Herman cake (often called Herman) is a 'friendship cake'. Similar to the Amish friendship bread, the starter is passed from person to person (like a

chain letter A chain letter is a message that attempts to convince the recipient to make a number of copies and pass them on to a certain number of recipients. The "chain" is an exponentially growing pyramid (a tree graph) that cannot be sustained indefinite ...

) and continues to grow as it contains

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...

and

lactic acid bacteria Lactobacillales are an order of gram-positive, low-GC, acid-tolerant, generally nonsporulating, nonrespiring, either rod-shaped ( bacilli) or spherical ( cocci) bacteria that share common metabolic and physiological characteristics. These bact ...

. One starter can, in theory, last indefinitely. The other ingredients for the mixture are

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modula ...

, sugar, flour and warm water. They became popular in the 1970s. The Herman starter does not have to be refrigerated, and sits on a countertop for ten days. The starter 'breathes' when covered loosely with a tea-towel and left out on the worktop and stirred occasionally. This occurs because of the yeast in the Herman starter, making the mixture frequently bubble. The dough also smells strongly of beer because of the yeast. Hermann-Teig

The Herman starter is given in a jar with a set of instructions to guide through the next ten days with the mixture. After four days additional ingredients are added and stirred, and again on the eighth day. On the ninth day, Herman is divided into equal parts (four or five) and all but one of these parts are passed along to friends. The last part is kept and on the tenth day is cooked. Many ingredients can be added to Herman before the procedure of cooking the Herman cake. These ingredients can include eggs, cinnamon, apples, chocolate, and cherries to make Herman sweet or olives and

sun-dried tomato Sun-dried tomatoes are ripe tomatoes that lose most of their water content after spending a majority of their drying time in the sun. These tomatoes are usually pre-treated with sulfur dioxide or salt before being placed in the sun in order to i ...

es for a savoury taste. The German magazine '' Stern'' noted the resurgence in popularity of 'Hermann Teig' in Germany in the early 2000s - including the publication of a book by Dr. Oetker titled "Backen mit Hermann und Siegfried" - and commented on the similarity to another food trend:

Kombucha Kombucha (also tea mushroom, tea fungus, or Manchurian mushroom when referring to the culture; Latin name ''Medusomyces gisevii'') is a fermented, lightly effervescent, sweetened black tea drink commonly consumed for its purported health b ...

, a fermented sweetened tea.

References

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* {{Commons category-inline Sourdough breads Yeast cakes

See also

References

External links