Persia's wholemeal sourdough flatbread, stretched over a sloping bed of hot river pebbles so that it bakes dimpled, blistered, and faintly smoky
Origin: Isfahan and Tehran, Iran
From the journey of Wheat.
Sangak means little stone, and the name is the method. A slack wholemeal sourdough is spread on a long-handled paddle and flung onto a sloping bed of hot pebbles inside the oven, where it bakes in two or three minutes into a large, irregular, dimpled sheet, pocked all over where the stones pressed into it. The baker hooks it out, knocks the loose pebbles off against a rail, and hands it over folded. It is the oldest of the four great Iranian breads and the most distinctive. Barbari is thick and glazed, taftoon thin and soft, lavash paper-thin and stackable; sangak is the wholemeal one, faintly sour, chewy, and the only one baked on stones rather than against a wall. Historically it was the bread of the army, since a bed of pebbles could be carried and set up anywhere, and it is still the bread most associated with the kebab houses, where it is laid under the meat so that it takes the juices. Iran is one of the oldest wheat countries on earth, sitting between the Fertile Crescent and the oases of Central Asia, and the plateau has grown and eaten the grain continuously since the Neolithic. What distinguishes the Persian tradition from the Arab one to its west is the persistence of sourdough and of wholemeal: sangak is made with a mature starter and flour that keeps most of the bran, which is why it tastes of considerably more than white flatbread does. Bread is bought fresh twice a day, queued for at the bakery, and carried home draped over an arm rather than bagged, because wrapping it while hot ruins the crust.
The pebbles are the recipe. Without them you have a wholemeal sourdough flatbread, which is pleasant but is not sangak, and the dimpling is the entire visual identity of the bread. A mature, well-fed sourdough starter gives the right flavour. Yeast produces a bread that is recognisably the wrong thing. The dough is around 84 per cent hydration. Wet hands, a wet spatula, and speed are the way to handle it. For a plain version leave off the seeds entirely, which is how it is most often sold in Tehran; the seeded version is the bakery's better line.
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