The dish is consumed in Sicily and in isolated pockets of southern Italy, as well as their communities abroad.

In Kansas City, Missouri, many Sicilian Americans prepare cuccìa as a hot cereal.

Most traditional preparations add sugar, butter, chocolate, and milk.

The most probable relative may be its most similar counterpart, kutia, a dish served throughout Ukraine, Russia, and Poland, and made from wheat or barley, honey and poppyseed.

As in Sicily, this dish is eaten only during the Christmas season, and its basic preparation (boiled wheat and honey instead of sugar) remains strikingly similar.