Aish Merahrah

Aish merahrah is the everyday sourdough flatbread of Upper Egypt, especially the rural Nile-valley towns of Beni Suef, Minya, Asyut, and Sohag, where it has been baked in clay taboon ovens for at least two centuries. The dough is built around fermented fenugreek-seed sourdough, which gives the loaf its slightly sour, faintly bitter edge and a long keeping quality that suits the hot, dry climate.

Flour made from yellow dent maize is soaked overnight with ground fenugreek and a little salt, then left to ferment until the batter smells pleasantly sour. In the morning the batter is spread thinly onto a hot clay or metal disk and baked for only a few minutes, producing a soft, foldable round whose underside comes away speckled with ash from the oven floor.

Eaten daily with soft white aged kashkaval, with ful medames, or simply folded around a few olives, aish merahrah is also the traditional bread used to wrap Eid al-Fitr breakfasts. It is sold in every rural market, by women who run neighbourhood taboon bakeries in towns like Maghagha and Biba, and is increasingly found in Cairo bakeries that specialise in heritage Upper-Egyptian breads.