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The sticky history of baklava

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: The sticky history of baklava

#51

Post by mtts »

hot_gril wrote: post #19
steno132 wrote: post #18

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 agree, same with hummus.

And pilsener beer.

For some things the artisan skill is in approaching machine level efficiency.

(of course in many cases, such as with baklava, hummus and pilsener beer the temptation then arises to cheap out on the ingredients, causing the factory to lose out to the granny, but the principle essentially holds)

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#53

Post by pacija »

hannofcart wrote: post #5
spapas82 wrote: 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'.

Here in Serbia, baklava is mostly too sweet for my taste. I prefer another Turkish dessert called tufahija, which is cooked apple with central part with seeds taken out and filled with grinded walnuts and honey, soaked in sugary water and topped with whipped cream.

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#55

Post by dagw »

hannofcart wrote: post #5
spapas82 wrote: 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'.

My problem with most baklava to me is that all the subtlety and refinement you are talking about just gets lost is big old mess of "sweet". My general baklava experience is that the first bite is good, the second bite is enough and after the third bite I kind of wish I hadn't. It's like some people and chilli heat, once you pass a certain level, it doesn't matter how refined and complex the underlying dish is, all they can taste is 'hot'.

Interesting deserts to me manges to balance sweetness against acidity, tartness, bitterness and similar flavours to create more contrast and where the sweetness isn't the dominating taste experience.

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#56

Post by occam54 »

jusquan wrote: 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…

Don't say than, until you've had Lebannese baklava. Both the Turkish and Greek varieties are oversweet. Lebanese baklava on the other hand is finer, more refined and does not drip syrop.

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#57

Post by coldjuicebox »

OkayPhysicist wrote: post #31
steno132 wrote: post #18

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.

Heading to Istanbul in a few weeks. Do you have any recs for good places?
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