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The Making of Mămăligă: Transimperial Recipes for a Romanian National Dish

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Mămăligă, maize porridge or polenta, is a universally consumed dish in Romania and a prominent national symbol. But its unusual history has rarely been told. Alex Drace-Francis surveys the arrival and spread of maize cultivation in Romanian lands from Ottoman times to the eve of the First World War, and also the image of mămăligă in art and popular culture. Drawing on a rich array of sources and with many new findings, Drace-Francis shows how the making of mămăligă has been shaped by global economic forces and overlapping imperial systems of war and trade.  The story of maize and mămăligă provides an accessible way to revisit many key questions of Romanian and broader regional history. More generally, the book links the history of production, consumption, and representation. Analyses of recipes, literary and popular depictions, and key vocabulary complete the work.

“Erudite, convincing and thought-provoking, this book places the Romanian relationship with corn at the centre of the historical agenda as well as the table.”
Professor Cathie Carmichael, University of East Anglia, UK

“Alex Drace-Francis’s book is more than just a history of maize and mămăligă in the Romanian lands. Starting from the question of images, the author finds it not just in merchant caravans and peasant cauldrons, but also in the minds of people, in representations central to the national history. Maize and mămăligă are ideal entry points into Romanian cultural issues, but also into ones of social change and revolution. A remarkable, important book.”
Professor Constantin Bărbulescu, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

“A painstaking enterprise presented in a concise format, which should delight the general reader, not just those interested in gastronomy, history or anthropology … We are grateful to the author both for the idea and the execution”
Cosmin Dragomir, in Journal of Urban Anthropology (2022)

“Not only a masterfully written account of Romanian modernity seen from a ‘mămăligocentric’ perspective, but also a thorough analysis of the interrelations between gastronomy, politics, economics, national identities, and social perceptions.”
Constantin Ardeleanu, in Journal of Romanian Studies (2023)

"a richly textured and fresh approach to the history of eighteenth–nineteenth century Romania through the lens of maize and the Romanian “national” dish mămăligă (boiled cornmeal). Much more than a food history, The Making of Mămăligă is a holistic commodity history that reveals the overlapping “imperial tectonics” of the three empires that dominated east central Europe—the Russian, Ottoman, Habsburg—with Romania uniquely situated at the confluence of all three."
Professor Mary C Neuburger, in Slavic Review (2023)

“The extent of the research is fantastic. Drace-Francis covered so many different aspects, from old recipes, to the 1848 Irish famine and their refusal to eat corn (so they don’t turn out black), to the Crimean War, and to different revolts. The links between corn and the Ottoman and Russian occupation are covered too. It’s a short book, but filled with interesting facts and presented in an easy to follow and nice narrative.”
Coffee and Books blog (2023)

"The Making of Mămăligă explores the ubiquitous presence of the dish as a national phenomenon as well as its polysemy as a cultural identifier. With its ample textual evidence, numerous historical references, and intimate details it is a delightful read and will certainly be of interest to both the Romanian public and non-Romanian readers."
Hristo Boev, in VTU Review (2023)

“In a pithy and highly entertaining history of the crop, Drace-Francis covers, often in surprising detail, known historical moments and periods in a new light. The Making of Mămăligă makes an excellent case for food and agricultural history mixed in with some rich cultural history. For those readers who ‘don’t yet know how to eat mămăligă’, this book is an essential starting point.”
James Koranyi, in Agricultural History (2024)

"Gathering the documentary traces sown by maize in the course of its journeys and reconstructing the fruits of its history requires erudition and multiple skills – linguistic, disciplinary and methodological: Alex Drace-Francis’s book is enriched by both […]. Reading this volume invites us not so much to correct the record as to explore dramatically understudied areas, and to connect and compare, beyond areal boundaries, traditionally distinct objects of study, particularly in the history of agriculture. And that is no small feat.”
Andrea Umberto Gritti, in Balkanologie (2024)

225 pages, Hardcover

Published September 15, 2022

11 people are currently reading
180 people want to read

About the author

Alex Drace-Francis

10 books2 followers
Alex Drace-Francis is Associate Professor of Modern European Cultural History at the University of Amsterdam.

