[Sca-cooks] cooking with Kasha

[Anne]

Well, all I can say about buckwheat is that the buckwheat crepes I had
in Paris, which were drizzled with dark chocolate that slightly
puddled in the center -- were heavenly.   :)

Regards,
Juliane Rose


On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 14:30:25 -0500, Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net> wrote:
> Also sprach Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise:
> >  > I, unfortunately, didn't save the post where
> >>  someone was talking about seeing kasha that
> >>  wasn't buckwheat.
> >>
> >>  I think I have found the source for that
> >>  misconception.
> >
> >S'not a misconception. It's a linguistic difference. 'Kasha' or 'Kasza'
> >in Slavic languages is just grain porridge; usually made from groats
> >(crushed grains).
> >
> >The term 'kasha' used to apply to roasted buckwheat groats is an
> >Americanism, probably a surivival of certain Eastern European
> >subpopulations.
> >
> >The OED says of kasha: " A gruel or porridge made from cooked buckwheat
> >_or other meals or cereals_."
> >(Emphasis mine.)
> 
> [Puts on slightly shifty-sounding Cockney accent...]
> 
> Look... It's quoit simpul...
> 
> Kasha is groats, in countries that speak Slavic languages. In Russia,
> the preferred grain eaten in that form is often, but not exclusively,
> buckwheat.
> 
> In the US, where such grain products are generally boxed and labelled
> for the end consumer by companies like Wolff's, buckwheat is the
> grain used to produce this product which was probably originally
> intended for, and probably ultimately made popular by, Russian Jewish
> immigrants to the US. In that situation, most Americans of my
> acquaintance have their first exposure to kasha in the form of kasha
> varnishkas (kasha with mushrooms, onions, and egg bow pasta), kasha
> "pilaf", kasha-filled knishes and pierogen, etc., and the kasha in
> question for these applications is almost invariably buckwheat
> groats. Hence the association between buckwheat groats and "kasha",
> an association which companies like the Wolff's Kasha people actively
> encourage. However, that's not what the word really means.
> 
> Similarly, I gather the word "porridge" does not in fact denote
> oatmeal, specifically, as the approved grain for porridge. It just
> happens to be the dominant grain in countries where porridge is now
> eaten. In porridge-eating countries, porridge is usually made from
> oats, but it doesn't follow that porridge needs to be made from oats.
> 
> Polenta. Same thing. It is now considered the default setting to make
> it from corn [maize] meal. Previously it had been made from anything
> from wheat to barley to chestnuts. Polenta does not, though, in fact,
> denote "maize", not as nomenclature.
> 
> If you're looking for non-buckwheat examples of kasha, you're not
> going to find one, not in a grocery store, not in a health-food
> store, any more than you're going to find a box labelled "porridge"
> that doesn't contain oats. However, that doesn't mean they don't
> exist. It just means that the name has been co-opted, but you can
> still make kasha from just about any grain of your choosing, so long
> as that grain is in the form of groats. One might try to draw the
> line and argue that a grain like quinoa (I'm clutching at straws,
> now), not having been recognizable to somebody's 19th-century Russian
> Jewish grandma, is ineligible as a source grain for kasha, and there
> might be some substance to that argument, but that still doesn't
> support an argument that kasha must be buckwheat.
> 
> <phew>
> 
> Adamantius
> 
> --
> 
> "Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
>        -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry
> Holt, 07/29/04
> 
> "Who cares what you think? ...Wait! Who do write for? Who sent you?
> Who do you write for???"
>        -- The President of the United States, 07/04/01
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When nothing is sure, everything is possible.  

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