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What is sago?

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Evelyn S. Hlabse

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Dec 16, 1992, 11:34:27 AM12/16/92
to

This may not be the appropriate place to post this but I don't
think the foods net will help.

I have a cookbook called "Recipes from the Orkney Islands" published
in 1978. One of the recipes for a tomato soup calls for something
called sago. I've never heard of it. Can someone help?

Thank you and Happy Christmas.

Evelyn
--

Rod Williams

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Dec 16, 1992, 1:22:05 PM12/16/92
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> es...@po.CWRU.Edu (Evelyn S. Hlabse) writes:
>
>I have a cookbook called "Recipes from the Orkney Islands" published
>in 1978. One of the recipes for a tomato soup calls for something
>called sago. I've never heard of it. Can someone help?

Though my dictionary says otherwise, I've always heard
it's the same thing as semolina...
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
rod williams -=- pacific bell -=- san ramon, ca -=- rjw...@pacbell.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Graham Walker, 227 West Old Main,268-3847,

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Dec 16, 1992, 2:53:39 PM12/16/92
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From article <1992Dec16....@PacBell.COM>, by rjw...@PacBell.COM (Rod Williams):

Sago is the suff with the "balls" in it, while semolina is much
smoother.

GW

Sid Wade

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Dec 16, 1992, 2:33:17 PM12/16/92
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Rod Williams

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Dec 16, 1992, 4:15:42 PM12/16/92
to
> wal...@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Graham Walker) writes:

>> rjw...@PacBell.COM (Rod Williams) writes:
>>> es...@po.CWRU.Edu (Evelyn S. Hlabse) writes:

>>>I have a cookbook called "Recipes from the Orkney Islands" published
>>>in 1978. One of the recipes for a tomato soup calls for something
>>>called sago. I've never heard of it. Can someone help?
>>
>> Though my dictionary says otherwise, I've always heard
>> it's the same thing as semolina...
>

>Sago is the suff with the "balls" in it, while semolina is much
>smoother.

Tapioca is the stuff with the balls in it. Sago is smooth,
just like semolina!

Graham Walker, 227 West Old Main,268-3847,

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Dec 16, 1992, 6:00:10 PM12/16/92
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From article <1992Dec16.2...@PacBell.COM>, by rjw...@PacBell.COM (Rod Williams):

Your right, its been a long time since I had either.

GW

C R Pennell

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Dec 16, 1992, 6:39:07 PM12/16/92
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The following proposals have been made as to the nature of sago
It's got so confused I can't work out who said what so all that stuff has
been eliminated.

Theory 1 (wrong)
: >> Though my dictionary says otherwise, I've always heard


: >> it's the same thing as semolina...

: >

Theory 2 (might be right, can't tell from the description)
: >Sago is the suff with the "balls" in it, while semolina is much
: >smoother.
:

Theory 3 (balls, to coin a phrase)
: Tapioca is the stuff with the balls in it. Sago is smooth,
: just like semolina!

Dictionary definition (Collins)
SAGO a starchy cereal obtained from the powdered pith of a palm (sago palm)
used for puddings and as a thickening agent. [C16 from Malay: sagu]

TAPIOCA a beadlike starch obtained from the cassava root, used in cooking
as a thickening agent, esp in puddings [C18 via Port. form Tupi tipioca,
pressed out juice. Tupi is a S.Am language]

SEMOLINA The large hard grains of wheat left after the flou has been
bolted, used for puddings, soups etc. [C18 from It semolino, dim of semola
bran. . .]

IE one is S.E. ASian, one is S. American, one is European. ALl used as
thickening agents. Semolina IS smooth. It would be much easier to confuse
sago and tapioca - both of which we used to call "frog's spawn" at school
- and hated 'cos of the way it was cooked. Now down here, in the Malay
world. . . ah it's different. Sago is made into a thick pudding, covered
with coconut milk (not the feeble water stuff, but the juice pressed out
of the white meat of the coconut) and liquid brown sugar. Delicious, but
it makes you fat and gives you heart attacks (coconut milk is
unbelievably high in chloresterol)
Intersting they'd be using SAGO in the Orkneys [BTW there's an
almost hagiographic article about Orcadian booze in this Saturday's
weekend section of the FT - but more scathing about the food]
Have you tried rec.food.historic?

Richard Pennell, History NUS

David Morning

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Dec 17, 1992, 6:26:55 AM12/17/92
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wal...@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Graham Walker, 227 West Old Main,268-3847,) writes:

>>>Sago is the suff with the "balls" in it, while semolina is much
>>>smoother.

>> Tapioca is the stuff with the balls in it. Sago is smooth,
>> just like semolina!

Ahhh!!...School dinners of a bygone era.
Sago, semolina, tapioca, runny custard and cake with pink icing, mince and
potatoes with soggy cabbage, stovies, turnip with stringey bits, strange
unidentifiable soup...

Drool, drool...

Dave

--

Message has been deleted

R. Sharma

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Dec 17, 1992, 7:14:09 PM12/17/92
to


Sago and samolina are not the same thing. Sago looks like white granules
and when you cook them they swell whereas samolina is like flour and it
cooks differently.

