On Food and Cooking

notes (due respectively to pyrazines,
salicylaldehyde, aldehydes, and pyridines).
Buckwheat flour contains a small amount
of mucilage, a complex carbohydrate a bit like
amylopectin — it’s made up of about 1,500
sugar molecules bonded together into a
branched structure. Though a minor
component in the flour, the mucilage absorbs
water and may provide some of the stickiness
that barely holds an all-buckwheat noodle
together (p. 577).
Buckwheat is a staple food in parts of
China, Korea, and Nepal. In the Himalayan
region, buckwheat is used to make chillare, a
flatbread, as well as fritter-like pakoras and
sweets. In northern Italy, it’s mixed with
wheat to make flat noodles called pizzoccheri,
and mixed with corn meal in polenta. In
Russia it’s used to make the small pancakes
called blini; and whole groats are toasted to
make the nutty-tasting porridge kasha. In
Brittany it produces distinctive crêpes. The