Rewena bread Rewena bread Rēwena parāoa (literally, "leavened bread," also spelled rewana) is a traditional Māori sourdough potato bread. Rēwena means both "bread made with potato yeast" and "the process of fermentation that causes bread to rise." The Maori word for potato, 'riwai' (sometimes spelled 'rewa'), is the root word of rēwena. Rēwena bread uses a pre-ferment starter, also called a ‘bug.’ It is created by boiling and mashing potatoes, then adding flour and sugar. Kumara, or sweet potatoes, may also be used. The mixture is then allowed to ferment from one to several days, depending on the ambient temperature and humidity.
Cockle bread in which the bread is mentioned: Writing in "Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain" in 1854, John Brand describes the nursery rhyme as "modern", but adds that its connection to the earlier "moulding" of cockle bread "is by no means generally understood". Cockle bread Cockle bread was an inferior type of British corn or wheat bread mixed with "cockle weed". In the 17th century a practice known as "moulding" cockle-bread had a sexual connotation. Cockle bread is also mentioned in a 19th-century nursery rhyme. The play "The Old Wives' Tale" by George Peele, first published in 1595, has