Skābputra

Ingredients

The porridge

• 250 gpearl barley
• or barley groats
• rinsed
• 1.5 litreswater
• 1 teaspoonsalt

To sour it

• 300 mlbuttermilk
• or kefir
• or a few spoons of a previous batch
• as a starter

To finish

• 600 mlcold milk
• or more, to thin
• or soured milk
• salt, to taste

To serve

• very cold
• chopped dill
• or chives
• with rye bread
• and boiled potato

Directions

1. Use a genuinely live culture as the starter. Keep everything scrupulously clean throughout. It should not smell yeasty, alcoholic or putrid. Discard the whole batch if any of those appear. Ferment it at cool room temperature rather than warm. Taste it after twelve hours to judge it. Stop when it is pleasantly sour rather than sharp.
2. Use your own judgement about smell and appearance. Barley groats are less processed and take longer. Discard it if it sours sharply beyond pleasant. Rinse the barley thoroughly in cold water.
3. Rinse it through two or three changes of water. Drain it well before it goes into the pot. Put the barley in a pot with the water and salt. Keep hot water ready in case it needs more. It should stay soupy rather than becoming stiff.
4. Simmer the barley gently until it is soft. Pearl barley takes about thirty-five minutes. Stir it regularly right through the cooking. It should be a loose porridge at this stage.
5. Keep it looser than you think it needs to be. Milk goes in later to thin it further. Let the cooked barley cool to lukewarm. Hot porridge kills the culture in the starter. Spread it into a wide bowl to cool it faster. Stir it occasionally as it cools. Do not leave it standing warm for many hours.
6. Stir the buttermilk or kefir into the cooled barley. Stir it right through so it is evenly distributed. Use a clean spoon and a clean bowl throughout. Cover it with a cloth rather than a tight lid. It needs some air exchange while it ferments.
7. Use a glass, ceramic or stainless steel bowl. It must be scrupulously clean before you start. Leave it at cool room temperature to sour. Give it twelve to twenty-four hours in all.
8. Taste it after twelve hours to judge progress. Stop when it is pleasantly rather than harshly sour. Stir cold milk into the soured barley. About six hundred millilitres is a starting point. Add it gradually and stir it smooth. Stop when it reaches the thickness you want.
9. Stir in more milk before serving if it has. Season the finished dish with salt to taste. Salt is essential rather than optional here. Taste it cold, since cold mutes salt considerably. Refrigerate it until it is thoroughly cold. Ladle the cold skābputra into deep bowls. Stir it well before ladling it out. Each bowl should get a fair share of the grain.
10. Scatter chopped dill or chives over each bowl. It lifts what is otherwise a plain looking dish. Serve dark rye bread alongside the bowls. It keeps three days refrigerated in a covered bowl. Discard it if it sours sharply beyond pleasant.

Technique

• This is a deliberate fermentation of a grain and dairy mixture and must be done carefully. Use a genuinely live culture as the starter, keep everything scrupulously clean, and ferment at cool room temperature — about eighteen to twenty degrees — rather than warm. A good ferment smells pleasantly sour like yoghurt; anything yeasty, alcoholic or putrid, or any mould of any colour, means discard the whole batch. Home fermentation carries genuine risks if done badly, so use your own judgement and when in doubt discard.
• The barley must cool to lukewarm before the starter goes in, since hot porridge kills the culture — below about forty degrees, lukewarm on the inside of the wrist. Spread it into a wide bowl to cool it faster rather than leaving a deep pot standing warm for hours.
• Use a glass, ceramic or stainless steel bowl and avoid aluminium, which reacts with the acid. Cover it with a cloth rather than a tight lid. The finished dish keeps about three days refrigerated and continues souring slowly.

Substitutions

• Kefir replaces buttermilk as the starter, and a few spoons of a previous batch works equally well — that backslopping is the traditional method, and households kept a culture going for years.
• Barley groats replace pearl barley but take considerably longer to cook; pearl barley is the easier choice at home. Soured milk or buttermilk replaces the fresh milk for thinning and gives a sharper result — all are genuinely used.

Variations

• Latvian field workers carried this to the harvest because the souring kept it edible through a hot working day with no reheating; that practicality is the whole reason it exists. It fell out of everyday use for decades and has been revived recently as a heritage dish.
• It is sour and savoury rather than sweet, sitting closer to a cold soup than a breakfast porridge, and it surprises people expecting sweetness. Salt is essential rather than optional — an unsalted skābputra tastes flat and strange — and taste it cold, since cold mutes salt. Some households sweeten it slightly instead, which is a different dish; both are genuinely made.
• Keep the cooked barley looser than seems right, since it thickens considerably as it cools, and stir it well before ladling since the grain settles as it stands.

History

Field workers took the fermented barley porridge to the harvest because it kept in the heat; it is now revived as a heritage dish.

Frequently asked questions

What is Skābputra?

Skābputra is a soup & stew from Latvia: soured barley porridge thinned with milk, eaten cold in summer. Field workers took the fermented barley porridge to the harvest because it kept in the heat; it is now revived as a heritage dish.

How long does Skābputra take to make?

Skābputra takes 10 minutes plus souring of preparation and 40 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Skābputra?

Yes, within limits. Kefir replaces buttermilk as the starter, and a few spoons of a previous batch works equally well — that backslopping is the traditional method, and households kept a culture going for years. Barley groats replace pearl barley but take considerably longer to cook; pearl barley is the easier choice at home. Soured milk or buttermilk replaces the fresh milk for thinning and gives a sharper result — all are genuinely used.

What is the most important thing to get right in Skābputra?

Use a genuinely live culture as the starter. Keep everything scrupulously clean throughout. It should not smell yeasty, alcoholic or putrid. Discard the whole batch if any of those appear. Ferment it at cool room temperature rather than warm. Taste it after twelve hours to judge it. Stop when it is pleasantly sour rather than sharp.