Semolina

• 1. A Sieve Decides

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  Semolina is a coarse flour, traditionally milled from durum wheat, and one international food standard defines it with a sieve. The Codex Alimentarius says a durum wheat semolina must have grains large enough that no more than 79 percent of them pass through a textile sieve with 315-micron openings. That coarseness separates semolina from other refined wheat flours. Yet the same word covers a pale yellow meal, a beige one, and even a ground corn sold under another name in the United States. It turns up in soups, porridges, syrupy cakes and pastas across Europe, Africa and Asia. How did a Latin word with Semitic roots end up in so many kitchens? What happens inside a mill to produce those coarse grains? And why do cooks from Sweden to Sri Lanka each claim it for a different dish?

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• 2. A Word With Roots

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  English speakers have used the word semolina since somewhere between 1790 and 1800. They borrowed it from the Italian semolino, which is an altered form of semola. The ending -ino is a diminutive suffix, a small tag that signals something little, so the Italian word carries a hint of tiny grains. Semola in turn comes from the Latin simila. Behind the Latin lies a Semitic source, and relatives of the word survive today. In Arabic, semolina is samīd, written سميد. In Aramaic, the matching word is səmīḏā, written ܣܡܻܝܕܳܐ. Long before the English name appeared, then, the grain had a name that travelled across languages. The meal itself, however, only exists because of a machine with grooved steel rollers.

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• 3. Rollers and Sifters

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  Grooved steel rollers sit at the heart of modern wheat milling. The miller sets the gap between them slightly narrower than the width of a wheat kernel. As kernels pass through, the rollers flake the bran and the germ away from the grain. The starchy endosperm, the white interior, cracks into coarse pieces instead of being pulverized. Sifting then separates those endosperm particles from the bran, and the particles are the semolina. Millers can grind this semolina further to make flour. The method makes it far easier to part the endosperm from the bran and germ. It also allows the endosperm to be sorted into several grades. The inner part of the endosperm breaks into smaller pieces than the outer part, so different grades of flour can be produced. What goes between the rollers matters, because the wheat sets the color of everything that follows.

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• 4. Two Wheats, Two Colors

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  Durum wheat, known to botanists as Triticum turgidum subsp. durum, yields a pale yellow semolina. Cooks mill it coarse or fine, and both versions go into sweet and savory dishes. Its high protein and gluten content make it especially suitable for pasta. Common wheat, Triticum aestivum, produces a beige semolina instead. In the United States this version is called farina, which should not be confused with Italian farina, a common-wheat flour. American cooks use farina more often for desserts than for savory food. On the Indian subcontinent, common-wheat semolina is milled coarse or fine and appears in both sweet and savory dishes. Some labels reveal the milling. The Hindustani bansi rava is made only coarse, while sooji and rava come in coarse and fine forms. In the United States, the name semolina can even stretch to meal made from other grains, such as rice semolina and corn semolina. Corn semolina is commonly called grits, a word related to the German Grieß.

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• 5. Savory Tables

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  In Germany, Austria, Hungary and their neighbors, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania, Slovakia and Croatia, durum semolina goes by Hartweizengrieß. Cooks mix it with egg to make Grießknödel, dumplings that go into soup. The particles measure between 0.25 and 0.75 millimeters across. The same Grieß is also simmered in milk, sprinkled with chocolate and eaten at breakfast. Italian cooks boil fine semolina directly in vegetable or chicken broth to make a soup. They also make gnocchi alla romana by mixing semolina with milk, cheese and butter into a log. The log is cut into discs and baked with cheese and bechamel. In West Africa, especially among Nigerians, semolina is a lunch or dinner food served with stew or soup. Cooks prepare it like eba or fufu, boiling it in water for 5 to 10 minutes. Across much of North Africa, durum semolina becomes couscous and flatbreads such as m'semen, kesra and khobz. North India and Pakistan call it sooji, while South India calls it rava. Rava goes into rava dosa, rava idli, rava kitchri and upma. It also coats slices of fish before they are pan-fried, and some cooks make rotis from it. At the other end of the menu, semolina turns up just as readily in bowls of sweetened milk.

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• 6. Porridge and Pudding

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  Weichweizengrieß is the German name for common-wheat semolina, though most people simply say Grieß. In Austria, Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic, among other countries, it is cooked with milk and sugar. Some cooks use milk alone and add sugar afterward, with cinnamon, Ovaltine or other sweet toppings. A dollop of butter is common. Austrians call the dish Grießkoch, Germans call it Grießbrei, and English speakers call it semolina pudding. Grießauflauf is a baked relative, made by folding whipped egg whites into the semolina, sometimes with fruit or nuts. Farther north and east, semolina becomes breakfast porridge in Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Romania and Israel. Raisins and milk are common additions. The Swedish name is mannagrynsgröt, and boiling it with blueberries gives blåbärsgröt. In Sweden, Estonia, Finland and Latvia, cooks boil semolina with berry juice and whip it into a light, airy dessert. Sweden calls it klappgröt, Finland vispipuuro, Estonia mannavaht and Latvia debessmanna, and it is often served in summer. Further south, semolina meets syrup, pastry and halwa.

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• 7. Cakes and Halwa

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  In the Neapolitan tradition of Italy, migliaccio is a baked dish of ricotta, vanilla and citrus peel, much like the filling of sfogliatelle. Added semolina flour turns it into a simple, firm cake. Across the Middle East and North Africa, basbousa is a semolina cake soaked in fragrant syrup and often topped with nuts. Some Arabic varieties call it harisa. North African cooks also make harcha, a griddle cake eaten at breakfast with jam or honey, and baghrir, a pancake made with semolina or flour. In Greece, galaktoboureko starts with a semolina custard wrapped in phyllo sheets. In Cyprus, cooks may blend semolina with almond cordial for a light, water-based pudding. In Turkey, revani, şekerpare and şambali are all sweets made with semolina. Halwa, cooked with sugar, butter, milk or pine nuts, is popular as helva in Turkey, halvas in Greece and Cyprus, and halawa in Palestine. Bulgaria, Iran and Pakistan say halva, while Bangladesh says halua. In India the sweets include halwa, rava kesari and seviyan kheer. Nepal's suji makes haluwa and puwa. Myanmar's shwegyi goes into a popular dessert called sanwin makin. In Sri Lanka, rulan becomes a creamy porridge and a confection called rulan aluwa.

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• 8. Dust and Crust

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  Bakers who run short of corn meal can reach for semolina instead, dusting it over the baking surface so dough does not stick. Semolina has a second talent in bread and pizza making. Its high gluten content adds firmness and chewiness to the crust. From that dusting on a baking surface to a bowl of klappgröt in summer, the same coarse meal keeps finding new work.

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