Trinidadian Roti Lab
Trinidadian Roti: what 25 recipes agree on
Sada, buss up shut, dhalpuri and dosti: water, baking powder and fat per 100 g of flour.
25 recipes from 19 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical batch, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
A small lab: few sites publish Trinidadian roti as structured recipes, so only 25 met the bar. Treat the ranges below as rough; they will firm up as more recipes are found.
Recipes
25
from 19 sites
Typical flour
500 g
about 4 cups
Lines weighed
97%
of ingredient lines
Weights printed
10%
by the source, rest converted
5 kinds of Trinidadian roti
One name, several recipes. Each recipe is typed by what its title calls it; the medians below are per type, in grams per 100 g of flour. Types with only a few recipes are rough.
| Type | Recipes | Water | Baking powder | Fat | Sugar | Salt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buss up shut (paratha) | 9 | 82% | 2.5% | 29% | 1.5% | 1.2% |
| Dhalpuri | 6 | 71% | 1.8% | 32% | 1.4% | 2.1% |
| Dosti | 3 | 75% | 3.7% | 22% | 0.3% | 0.6% |
| Aloo puri | 1 | 71% | 1.8% | 11% | 2.8% | 1.2% |
| Sada roti | 5 | 77% | 3.7% | 0% | 0% | 1.2% |
middle half, and the median (the number at right; when most use none, the share that uses any)middle half of every recipesmall number after a name: recipes
Charted: types with at least 5 recipes. The table lists every type.
The typical batch of Trinidadian roti
The median of all 25 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 500 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 500 gabout 4 cups |
| WaterMost recipes use 355 to 415 g | 360 gabout 1 1/2 cups |
| Baking powderMost recipes use 9 to 19 g | 13 g |
| FatMost recipes use 19 to 160 g | 110 gabout 1/2 cup |
| Sugar44% use none; the rest mostly 7 to 11 g | 6 gabout 1 1/2 tsp |
| SaltMost recipes use 4 to 10 g | 6 g |
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g.
Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
Water
median 72% · most 71 to 83%
Water or milk to a soft dough that rests before rolling, so it stretches thin without tearing.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 44 to 95%
Baking powder
median 2.5% · most 1.8 to 3.7%
Unlike most Indian roti, Trinidadian roti uses baking powder; it is what makes sada roti puff on the tawa and paratha soft and flaky.
range 1 to 4.6%
Fat
median 22% · most 3.8 to 32%
All the oil, butter or ghee, in the dough and brushed on or between the layers. Sada roti uses almost none; buss up shut is built on it, which is where its flaky, torn layers come from.
range 0 to 59% · 16% use none
Sugar
median 1.1% · 44% use none
A little sugar in some recipes helps browning; many use none.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 0 to 2.8% · those that use some, mostly 1.4 to 2.1%
Salt
median 1.2% · most 0.8 to 2%
About 1% of the flour; a few family recipes leave it out.
range 0 to 2.5% · 8% use none
Where recipes disagree
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
- Sugar. 44% of recipes use no sugar, and the rest disagree too: the middle half of them add 1.4 to 2.1% of the flour weight.
- Fat. The middle half of recipes use 3.8 to 32% of the flour weight in fat, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 8.5 times as much as one at the 25th.
Recipes agree most on water and baking powder: water 71 to 83%, baking powder 1.8 to 3.7% for the middle half.
Recipes to start with
Closest to the typical batch
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
- Buss Up Shut (Paratha Roti) · kingarthurbaking.comwater 72% · baking powder 1.9%
- Paratha (Oil) Roti · nowyourecooking.cawater 79% · baking powder 2.5%
- Trinidad Paratha Roti (Buss up Shut) Recipe · cookingwithria.comwater 83% · baking powder 1.8%
- How to Make Dhalpuri Roti - Taste Trinbago · tastetrinbago.comwater 71% · baking powder 2.8%
- Trini Dhalpuri Roti Recipe · foodienationtt.comwater 71% · baking powder 2.8%
Most water
- Buss Up Shot - Trinidad Paratha Roti Recipe on Nicole's Table · nicolestable.comwater 95% · baking powder 2.8%
- Paratha Roti aka Buss up Shut Recipe · foodienationtt.comwater 95% · baking powder 3.7%
- Small Batch Sada Roti · alicaspepperpot.comwater 95% · baking powder 1.8%
Least water
- Dhalpuri by Taste Of Trini · eatahfoodtt.comwater 44% · baking powder 1%
- Sada roti without yeast recipe · wetrinifood.comwater 59% · baking powder 3.7%
- Buss Up Shut Roti · nigella.comwater 69% · baking powder 1.5%
Go deeper
- DiscoverEvery recipe plotted on any two ratios.
- CalculatorStart from the typical recipe, move the ratios, get grams.
- IngredientsWhich ingredients recipes use, and the choices they make.
- RatiosWhich ingredients rise and fall together.
- TimelineRecipes by publication year and how the typical one shifted.
- All RecipesEvery recipe, sortable, with a page each.
- ClustersThe styles the numbers fall into.
- Decision TreeA few questions that narrow the recipes to the ones you want.
Top sources
- 5cookingwithria.com
- 3foodienationtt.com
- 1africanbites.com
- 1alicaspepperpot.com
- 1caribbeanemagazine.com
- 1eatahfoodtt.com
- 1jehancancook.com
- 1kingarthurbaking.com
- 1metemgee.com
- 1nicolestable.com
- 1nigella.com
- 1nowyourecooking.ca
19 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
How the numbers are made
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
97% of the 160 ingredient lines got a weight. 10% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 12 were left out: 9 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (water 8, baking powder 1), 2 with a title that names a different dish, and 1 with no flour, or none that could be weighed.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.