Making the « Malt for the Porridge »

We call "Malt for the porridge" the ‘’flour’’ obtained from cereals
germinated with care and cleanliness.M

 Sprouted or germinated cereals are rich in amylases. Amylases have the power to liquefy thick porridge, without diluting it. The ‘’Malt for the porridge’’ is particularly rich in amylases. Thus, by adding a very small amount of this malt to the hot porridge, we obtain "Liquefied Concentrated Porridge" (LCP)

The preparation of the “Malt for Porridge” is based on traditional cereal malting methods used for the preparation of local beers.

In 'Artisan Production Units' (APU), 'Community Manufacturing Groups' (CMG) and for the family use, the making of the ‘‘Malt for the Porridge’’ is done according to the following process steps.

Grain preparation,
Grain germination
Germinated grain drying,
Grinding and sieving,
Testing the liquefying potential of the malt,
Malt packaging and storing.

NB. Malt contains sugars, amylases, vitamin B. Malt does not contain alcohol.

1°- Grain preparation -   

All varieties of cereal may be used to prepare malt.

Choose well-stored grains, from the former harvest if possible, in order for all of them to germinate.

2. Grain preparation -

The weight of malt obtained is about half the weight of the grain set to germinate.

Amount of BAMiSA FLOUR planned, in Kg
(or according to the number of 500 gram bags)

10 Kg
(20 bags)

25 Kg
(50 bags)

50 Kg
(100 bags)

1 Tonne
(2 000 bags)

 Amount of Malt to prepare

200 g

500 g

1 Kg

20 Kg

Weight of grains
of sorghum, maize, pearl millet,… to be set to germinate.

≥ 400 g

≥ 1 Kg

 ≥ 2 Kg

≥ 40 kg

3. Grain preparation

Winnow, Sieve-calibrate, Wash and Sort the grain

Tambacounda Sénégal

Calibrate with an adequate sieve enables to keep only the bigger grains

During the washing, keep only the good 'heavy',
ripe and big grains which will be able to germinate.

4° Grain germination -

Rehydrate the grain

Soaking the grains in a little bit of water enables them to swell (to rehydrate them) and « wake » them up !

Depending on the grain, the soaking may need several hours.

Change the water used for soaking and use lightly chlorinated drinking water.

Be careful :   Grains need air to live and germinate.
Too long a soaking period would leave them to smother and ferment.

5° Grain germination

Maintain the grains damp by soaking them or regularly watering them during 2 to 5 days

Fada N'Gouma Burkina Faso 2005

Maintain germination until the germ is clearly visible.

Be careful :      Cover the grains, place them in the shade, in a draft-free location,
avoiding too hot or cold temperatures

6° - Germinated grain drying -

The germinated grain is to be thoroughly
dried in the sun and then

7°- Sorting -

Sort to keep only the fully germinated grains  

 Dagana Sénégal 2012

 Fada N'Gouma Burkina Faso 2005

The drying malt may attract flies. In that case, cover with cloth or a mosquito net.
In order to gather only the germinated grains, use a fork and shake a little.
Remove grains that have not germinated.

Be careful :    When the weather is very damp, it is possible to finish the drying
by lightly heating and stirring the germinated grain « hand in the pan ».

8° - Gribnding -

Grind finely

Dagana Sénégal 2012

With a mill   

Podor Sénégal 2013

With a « peanut butter »
hand mill»

or on stone

Be careful : Avoid the small leftover residual quantities of malt grist which could be
dispersed in other millings.

9° - Sieving -

Then sieve in order to eliminate fragments and hulls

10° - Malt checking -

Prepare a porridge according to the « 1 + 2 + 3 Recipe»  
And check that the malt liquefies efficiently the porridge.

11°- Malt Packaging and Storing -

Packaging

Fada N'Gouma Burkina Faso 2006

Niamey 2017

The small bag of malt is
to be put at the top of the flour.

Package the malt in small airtight bags or 'sachets', easy to open and close.

12° - Malt Packaging and Storing -

Store in a dry place

The malt which is not packaged can be stored in pots.

Well-dried and well-stored malt keeps its amylasic power during several months.

It can be used to prepare Liquefied Concentrated Porridges (LCP's) with any kind of flours

Grain préparation

Choose good quality sorghum, maize, millet grain, paddy rice,

Determine the necessary quantity of grain

Winnow, Sieve-Calibrate, Wash and Sort

Grain germination

Set to soak for a few hours

Set to germinate for about 2-5 days, maintainig the grains moist

Sort to eliminate no-sprouted grain

Germinated grain drying

Dry well

Grinding and Sieving

Grind finely

Sieve

Malt testing

Prepare a porridge according to the « 1 + 2 + 3 Recipe».
    And check than malt efficiently liquefies the porridge

Put the malt in the airtight sachets

Store in a dry place