Estonian Black Bread

Ask Estonians who have moved abroad what they miss and leib comes up before anything else. It is a dark, dense, slightly sweet-sour sourdough rye - closer to a Finnish or Latvian loaf than to anything in western Europe - and the word for it doubles as the general word for food in older usage.

What it actually is

Rye flour, sourdough starter, water, salt, and usually a little malt or sugar for the sweetness. The crumb is tight and moist, the crust is thick, and a good loaf keeps for the better part of a week. Some versions include seeds or caraway.

The commonest ways to eat it: plain with butter, with sprats and egg, with cold-smoked pork, or fried into black-bread croutons with garlic - leivakrõpsud - which turn up in every pub in the country as a beer snack. The kama and black bread desserts that appear on modern restaurant menus are a recent extension.

Where to try it

• Any supermarket - several long-established brands, all decent, and cheap.
• Market halls - Balti Jaam in Tallinn and the Tartu hall have bakery counters with better crust.
• Bakeries in small towns - where the old sourdough cultures are still in use.
• Restaurants - increasingly serve their own house version with the bread course.

Honest expectations

It is heavy and sour, and people used to white bread often find the first slice a shock. It also does not travel well as a souvenir past a week or so.

Not all commercial loaves are true sourdough - some supermarket versions are yeast-raised and coloured, which is the difference between a decent loaf and a memorable one.

Nearby

The Balti Jaam market in Tallinn and the Tartu market hall are the two easiest places to buy a good loaf alongside the smoked fish and pork that go with it.