Rosa Michaelson

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Dec 18, 1992, 7:30:40 AM12/18/92
to
Sago - vulgur form "frogs' spawn" - is one of those nice glutinous
round pellets which comes as a dried little nodule and cooks into
stuff that, well, looks like frogs' spawn. Delicious!
I think it is processed from the centre of a tropical fruit like the
manioc - perhaps one of those delightfull south-american foods that
must have the poison beaten and washed out before edible. Who on earth
first worked out that food like that was safe to eat? Sago is larger than
tapioca (which is also cooked as a pudding in Orkney/ Shetland/ Scotland)
which in turn is larger than semolina (or cream of wheat, I think).
All come from the medeaival traditions of the british gloop - or porridge
or soppans - and are nowadays regarded as quaint, 'nursery' foods. The
victorians dressed up the various grain-like dishes with oddles of
eggs and cream and vanilla and sugar, often producing cold 'shapes'
with them. (See also blamange...or cornflower desserts). A good source
of info on sago and the above would be Fanny Farmer's Boston Cookbook,
Raey Tannahill's "Food through History", early editions of Mrs Beaton,
Adel wotshername's "Lets eat well to get well" series.
The earlier dishes consisted of grains that swelled on cooking and were
eaten at all times of the day, often laced with honey, milk, dried
fruit - and strangley - dried pulses. These dishes also feature in
countries that have mongolian peoples - from Turkey across to India -
which implies some type of common economic lifestyle rather than racial
transmissions.
Interestingly enough both Shetland and Orkney retain foods and eating
habbits that have disappeared in the rest of britain - for example they
tend to have HUGE lunches called dinners, and little 'teas' followed by
a bite to eat at the real supper time of 10:00pm consisting of big
water biscuits and local cheese and baking - yum, yum. Also they still
dry fish and mutton for keeping and do things to fish no mainlander
can face with equinimity - see Alan Davidson on North Atlantic fish
cooking, Penguin books.

Ray Dunn

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Dec 17, 1992, 8:49:25 PM12/17/92
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In refd article, his...@nuscc.nus.sg (C R Pennell) writes:
>Delicious, but
>it makes you fat and gives you heart attacks (coconut milk is
>unbelievably high in chloresterol)

Eh, no. Cholesterol is not found in vegetable products. Coconut oil,
being one of the so called "tropical oils" is very high in _saturated fats_.

But yes, certainly bad for your cholesterol level.
--
Ray Dunn at home | Beaconsfield, Quebec | Phone: (514) 630 3749
r...@philmtl.philips.ca | r...@cam.org | uunet!sobeco!philmtl!ray

M. S. Zakaria

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Dec 21, 1992, 11:43:34 AM12/21/92
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wal...@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Graham Walker, 227 West Old Main,268-3847,) writes:

> GW
Sago is from Sago tree (it's like a palm tree). It's one of the export
product of Malaysia's state of Sarawak.

I'll be happy to provide a sample if anybody interested.

mck...@ul.ie

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Dec 21, 1992, 5:13:33 AM12/21/92
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In article <1992Dec16.1...@news.clarkson.edu>, wal...@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Graham Walker, 227 West Old Main,268-3847,) writes:
> From article <1992Dec16....@PacBell.COM>, by rjw...@PacBell.COM (Rod Williams):
>>> es...@po.CWRU.Edu (Evelyn S. Hlabse) writes:
>>>
>>>I have a cookbook called "Recipes from the Orkney Islands" published
>>>in 1978. One of the recipes for a tomato soup calls for something
>>>called sago. I've never heard of it. Can someone help?
>>
>> Though my dictionary says otherwise, I've always heard
>> it's the same thing as semolina...
>> --
> Sago is the suff with the "balls" in it, while semolina is much
> smoother.
Sago is the chopped root of the cassava, pressed to extract the
poisonous juice, and dried. Exciting stuff to eat, like blowfish.
Semolina is the hard kernels of rice grains, extracted prior to
grinding the rice to pasta flour.
Both are used for thickening soups and stews in britain; I suggest
you use whatever the local thickener is, perhaps corn kernels.
--
"If England sleeps, shall Ireland dream?" : Se/an macEoin
-------------------------------------------------------------------
John McKeon, Material Science Dept. University of Limerick, Ireland

Robert Singers

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Dec 21, 1992, 12:11:14 AM12/21/92
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es...@po.CWRU.Edu (Evelyn S. Hlabse) writes:

> This may not be the appropriate place to post this but I don't
> think the foods net will help.
>
> I have a cookbook called "Recipes from the Orkney Islands" published
> in 1978. One of the recipes for a tomato soup calls for something
> called sago. I've never heard of it. Can someone help?
>

Sago is a little bit like tapioca or semolina, but it looks like frogs
eggs when you make it into a pudding (like a rice pudding). It comes
from a plant called the sago palm (which isn't really a palm).

Robert Singers | Nothing I say or do should be taken as
scim...@suction.acme.gen.nz | a reflection of any form of reality or
| consensual hallucination.

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