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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
Profile Image for Dorin.
325 reviews104 followers
June 18, 2023
Cartea asta cred că m-a atras prin fotografia de pe copertă. Mi-a amintit de (mă)măliga pe care o făcea bunica. Nici interesul pentru subiect nu e inexplicabil, mămăliga este totuși parte din bucătăria noastră tradițională, este mereu pe lista scurtă atunci când românii vorbesc străinilor despre mâncare. Cât de mămăligari (în toate sensurile cuvântului) suntem nu prea știu. Cât de mult a transformat porumbul viața în țările române tot nu știu. Am încercat să aflu citind.

Alex Drace-Francis vine cu o cercetare despre mămăligă (mai degrabă despre porumb). Nu sunt foarte multe pagini, dar par să fie foarte bine cercetate, cu o sumedenie de referințe și o bibliografie de sute de titluri. Din păcate, în ciuda bibliografiei stufoase, despre sosirea porumbului în zona noastră nu se știu prea multe. În sursele istorice se întâlnesc termeni care ar putea desemna porumbul, dar, la fel de bine, ar putea desemna alte culturi. Cert este că la începutul secolului al XVIII-lea porumbul exista deja în spațiile populate de români. Treptat, cultura a crescut și dintr-o plantă marginală a devenit una foarte importantă. În secolul al XIX-lea era un produs important de export și un mai important produs pentru populația locală. Nu era totuși văzut cu ochii cei mai buni. A fost asociat mereu cu țăranii și cu sărăcia, chiar dacă, ocazional, există mențiuni apreciative despre mămăligă pe mesele boierilor sau ale vizitatorilor străini.

Autorul urmărește istoria porumbului timp de vreo 200 de ani (aproximativ 1700-1900) și felul în care mămăliga a intrat în imaginarul colectiv, cu trimiteri la opere literare și folclor.

A fost o lectură ușoară și plăcută, dar nu pot spune că a lămurit până la capăt ceva. Pentru că lipsesc sursele, mai totul se bazează pe legături logice, bănuieli, educated guesses și tot așa. Toate astea sunt bune, pentru că istoria de multe ori umple goluri prin conexiuni și paralele, doar că nu m-au mulțumit și lămurit până la capăt. Partea care urmărește drumul porumbului a fost interesantă, însă partea a doua, despre importanța mămăligii mi s-a părut mai grăbită – cred că necesită o abordare multidisciplinară mai serioasă.

