and baked. If properly made, the roti
should puff during the final baking. A good roti has
a creamy white color with a few slightly darker spots,
flexible texture, and a bland flavor.
Although many variations in these procedures
exist, a general scheme is shown in Figure 1. In some
households, part of the flour is cooked in water or
soaked in water overnight. These modifications
improve cohesiveness when dry flour is added to
partially cooked flour to produce the dough. Rotis
made from pearl millet have acceptable texture,
taste, and color.
Roti can be a major food depending upon the
socioeconomic status of the consumer. It is eaten
with vegetables, dhal, meat, milk, curd, pickles,
chutneys, other sauces of various kinds, and in many
other ways. Rotis are softened with milk or buttermilk
and sometimes mixed with malted or germinated
cereals to produce special weaning foods.
Several standardized laboratory procedures have
been proposed for use in evaluating sorghum and
millet cultivars for roti quality (Murty and Subramanian
1982, Desikachar and Chandrashekar 1982,
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