Caucasus x Appalachia | GRAPES pt. 2

Fun topics below: grape desserts, a Southern take on Georgian churchkhela

|| Wander here for part 1 ||

In part 1 of this feature on grapes, I highlighted the significance of the Caucasus as the pioneering region of grape domestication and winemaking. I compared and contrasted Georgian and North American grape species. And I looked at how these 2 separated regions of the world serve as foundational players in the history and industry of winemaking. Georgians’ deep attachment to grapes extends beyond wine, however. Wine is probably the top utilization of grapes - and why I needed to give it so much attention in part 1 - but Georgians use grapes in many parts of their diet. So now let’s look at grapes as food…

GRAPES IN AMERICAN DIET

I swing back to the American perspective and try to parse out how much a grape impacts our daily food habits. (We won’t include muscadines in this thought experiment. I already got on my soap box in part 1 about muscadines sadly being overlooked.) When it comes to conventional table grapes in America, most people have enjoyed the experience of a fresh grape on its own. I would guess that grapes as a raw, singular snack is the most common way Americans eat grapes. But is eating a raw, ripe fruit culturally defining? I suppose we use grapes in a few savory ways. We toss them in garden salads, add them to chicken salad for a bit of sweetness, and plunk them on charcuterie boards (technically French origin) to add a pop of color and fruitiness. We don’t really cook grapes. Grape jelly might be the exception, as it is cooked and sweetened. Then there is the raisin, which is the form of grape that finds itself mostly in trail mixes and cookies. There’s also grape flavoring, which is quite common in American candies, sodas, and medicines. This flavoring is artificial but meant to mimic the Concord grape. 

Ultimately, I don’t see the grape as an important element of American cuisine when compared to grapes in Georgian cuisine. It probably has to do with accessibility and cost. Fresh grapes have never been a cheap fruit here in the states. Perhaps culinary ingenuity surrounding grapes blossomed in Georgia because they have an abundance of them. From the market to the home garden, grapes are always on hand. Look at how the apple has taken on many forms in American cuisine precisely because the average family grew apples and had an excess of them (and only because European settlers brought their apple varieties with them, and they happened to flourish). I marvel at the number of apple recipes in old cookbooks. If more tinkering had been done with our lovely palette of wild American grape species, would grapes have become the iconic fruit of North America?

GRAPES IN GEORGIAN DIET

Before the spread of sugar cane, many humans supplied their sweet tooth with honey, tree syrups, and reduced fruit. Grape cultivation began so early in the history of the Caucasus that it’s no wonder they took advantage of the grape’s natural sugar content. The customary Georgian desserts I’m about to describe are sweet in the whole food-y, balanced kind of way.  

First, there’s churchkhela. Churchkhela is a chain of threaded nuts that has been dipped in a heated mixture of flour and grape juice and then cured in the sun. It looks like a waxy, gloopy taper candle. When I saw them in mass, hanging in the markets with all their different colors, my first thought didn’t go to food. They looked too pretty and their form too distinct to be food. Once they were described to me as the Georgian Snickers bar, I began to understand their practicality as much as their beauty. Churchkhelas are historically important to Georgian mountain life where easy-to-carry calories are a necessity. Think about nomadic shepherds and farmers who toil in the fields all day. Churchkhelas provide lots of energy through protein and sugar and are preserved in a way that makes them suitable for travel and for preventing spoilage. Perhaps a Snickers bar isn’t the right analogy - granola bar probably makes more sense - but you get the idea. 

An important element of churchkhela is the badagi, which is freshly pressed grape juice that has been boiled down into a concentrate. Badagi is popularly made with white grapes. The concentrate aims for a fructose content of 60%. Badagi is also drunk as a sweet drink or used in other recipes. For churchkhela, badagi is mixed in a bowl with wheat flour and sugar and cooked until thick. This mixture is called tatara. For authentic churchkhela, tatara is left with its natural coloring. In the markets I saw some vividly colored churchkhelas, so I assume that people will add artificial coloring to the tatara.

Stringed nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, and sometimes dried fruit) are dipped in the tatara one or more times, with 3-4 day drying intervals between the dips. They are usually hung outside in the sun to dry. There’s an additional option of wrapping the freshly made churchkhelas in towels and maturing them in a box for 2-3 months. A coating of powdery sugar crystals develops with this extended curing.

Every time I think about churchkhela, I picture smiling Georgian women sitting outside together stringing nuts and kids dipping a finger in the tatara. I never actually got the chance to make churchkhela while I was in Georgia, despite learning how to make many other village dishes. However, one of my hosts kindly shared her process with me, and I wrote it all down in my field journal. Cross-referencing it to other recipes online, I found the process to be pretty straight-forward. The actual making of it is a different story. It’s certainly the kind of finessed undertaking that an experienced grandmother makes look easy breezy. 

One of the highlights of this Caucasus vs. Appalachia self study has been to marry the two regions through my own version of churchkhela. This is the part of cross-cultural exchange that tickles my brain - and my taste buds! I substituted the 2 main ingredients with their American South equivalents - muscadines in place of Georgian grapes and pecans in place of walnuts/hazelnuts. So, not technically “Appalachian” but the broader “American South” as the pecan grows in the flat, coastal plain regions beyond the Appalachians. Black walnuts would have been a better fit conceptually, but they come out in smaller pieces not easy to string. Regardless, I doubt anyone has ever made muscadine and pecan churchkhelas. And they taste delicious!! You can find the recipe here. Don’t be discouraged if it takes some practice to master. My first attempt was disastrous!

Another Georgian treat that uses grapes is pelamushi. It is essentially the tatara I described above. Concentrated grape juice (badagi) is mixed with flour and sugar then cooked into a thick, viscous pudding. A key difference is that pelamushi often uses corn flour in addition to wheat flour. It’s also commonly made with red grapes instead of white, producing a gorgeous deep purple pudding. I’d say it’s more thick and sticky than pudding, though. Grape flavored lava might be more accurate! It sets up so well that it’s often plated upside down out of decorative molds and bowls. Pelamushi is as traditional as traditional can get.

Grapes make their way in savory Georgian dishes as well. One of my Georgian friends told me that sour green grapes sometimes accompany chicken dishes (hey, that sounds like a callback to American chicken salad!). Green sour plums, another key ingredient in Georgian cuisine, are sometimes substituted with tangy green grapes if plums aren’t available. In eastern regions, pork neck is cooked over embers of grapevines. I’m sure there are plenty of other savory uses for grapes in Georgia that I was not made aware of during my visit. At the end of the day, I simply marvel at Georgians’ ability to use every part of the grape plant and for practically every category of food and drink. From the first toast of wine to the last bite of sticky pelamushi, grapes are a key player at the Georgian table. Imagine a diet that connects you to the land and generations of ancestors in this way. I can only hope for a fraction of that grape love to one day apply to my beloved muscadines. 

 

|| Wander here for more Caucasus x Appalachia series information ||

 

SOURCES & FURTHER READING:

https://georgianrecipes.net/2014/01/10/how-to-make-churchkhela/  

https://georgianrecipes.net/2013/11/04/dark-grape-pelamushi-with-corn-flour/