In some varieties of Eastern European cuisine, kasha can apply to any kind of cooked grain.

It can be baked but most often is boiled, either in water or milk, but the word can also refer to the grain before preparation, which corresponds to the definition of 'groats'.

The English-language usage of kasha, which refers primarily to buckwheat, probably originated with Jewish immigrants, as did the form קאַשי kashi (literally translated as "porridges").

[citation needed] In Polish, cooked buckwheat groats are referred to as kasza gryczana.

[7] In Russian, buckwheat is referred to formally as гречиха (grechi(k)ha), or colloquially as гречка (grechka), which gave rise to the Yiddish words gretshkes/greytshkelach and retshkes/reytshkelach.