: [Sca-cooks] cooking with Kasha

[Huette von Ahrens]

--- lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:

> I suspect it wasn't common in Medieval and
> Renaissance Western 
> Europe, but it was eaten in Eastern Europe. I'm
> sure Bear or someone 
> else will correct me if i'm mistaken. I can't
> find my Oxford 
> Companion to Food at the moment to verify or
> contradict my comment.
> 
> Anahita

Here is a portion of what the Oxford Companion to
Food says about buckwheat:

Although buckwheat has certainly been gathered
from the wild for a long time in its native
region [East Asia], deliberate cultivation may
not be very ancient.  The first written records
of the plant are in Chinese documents of the
5th and 6th centuries AD.  It appears to have
reached Japan from Korea in antiquity and an
official chronicle (Shoku-Nihongi) completed
in 722, contained the earliest known mention
of buckwheat in Japanese literature.

Buckwheat reached Eastern Europe from Russia in
the Middle Ages, entering Germany in the 15th 
century. Later it came to France and Italy where
it was known as 'Saracen corn', a name that
survives in both languages; and Spain, where a
name derived from Arabic was used.  For several
centuries it was grown as a crop of minor
importance in most of Europe, including Britain,
but it has now lost popularity in Western Europe.

Huette
 

=====
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they 
shall never cease to be amused.


		
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