Another thread has inspired me to ask a question I’ve been wondering a long time.
What is the point of poppy-seed cake/buns/rolls? Is the whole point actually that people like the mood lift it gives them (like poppy seed tea), or is there some other reason for using masses of poppy seeds when cooking?
Taste, smell and texture.
The actual amount of opiates is miniscule.
Personally, I like the flavor, the same way I like the flavor of vanilla and orange peel and any number of other baking add-ins. Why should it be any more complicated than that?
Poppyseed is the best hamantaschen filling.
Toasted/roasted poppyseed, ground, and incorporated into a pastry of some sort provide a nutty flavor and mouthfeel not available any other way.
QED & Mmm mmm mmm…
Yes, all Hungarians/a gazillion Ashkenazi Jews have been surreptitiously getting high on chili con carne and pizza.
Indeed. I imagine they invented Purim simply to make poppy seed hamantaschen.
Who needs an excuse =) We keep cans of the premade filling around - you can thin it out and use it as pancake syrup =) Try it on ice cream … yum. Spread it on toast =)
Does the OP perceive eating poppy seeds gives a mood lift, or is this pure conjecture on their part? I have never noticed such a thing and always assumed as others have posted that the amount of opiates were negligible to non existent.
Enough to fail a drug test, not enough to make it worthwhile.
Many years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, there was a bakery on Haight Street that made poppyseed hamentaschen. (I think the bakery was called “Beau Seventh Heaven.”)
They weren’t individual folded treats, but rather made in a sheet pan with the pastry in a layer on the top and bottom and** about an inch and a half of poppyseed filling in between.** They cut it into large squares.
I had never seen such a thing before, nor had I ever had proper coffee. (my mom always used instant.) Oh, the ecstasy!
You have to consume a LOT of poppy seed baked goods to fail a drug test, or be taking a drug test that does not conform to current standards. (The feds raised the standard cut-off level for a positive result to 2000 ng/mL precisely because older drug tests, often using a cut-off in the 100-300 ng/mL range, would return positives for consuming poppy seed bagels.)
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Moving thread from General Questions to Cafe Society.
The real purpose of poppy seeds is to be made into mohenzucker and sprinkled on the top of a germknodel mit vanillasauce.
Ohhhhhh…yeaahhhh!
Poppy seed cake is delicious!
Also the best for strucla. God, I miss my grandmother’s strucla.
This is the one and only purpose of poppyseeds.
…and makovnjača. Ah, grandmothers.
This is not true. As Mythbusters proved. One poppy seed bagel was enough for Jaime to fail the drug test. One! Adam ate a poppy seed cake and failed the drug test 24 hours later. The drug testing companies say that they can weed out the poppy seed eaters but it just isn’t true.
I’ll add the Polish makowiec and Hungarian mákós beigli to the mix. Oh, and Slovenian potica, too.
Well, if you look at the picture of the poppy seed rolls linked to above, I think it qualifies for “lot of poppy seed.” We’re not talking a sprinkle on a bun or bagel levels, but rather more like tablespoons or more of the stuff.
And, no, they don’t get you high or euphoric or anything like that. They just taste great, and have a nice texture.
So that you can avoid that trip to Africa to see the Bushmen