I was surprised when I found out
a relative of mine living on Long Island used to have her parents send bits of GRÍZ
in every letter which she painstakingly collected. She wasn’t alone
though; apparently there are Hungarian immigrants who settled down to the fact
that GRÍZ was an unobtainable commodity in North America .
I messaged her to ask her Italian mother in-law for semolina. Italians use them
in desserts and to make pasta. In the West semolina and farina are porridge
foods. In Hungarian cuisine GRÍZ or as sometimes called Búzadara is a staple item with a wide range
of applications. I use semolina and farina interchangeably as they are all good
replacements for GRÍZ.
There are differences of course,
both in texture and in colour. Some are fine and some are coarsely ground. Some
are yellow and some are almost white. Some may contain a bit of bran and germ.
Some are finely sifted and are uniform. But they all work as far as I am
concerned.
Both semolina and farina come
from the endosperm of the wheat kernel.
- Semolina is made from durum wheat.
- Farina is made from hard wheat.
Cream of Wheat is a brand name
for farina and is a registered trademark. So wheatlets and Cream of Wheat are both Farina.
Whatever you use, beware of
instant products. These generally won’t taste all that good, contain a lot of
chemicals, besides they were designed for a specific purpose and most likely
won’t work in your recipe. Which is a problem; because different stores carry
different brands plus they keep changing them. So weather you get semolina,
farina, wheatlets or a box of Cream of Wheat, look for the least processed version.
When all else fails, look for semolina or farina in a Health Food Store. They
will be unprocessed and either packaged or in bulk bins. But they all will work in Tejbegríz, Gríznokedli
and Túrógombóc.
Different versions of semolina and farina
