For the Kenyan rugby player, see Collins Injera. Teff flour is ground from the grains sourdough bannock Eragrostis tef, also known as teff, an ancient cereal crop from the Ethiopian Highlands.

Batter is poured rapidly in a spiral from the outside inwards. To make injera, teff flour is mixed with water. The fermentation process is started by adding ersho, a clear, yellow liquid that accumulates on the surface of fermenting teff flour batter and is collected from previous fermentations. The baking method for injera has changed little since its origin.

Traditionally, the flour is mixed with water and fermented. It is baked by pouring the mixture onto a large circular griddle, known as a mitad. Injera being cooked on a griddle. The injera is baked into large, flat and round pieces. The dough’s viscosity allows it to be poured onto the baking surface, rather than rolled out, which is unusual for a yeast or sourdough bread. In terms of shape, injera compares to the French crêpe and the Indian dosa as a flatbread cooked in a circle and used as a base for other foods.

In taste and texture, it is more similar to the South Indian appam. Baking is done on a circular griddle—either a large black clay plate over a fire or a specialized electric stove. Mitads have been found at archaeological sites dating back as far as 600 AD. Nowadays, mitads are no longer always made out of clay, and can also be electric. Traditional clay stoves can be inefficient in that they consume large amounts of firewood and produce a lot of smoke, creating household pollution and making them dangerous to use around children. In 2003, an Eritrean research group designed a stove for cooking injera and other foods that uses more easily available fuel, such as twigs instead of large branches, crop residues and dung, locally called kubet.

Woman checking the baking of an injera in her house. Many women in urban areas—especially those living outside Ethiopia and Eritrea—now use electric injera stoves, which are topped with a large metal plate, or simply non-stick frying pans. In Ethiopia and Eritrea, injera is eaten daily in virtually every household. Outside of Ethiopia and Eritrea, injera may be found in grocery stores and restaurants specializing in Ethiopian and Eritrean cooking. Injera is the most important component of food in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

It is often both the serving platter and utensil for a meal. Hearty stews such as wat are placed on top of the bread and then the meal is eaten by tearing pieces of injera off and scooping up the stews. There are similar variants to injera in other African countries, namely Sudan and Chad. The variant eaten in South Sudan, Sudan and Chad is known as kisra.

Injera became more common in the United States during a spike in Ethiopian immigration in the 1980s and 1990s, largely because of the Refugee Act passed in 1980. Food History Almanac: Over 1,300 Years of World Culinary History, Culture, and Social Influence. Griddles, Ovens, and Agricultural Origins: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Bread Baking in Highland Ethiopia”. Ethiopia: the Land, Its People, History and Culture. The economics of teff: Exploring Ethiopia’s biggest cash crop. Mesob Across America: Ethiopian Food in the U. The Development of an Energy Efficient Electric Mitad for Baking Injeras in Ethiopia”.