Awaze
Also known as awaze paste, awazi, berbere paste
PasteFermented
Quick answer
The Ethiopian and Eritrean chilli paste: in its everyday form berbere loosened with tej, water or oil, with garlic and ginger, served beside meat; in rural households also a paste of raw red pepper, onion, garlic, ginger and spices fermented for weeks.
In essentially every version: Berbere, Garlic, Fresh ginger, Salt.
3 distinct versions are set out below. None of them is presented as the correct one, because there isn’t one.
What goes into it
What essentially every version is made from, with what each ingredient is there to do.
| Ingredient | Role | How essential |
|---|---|---|
| BerbereThe spice character of the everyday paste comes from here. The fermented household paste is built from the same kinds of spice ground raw with onion, garlic and ginger, not from made berbere. | base | usual |
| Garlic (fresh) | savoury depth | usual |
| Ginger (fresh) | supporting aromatic | usual |
| HoneyTej, the Ethiopian honey wine, is the traditional liquid; honey and water is a common stand-in outside Ethiopia. | sweet | optional |
| Lemon | sour | optional |
| Salt | salt | usual |
Two kinds of preparation share the name. The everyday paste varies mostly in its liquid: tej gives a sweet, fermented roundness; water and oil give a plainer, hotter paste; a splash of lemon or of local spirit sharpens it, and some households add mitmita for heat. In rural households awaze is also made by grinding red pepper, ginger, red onion and garlic with smaller amounts of fenugreek, cardamom, basil, black and white cumin, rue, coriander, thyme, rosemary and the spice mix mekelesha, mixing the powder with boiled water and leaving it to ferment at ambient temperature for about thirty days, during which lactic acid bacteria and yeasts work on it.
The versions
Each attributed to whoever describes it. The sources say what goes in and how it is made and give no amounts, so none are shown.
Awaze with tej
Regional traditionTraditional Ethiopian practice · no amounts given · medium confidence
Berbere mixed to a thick paste with tej, garlic and ginger. Sweet-hot and slightly fermented.
Made with: Berbere, Tej or honey, Garlic, Fresh ginger. The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
Fermented household awaze
Household traditionRural Ethiopian households, as described in food-science studies of the traditional paste (Amhara and Oromia regions) · no amounts given · medium confidence
Red pepper, ginger, red onion and garlic ground with small amounts of other spices and salt, mixed with boiled water and fermented for about a month. Used to make wot as well as eaten as a seasoning, and sour by design.
Made with: Ethiopian red pepper, Red onion, Garlic, Ginger, Fenugreek, Rue, Coriander seed, Salt. The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
The studies also name cardamom, basil, black and white cumin, thyme, rosemary and mekelesha in small amounts; they are not listed as ingredients here because the English names do not settle which plants are meant. The proportions in the studies are research formulations, not household ones, and are not reproduced.
Awaze with water and oil
Household traditionEveryday household and restaurant practice · no amounts given · medium confidence
Berbere loosened with water and a little oil, with garlic, ginger and salt, sometimes lemon. Hotter and plainer than the tej version.
Made with: Berbere, Garlic, Fresh ginger, Lemon juice, Salt. The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
Fermentation
What makes it what it is, as studies have found it. Observations, not a method to follow.
Awaze
Mixed fermentation · Ethiopia · also Ethiopian fermented red pepper paste
A paste of red pepper with ginger, red onion and garlic, to which smaller quantities of other spices and salt are added; the paper lists cardamom, fenugreek, cumin, basil, black cumin, rue, coriander, rosemary and thyme among them.
The paper describes lactic acid bacteria and yeasts as the organisms of the fermentation. In its own storage trial, lactic acid bacteria rose from 1.63 log cfu/g in the fresh paste to a peak of about 4.3 log cfu/g after 120 days at room temperature and then fell below 3 log cfu/g by 300 days. Counts were by plating; no organism was identified to species, and no starter culture was used.
Traditional awaze is described as fermenting for about 30 days at ambient temperature. Rural households make it in the season after the red pepper harvest in November and keep it through the year in traditional pots and gourds.
Over 300 days of storage in six kinds of container, the highest yeast and mould count, 4.06 log cfu/g, was in paste kept in plastic bags, and the highest total bacterial count, 4.12 log cfu/g, in metal cans. Paste in glass bottles at 4 °C held 3.2 log cfu/g of yeasts and moulds and 2.97 log cfu/g of bacteria at 300 days, which the authors judged acceptable against the standards they applied. Counts were higher at room temperature than under refrigeration in every container, and colour faded faster.
What is not established: One study of a paste prepared by the researchers, whose account of the traditional fermentation is drawn from earlier literature. It counted groups of organisms and did not look for pathogens, toxins or biogenic amines. The finding about containers belongs to that paste and those conditions.
Using it
Served in a small dish at the table beside meat, or rubbed onto meat before it is sautéed. It is not usually cooked for long: the point is the fresh heat and the raw garlic.
Hot, deep red and aromatic with the full warm-spice character of berbere, rounded by the sweetness of tej and sharpened by raw garlic and ginger. Wet, the spices read more immediately than in a long-cooked wat.
Hot. It carries berbere’s chilli undiluted by a stew.
- Tibs (sautéed or grilled meat)
- Kitfo and other raw-meat dishes, beside mitmita
- A marinade for lamb and beef
- A dip for injera
- A base for wot, in the fermented household form
Scaling: Scale by the berbere and add liquid to consistency; the paste thickens as it stands.
What to use it on
Beef
ClassicAwaze is served beside tibs, sautéed beef or lamb, and brushed on meat before cooking. Its raw garlic and berbere heat are meant for meat eaten with injera.
How: Tibs
Storage
Good for: not established
In the fridge, covered.
The dry berbere the everyday paste is made from keeps for months; that paste does not, and belongs in the fridge. The fermented household paste is preserved by its fermentation and salt, but mould is a spoilage sign in both.
Allergens and safety
Not among the substances that must be declared as allergens under EU Regulation 1169/2011 Annex II or under the United States major food allergen rules. That is a statement about labelling law and not about whether allergy occurs: allergic reactions to spices are documented in the clinical literature and are simply not a labelling category. Where a ground spice presents an allergen risk it is usually through adulteration or shared processing equipment rather than through the plant itself.
Culture and origin
Ethiopia and Eritrea, where it accompanies tibs (sautéed or grilled meat) and raw-meat dishes, and is brushed onto meat before cooking.
Ethiopia and Eritrea
The condiment that goes on the table with meat, and part of the shared-platter meal on injera. Where berbere is the cook’s seasoning, awaze is the diner’s, taken in as much quantity as each person wants.