3,75/5
Profile Image for Jovi Ene.
Author 2 books291 followers
July 13, 2023
„Mâncarea mamei miroase la fel peste tot în lume, dar în străinătate miroase altfel din cauza dorului.” (Aglaja Veteranyi)
De fapt, volumul nu este așa de mult despre mămăligă, ci mai mult despre porumb: o istorie a felului în care porumbul a devenit una dintre cerealele predominante în Țările Române (volumul se oprește undeva la începutul sec. 20), cum a pătruns el în aceste teritorii, cum a fost documentat și ce transformări a produs în viața comunităților. Porumbul a devenit repede o cereală a păturii sărace a populației, pentru că a fost impozitat foarte târziu (spre deosebire de grâu, de exemplu), și apoi și mâncarea care a stigmatizat populația română (care nu a mai scoasă din „mămăligari”) de către străini, dar și pe cea romă de către români.
Un volum interesant, istoric, foarte bine documentat.
Profile Image for Petru Cioată.
47 reviews
December 17, 2023
Istoria ultimelor secole ale plaiurilor mioritice parcă se vede altfel prin introducerea acestui preparat. Un preparat nelipsit astăzi de pe masa românilor, indiferent de frecvența cu care îl consumăm, mămăliga are o istorie frumoasă și se pare că s-a învârtit în cele mai marcante evenimente istorice asemenea modului în care se învârte de fiecare dată în ceaun.
Profile Image for dragos.
17 reviews1 follower
December 2, 2022
As a Romanian, I am thrilled that someone dedicated their time to research what seems to most as just an ordinary plant/food that we take for granted here in my country. Indeed it is one of the aspects the book touches - the relation that the people of Valahia, Moldova and Transilvania have had with mamaliga, malai and porumb.
Even though such little importance is given by my countrymen to this cereal, considered to be a poor man’s food, the author makes a great case of explaining how it actually had tremendous implications in the history of the country.
The book covers how the plant reached the lands of present day Romania, how it might have gotten its name and why it had such an undervalued status for so long.
On a more geopolitical level, it also touches on how corn cultivation influenced wars, economy and Romanian statehood.
Very well documented book and a deep understanding of local vocabulary, customs and subtle influences that appear in a buffer regions between three empires.
Profile Image for Gabriela Laslau.
10 reviews2 followers
July 3, 2024
Because Romania came into existence as a country in the 19th century-regions of it always being part of one empire or another (Ottoman, Habsburg or Russian)-its history has been seen as ‘interstitial’, difficult to study or uninteresting. However, the history of one dish, mămăliga, can shed a new light on aspects that may have seemed obscure otherwise.
No other food has played a more significant role than mămăliga throughout the Romanian history. Alex Drace- Francis, the author of “The Making of Mămăligă. Transimperial Recipes for a Romanian National Dish” calls it“a cultural signifier, fitting into the category of ‘untranslatables’, indicating “ ethnic identity, social status and mores”.
It is cooked in the same way all over the world, by mixing maize flour into boiled water in a cauldron and stirring thoroughly, but known under different names: mămăligă in Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine and Poland, polenta in Italy, or gomi in Georgia.
But the question is: how did maize arrive (from probably Mexico) in Romania and when?
What we know is that in 1493, Christopher Columbus introduced maize kernels to Europe. They were sent to the Vatican and then spread all over Europe, by either water (ships connecting the Mediterranean and the Black Sea) or land. This is how maize reached the Ottoman Empire, despite the Christian-Ottoman conflict. Maybe this explains some Europeans’ reluctance to adopt maize, seen as an ‘exotic’ plant because of its Turkish label. Maize is mentioned for the first time in the first half of the 17th century under the name of ‘Turkish wheat’. It is grown by some Hungarian nobles for swine feeding, then for feeding the troops in wars, spreading to Wallachia and Moldavia afterwards. It was an ‘escape crop’ allowing peasants and their farm animals to survive in times of famine.
When it began to be grown extensively, boyars realized that it could be an excellent source of cereal-based spirits, which determined Sultan Abdul Hamid I to issue a decree banning the production and consumption of spirits in Moldavia because of the damage such drinks do to the ‘spirit of wisdom’ and because maize (therefore, mămăligă) was an essential ingredient of the daily nutrition of the inhabitants. Historians say that because mămăliga was the staple diet of the poor people, it may have played a significant role in the population growth, due to the independence (from other food products) and autonomy it offered. Actually, because it was ”as common as air”, according to travellers and observers in the 19th century, it explains how the Romanians managed to survive under Austrian, Ottoman and Russian rule.
One of he most spectacular stories related to mămăligă is the one around vampirism, reported by the medical specialists hired by Empress Maria Theresa, trying to find explanations for such strange and sudden incidences in Banat andWallachia. One of the doctors put the blame on mămăligă!
 
