FOOD: COUSCOUS

A staple food of North Africa.

Couscous is the husked and crushed, but unground, semolina of hard wheat (Triticum durum), although the preparation of the same name can be made with barley, millet, sorghum, or corn. Semolina is the hard part of the grain of hard-wheat, which resists the grinding of the millstone. The word "couscous" derives from the Arabic word kaskasa, to pound small, but the word is also thought to derive from the Arabic name for the perforated earthenware steamer pot used in steaming the couscous, called a keskes in Arabic (couscousière in French). Another theory is based on onomatopoeia—from the sound of the steam rising in the couscousière. In any case, the Arabic word derives from a non-Arabic, probably Berber, word. Couscous is also the general name for all prepared dishes made from hard-wheat
or other cereals. In fact, it would not be incorrect to call couscous a kind of pasta.

Couscous is a staple food in the Maghrib (North Africa). Hard-wheat couscous was probably invented by Arabs or Berbers in the twelfth century based on techniques possibly learned from Saharan Africans. This is suggested by Ibn Battuta's description of a millet couscous he ate in Mali in 1352. One of the first written references to couscous is in an anonymous thirteenth-century Hispano-Muslim cookery book, Kitab al-Tabikh fi al-Maghrib wa al-Andalus.

The Berbers call this food sekrou (or seksou), while it is known as maftul or mughrabiyya in the countries of the eastern Mediterranean and suksukaniyya in the Sudan. In Algeria it is called tha'am or kesksou. In Tunisia it is called keskesi. Very large couscous grains are called m'hammas, and very fine grains, usually used for sweet couscous dishes, are called mesfouf.

Couscous is processed from a fine and coarse grade of semolina. The fine grain affixes to the coarse grain by sprinkling water and salt by hand (although mechanization is used for mass production). The grains are rolled and rubbed with the palms and fingers until the desired size is formed. The couscous may be dried and stored, or it may be steamed over water or broth in a couscousière. Couscous is served in a pile on a large platter with meat, chicken, or fish and vegetables and spices. It is also served in bowls as a loose stew with similar ingredients included.

Clifford A. Wright