Fagopyrum esculentum, a herbaceous plant of the same family as rhubarb, sorrel, and dock, is grown for its seeds; these resemble those of cereals. Being hardy, growing quickly even in unfavourable conditions, and capable of producing two or even three crops a year, it is most used in regions with cold climates or poor soils where true cereals do not grow well. For many centuries it was a vital food source for the inhabitants of mountainous regions of Japan where the climate is too cold, the soil too poor, and the land too limited for growing rice. Countries of the former Soviet Union now account for 90% of world production.
The plant bears small clusters of seeds of a curious shape, triangular in cross-section with pointed ends. They are named from a supposed resemblance to beech nuts, which are also roughly triangular but much larger. (The name is derived from the Dutch bockweit, and its literal translation, ‘beechwheat’, has been used in English.)
There are several species of buckwheat, all native to temperate E. Asia. The wild ancestor of the cultivated type is thought to be perennial buckwheat, Fagopyrum dibotrys, which grows in the Himalayas and China. From this came the main cultivated species, brank buckwheat, F. esculentum, which may have originated from Yunnan province, in S. China. Tartary buckwheat and, to a lesser extent, notch-seeded buckwheat are cultivated in mountainous and northern regions, where they resist the harsh climate better.
Although buckwheat has certainly been gathered from the wild for a long time in its native region, 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, contains the earliest known mention of buckwheat in Japanese literature. Archaeological finds in Japan certainly reflect its use, if not its domestication, in the 5th century bc.
Buckwheat reached E. Europe from Russia in the Middle Ages, entering Germany in the 14th and 15th centuries (although, again, archaeology throws up evidence of buckwheat seeds in the Balkans very much earlier than this). Later it came to France and Italy where it was known as ‘Saracen corn’, a name which 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 W. Europe. Buckwheat was grown by early European settlers in N. America, and figures in traditional dishes there such as the French or Acadian ployes, which are buckwheat pancakes and still available in Maine. Some is also grown in parts of Africa and Brazil.
Buckwheat is similar to a typical cereal in nutritional value. It contains a substance, rutin, which is supposed to be beneficial in cases of high blood pressure.
The uses of buckwheat both in the form of husked whole grains and as flour are manifold. The flour, however, is not suitable for making ordinary bread, except when mixed with other cereal flour. It has an unusual flavour which is not universally liked.
The most renowned of all buckwheat dishes is kasha, a speciality of Russia and E. Europe. Whole buckwheat grain may be cooked in the same way as rice, and is also made into sweet, baked puddings. Buckwheat flour is most often made into pancakes, notably the Russian blini, and it is used for pierogi in Poland, Slovenia, and Serbia. Lesley Chamberlain (1989) says that ‘Buckwheat flour is widely used in traditional bread and cakes in Slovenia.’ In the German-speaking countries of C. Europe Schmarren, thick pancakes which are torn up when partly cooked and the shreds browned, are sometimes made from buckwheat, although stale bread is a more usual base (see pancake). Buckwheat pancakes are a traditional N. American breakfast dish. They also appear in the cuisine of N. China. The most famous French pancakes, galettes or crêpes from Brittany, are also made with a proportion of buckwheat, while a porridge from the grain was a standby of the Breton and Norman peasantry—an elaboration of which, in Brittany, was combined with dried fruits before cooking in a pudding bag. Nowadays, a far breton is a fruit flan.
Buckwheat noodles have been made in China and Russia, but are a particular speciality of Japan. There they are called soba, which is also the name for buckwheat in its original state. It was only from the 17th century that the Japanese began to use buckwheat for noodles. Previously, it was commonly eaten in other, simpler, forms, such as gruels, porridges, pancakes, and dumplings. The simplest way of eating it had been Sobagaki, something like Italian polenta. Boiling water was poured over the flour, the whole stirred vigorously, and the result eaten at once with soy sauce (or, in earlier times, dashi). Sobagaki is still made, always with buckwheat; and some Japanese prefer it to noodles as being the purest way of eating buckwheat.
The leaves of species grown for grain are customarily used for animal fodder, but those of wild perennial buckwheat are cooked as a vegetable in the Himalayas and N. China. In Tibet, and probably elsewhere, they are eaten as a salad green, resembling coarse sorrel.
Buckwheat flowers yield an interesting, strongly flavoured, dark honey.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Chamberlain, Lesley (1989), The Food and Cooking of Eastern Europe, London: Penguin.