As time passed, mămăliga grew in popularity. It was eaten not only by peasants, but also by boyars, bishops and princes, served with cheese and many other dishes. It is part of early and modern Romanian cookbooks and adopted by other cuisines (the French one) and is contained in hundreds of idiomatic expressions in the Romanian language, one of the most famous ones being „a explodat mămăliga, which can be translated by ” mămăliga exploded”, referring to the apparent lack of vitality of the Romanian people who, once in a while, react to social or political events in a violent way.
Alex Drace-Francis, the Dutch historian who has been inhabiting the Romanian culture for over thirty years, offers us an extremely precious and humorous insight into our own life and history at the very core of which lies the mămăliga itself.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Rupert Wolfe-Murray.
Author 3 books10 followers
October 22, 2022
A wonderful book full of wit and wisdom. A fascinating enquiry into how maize got to Romania (nobody knows) and why it continues to be looked down on as the food of the poor. This was the food that helped Romanian survive 500 years of invasions and empires. The author breezes through the many languages, sources, and empires of the region as if cutting through cheese to eat with his mamaliga. A delicious feast. Essential for anyone interested in Romanian history and culture.
Profile Image for Fekete Macska.
148 reviews8 followers
October 19, 2023
O lectura plăcută și interesantă, dar după titlul mă așteptam și la o istorie globala a mămăligii, adică cum se situează mămăligă într-un context mondial, în comparație cu alte culturi în care se face sub o alta denumire. Cartea e mai mult despre porumb decât despre mămăligă.
Uneori cartea mi s-a părut și un mic catalog a evenimentelor/citaților, și nu ma așteptăm să nu vorbească de secolul al XX-ea. Dar în rest, chiar o lectura plăcută.
Profile Image for A. Jambo.
21 reviews3 followers
August 24, 2025
Un material stiintific excelent documentat si realizat, a carui lectura e la fel de captivanta ca o poveste cu haiduci din sec. XIX.
Daca Academia Romana nu ar fi infestata cu nationalisti fanatici, Drace-Francis ar merita sa devina membru al al Academiei Romane pentru aceasta lucrare.
Profile Image for Ciprian Bujor.
Author 7 books27 followers
September 11, 2023
O lucrare bine documentată și structurată, care, plecând de la istoria adopției păpușoiului în regiunile locuite de români, prezintă impactul cultural, social și economic al cultivării acestei plante. Am aflat multe informații noi, inclusiv rețete (unele m-au dus cu gândul la vremurile petrecute alături de bunici), dar mai ales mi-a completat imaginea despre modul în care arealul de astăzi al României a devenit important pe harta economica globală și am înțeles mai bine implicațiile geostrategice ale agriculturii.
Acest studiu ar trebui continuat, nefiind nici pe departe suficient. Mă bucur însă de bibliografia foarte bogată oferită și de sugestiile de lectură suplimentară din text.
Profile Image for Mircea.
Author 2 books21 followers
August 29, 2024
Titlul este obraznic deoarece este o istorie a porumbului în principatele române sau, mai bine zis, o istorie economică a porumbului.

Desigur, oferă mult mai mult context pentru un amator al istoriei decât pentru cineva care este interesat de mămăligă propriu zis.

Autorul a avut grijă să ne lase și câteva rețete de mămăligă la final, dar vă asigur că nu acelea sunt cele mai importance, ci modul în care a devenit porumbul cereala preferată (dar mai ales, netaxabilă inițial) a maselor de prin aprox. 1700 până în perioada comuniștilor.
3 reviews
December 13, 2023
Nu e vorba chiar despre istora mamaligii in carte. Volumul se axeaza mai mult pe istoria porumbului pe teritoriul Principatelor si in același timp incearca si reușește sa cotrobăie in izvoarele istorice cuvintele cheie " mamaliga", "porumb", "malai" si altele. Cert e ca romanii au cultivat porumb si au mancat mamaliga din cele mai vechi timpuri imperialiste.
Profile Image for Adanic.
17 reviews
December 18, 2023
Mămăliga is a true embodiment of Romanian cuisine's soul. Reading this book you will embark on a culinary journey and discover the magic of mămăliga, a dish that will forever warm your heart and palate.
Profile Image for Adrian Cristian.
85 reviews3 followers
October 8, 2024
O felie de istorie savuroasă.
Cuprinde multe date interesante desi nu este supraîncărcat. Usor de citit dar cuprinzător și scris cu umor.
Profile Image for alex ✨.
95 reviews17 followers
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December 12, 2023
I think this was a rather interesting insight into mămăligă and how it ties into the national identity of Romanians. I rather liked it and thought it was well-researched, and very much structured in the format of a thesis. When speaking about peasant food, there is a lot of combining dense history and class analysis, both of which are present here. My only question is that there is a rather missed opportunity to discuss communism as this ends right at the interbellum period between the two world wars. I recommend it to anyone who finds the idea interesting, but it is a drier and denser read by nature.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews

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