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The sticky history of baklava

smithsonianmag.com

31–40 of 63 posts

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#31

Hot take: Packaged baklava blows bakery (fresh) baklava out of the water. Age or ingredients don't matter much. Baklava needs to be made just right to work. There's no room for error. And the machines seem to have a upper hand over us on precision.

I've certainly had bakery baklava that was worse than store-bought. But there are a couple bakeries in Istanbul that make some that blow anything else I've ever tasted (baklava or otherwise) out of the water.

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#32

Hot take: Packaged baklava blows bakery (fresh) baklava out of the water. Age or ingredients don't matter much. Baklava needs to be made just right to work. There's no room for error. And the machines seem to have a upper hand over us on precision.

Hard disagree but I guess we have access to completely different packaged baklava and grannies that make this yummy stuff.

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#33
post #4

There’s a baklava place in SF called Baklava Story that is hands down the best baklava I have ever had and probably will ever will have. The owner, Tolgay, travels to Turkey each year to source pistachios and milk to make butter with from specific farms each year. With the residual milk from making clarified butter from the Turkish milk, he makes soap, and gives it to customers. Every single one of his reviews on Goo…

by the dandelion factory right? I biked passed it yesterday and saw that they just reopened.

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#34
post #22
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the parent poster meant that the specific modern countries are fairly new, and before they were all part of the same entities . Greece and Turkey were both part of the Byzantine Empire for centuries, and later part of the successor Ottoman Empire - together with Syria - again for centuries. Separate "national" identities for those areas didn't really exist until the XIX century, when Greeks started agitating…

Weird way to say it. The governments of these modern-day countries are not representative of the people of those regions. There has been a Greek culture (if not country) practically forever. Saying somehow the Greek people are a new people is just wrong. That would be like saying China was created in the 1950's. The current government maybe, but not the culture, history, cuisine, etc.

Calling anything that came from before the 19th century a result of "Greek" culture makes things a bit murky, though. If, hypothetically, baklava was developed in what is now Istanbul, is it a result of Greek, Turkish, Byzantine, Roman, Persian, or Ottoman culture? The answer is that it's a silly question.

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#35
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird way to say it. The governments of these modern-day countries are not representative of the people of those regions. There has been a Greek culture (if not country) practically forever. Saying somehow the Greek people are a new people is just wrong. That would be like saying China was created in the 1950's. The current government maybe, but not the culture, history, cuisine, etc.

Calling anything that came from before the 19th century a result of "Greek" culture makes things a bit murky, though. If, hypothetically, baklava was developed in what is now Istanbul, is it a result of Greek, Turkish, Byzantine, Roman, Persian, or Ottoman culture? The answer is that it's a silly question.

Not anything. Baklava is probably a silly question. Greek alphabet or most of Hagia Sophia, that was created by Greeks.

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#36

Hot take: Packaged baklava blows bakery (fresh) baklava out of the water. Age or ingredients don't matter much. Baklava needs to be made just right to work. There's no room for error. And the machines seem to have a upper hand over us on precision.

Hard disagree but I guess we have access to completely different packaged baklava and grannies that make this yummy stuff.

I’ve had both. The granny’s peak baklava may be better, I’ll concede.

But the median packaged baklava blows the granny’s median baklava out of the water. There’s no contest.

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#37

Hot take: Packaged baklava blows bakery (fresh) baklava out of the water. Age or ingredients don't matter much. Baklava needs to be made just right to work. There's no room for error. And the machines seem to have a upper hand over us on precision.

I've certainly had bakery baklava that was worse than store-bought. But there are a couple bakeries in Istanbul that make some that blow anything else I've ever tasted (baklava or otherwise) out of the water.

New Jersey baklava is much better than Istanbul baklava actually. Try it.

Immigrants touch I guess?

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#38
post #2

> "Baklava is made by thinning the dough to a fine micro-degree, and by putting 10 or 11 layers on top of each other by hand," says Güllü. It is not a process conducive to automation. Actually, that sounds incredibly conducive to automation... A quick search, shows people are already selling machines to do it.

I think most baklava comes from factories, and whichever ones don't taste so good, it's probably just because they didn't use the best/freshest ingredients.

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#39
post #3

Here in Greece (actually central Greece) houses traditionally make Baklava for the Christmas - new years eve period. It is considered a "holiday" treat. Most people use almonds to fill it and ready-made pie-sheets (from the supermarket, these are common in Greece because people use them to make pies). It's not difficult to make but, because it needs a lot of almonds it has very expensive, that's why it's not usual to…

> ...I find it boring If a multi-layered, crunchy, sweet dessert with filings of various nuts, and dipped in clarified butter, with a little salt to the mix is "boring", I'd love to know of a dessert that you consider 'interesting'.

Every time I have tried baklava it was so overpoweringly sweet that I could not manage to finish even a tiny piece. The sugar/honey overwhelmed everything else. So count me as one that agrees with baklava being "boring".

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling anything that came from before the 19th century a result of "Greek" culture makes things a bit murky, though. If, hypothetically, baklava was developed in what is now Istanbul, is it a result of Greek, Turkish, Byzantine, Roman, Persian, or Ottoman culture? The answer is that it's a silly question.

Not anything. Baklava is probably a silly question. Greek alphabet or most of Hagia Sophia, that was created by Greeks.

The Greek alphabet, sure, but Hagia Sophia? The one that was ordered to be built by a Roman emperor and consecrated by a Christian bishop from Antioch? I would describe it as Roman, Byzantine, or Ottoman before I would describe it as Greek.
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