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| Course | Main course | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place of origin | Romania | ||||||
| Region or state | Romania,Moldova | ||||||
| Main ingredients | |||||||
| Ingredients generally used | grits | ||||||
| 70 kcal (290 kJ) | |||||||
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| Similar dishes | |||||||
Mămăligă (Romanian pronunciation:[məməˈliɡə]ⓘ;) is apolenta-like dish made out of yellowmaize flour, traditional inRomania,Moldova, south-westernUkraine and amongPoles in Ukraine (mamałyga),Hungary (puliszka), Bulgaria (kačamak), the Black Sea regions ofGeorgia andTurkey, andThessaly andPhthiotis in Greece.[3]
Similar dishes are also eaten inItaly,Switzerland,Southern France,Slovenia,Croatia andBrazil, often with the namepolenta.
Historically apeasant food, it was often used as a substitute for bread or even as astaple food in the poor rural areas. However, in the last decades it has emerged as an upscale dish available in the finest restaurants.[citation needed][where?]
Maize was consumed byRomani slaves in Wallachia andMoldavia, as well asMuslim slaves, who wereprisoners of war.[4]
Historically,porridge is the oldest form of consumption of grains in the whole of humanity, long before the appearance of bread. Originally, the seeds used to prepare slurries were very diverse asmillet oreinkorn.[citation needed]
Before the introduction of maize inEurope in the 16th centuryA.D., mămăligă had been made with millet flour, known to the Romans aspulmentum.[5]
Maize was introduced into Spain byHernán Cortés fromMexico in 1530 and spread in Europe in the 16th century. Maize (calledcorn in the United States) requires a good amount of heat and humidity. TheDanube Valley is one of Europe's regions ideal for growing maize.
A Hungarian scholar documented the arrival of corn inTimișoara,Banat region, 1692.[6] InTransylvania, maize is also called 'cucuruz',[7] which could imply a connection between Transylvanian and Serbian merchants, kukuruz being aSlavic word.[8] Some assume it was eitherȘerban Cantacuzino[9][10] orConstantin Mavrocordat[11] who introduced corn inWallachia,Maria Theresa in Transylvania[12] andConstantine Ducas inMoldavia[11] where it is called păpușoi.[13]Mămăligă of millet would have been replaced gradually by mămăligă made of corn. Corn then became an important food, especially in the fight against famine, which prevailed in the 17th and 18th centuries.[14]
HistorianNicolae Iorga noted that farmers of the Romanian Principalities had grown corn since the early-to-mid-17th century.[14]
Etienne Ignace Raicevich, aRagusan consul of Napoleonic France to Bucharest in the fourth quarter of the 18th century, wrote that corn was introduced onlyda poco tempo (recently).
Before the arrival ofmaize in Eastern Europe,mămăligă was made ofmillet flour. Long lost, milletmămăligă is now again fashionable in western Europe.[15]
Traditionally,mămăligă is cooked by boiling water, salt and cornmeal in a special-shapedcast iron pot calledceaun ortuci. When cooked peasant-style and used as a bread substitute,mămăligă is supposed to be much thicker than the regular Italian polenta to the point that it can be cut in slices, like bread. When cooked for other purposes,mămăligă can be much softer, sometimes almost to the consistency ofporridge. Becausemămăligă sticks to metal surfaces, a piece of sewing thread is used to cut it into slices instead of a knife; it can then be eaten by holding it with the hand, just like bread.
Mămăligă is a versatile food: various recipes ofmămăligă-based dishes may include milk,butter, various types of cheese, eggs, sausages (usually fried, grilled or oven-roasted), bacon, mushrooms, ham, fish etc.Mămăligă is a fat-free, cholesterol-free, high-fiber food. It can be used as a healthy alternative to more refined carbohydrates such as white bread, pasta, or hulled rice.[citation needed]
Mămăligă is often served with sour cream and cheese on the side (mămăligă cu brânză și smântână) or crushed in a bowl of hot milk (mămăligă cu lapte). Sometimes slices ofmămăligă are pan-fried in oil or in lard, the result being a sort ofcorn pone.[citation needed]
The traditional Moldavian meal is often served with meat, usually pork or fried fish, andmujdei, a garlic-and-oil sauce. Harder boiled mamaliga is traditionally cut with a string, so it would not stick on a knife.[citation needed]
Sincemămăligă can be used as an alternative for bread in manyRomanian andMoldovan dishes, there are quite a few which are either based onmămăligă, or include it as an ingredient or side dish. Arguably, the most popular of them issarmale (a type ofcabbage roll/grapevine roll) withmămăligă.
Another very popular Romanian dish based onmămăligă is calledbulz, and consists ofmămăligă with cheese and butter and roasted in the oven.
Balmoș (sometimes spelled balmuș) is anothermămăligă-like traditional Romanian dish, but is more elaborate. Unlikemămăligă (where the cornmeal is boiled in water) when makingbalmoș the cornmeal must be boiled insheep milk. Other ingredients, such as butter, sour cream,telemea (a type offeta cheese),caș (a type of freshcurdled ewe cheese withoutwhey, which is sometimes called "green cheese" in English),urdă (similar toricotta), etc., are added to the mixture at certain times during the cooking process. It is a specialty dish of old Romanian shepherds, and nowadays very few people still know how to make a properbalmoș.[citation needed]
In Chapter One ofDracula byBram Stoker, the characterJonathan Harker writes, "I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was 'mamaliga', and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call 'impletata'".
As a traditional Szekler food, it also appears in Hungarian folktales multiple times, for example inSzép Palkó.[citation needed]
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Cornmeal mush is its analogue common in some regions of the United States andgrits in the southern regions.
Its analogue inSerbia andBulgaria is calledkačamak (Serbian:качамак/kačamak,Bulgarian:качамак) and is served mainly with whitebrine cheese orpork rind (fried pieces of pork fat with parts of the skin).
InBosnia and Herzegovina,Croatia (alsopolenta orpalenta), Serbia (alsokačamak) and inMontenegro, there is dish calledpura. InNorth Macedonia, there is a similar dish calledbakrdan (Macedonian:бакрдан).
Hungarians havepuliszka, which is traditionally eaten in both salty and sweet forms. It is also calledkukoricamálé,kukoricagánica organca.
TheTransylvanian Saxons eat a food called 'palukes' intheir traditional cuisine.
InTurkey, it is also called mamaliga, or kaçamak. Another similar dish, calledkuymak ormuhlama, is among the typical dishes of theBlack Sea Region, although now popular in all the greater cities where there are many regional restaurants.
Similar dishes exist under different names in various local languages (Abkhaz:абысҭа,romanized: abysta,Adyghe:мамрыс,romanized: mamrys,Georgian:ღომი,Ingush:журан-худар,romanized: zhuran-khudar,Chechen:ah'ar-hudar, zhuran-hudar,Nogai:мамырза,romanized: mamırza,Ossetian:сир, сорсерæ,romanized: sir, sorsera), as well as inCaucasian cuisines.
There is also a distinct similarity tocou-cou (as it is known in theBarbados), orfungi (as it is known inAntigua and Barbuda and otherLeeward Islands in the Caribbean Sea).
A similar dish is eaten widely across Africa, often with white maize flour instead of yellow, where it has different local names:
Media related toMamaliga at Wikimedia Commons