There’s a market here that sells boxed baklava from turkey, and it’s good. Too sweet for me. But the Greek Orthodox church nearby makes and sells baklava for raising money and during Greek fest, and it’s absolutely incredible. I always assumed I just didn’t care for Turkish baklava but liked Greek. After your comment, I’m wondering if it’s a boxed vs homemade dynamic I’m tuning into.
I think it’s a mix of staleness and philo dough quality. The imported turkish stuff has to be made, packaged, transported etc , it gets cooled, whatever and takes ages to get to you. Meanwhile the dough is getting stale and absorbing too much of the syrup, so it becomes lower quality. Also, as you point out, it’s mass produced.
Also, the homemade greek stuff probably starts out with higher quality philo dough, and is made fresh that morning.
Not to say the greeks, armenians , syrians or whatevers don’t have the capacity to make better baklava, I’m sure they all have great chefs.
Disclaimer : do not learn to make baklava from scratch, you will go mad. It’s up there with Sarma and Mantı as one of the most labor intensive parts of turkish cuisine.
There’s a market here that sells boxed baklava from turkey, and it’s good. Too sweet for me. But the Greek Orthodox church nearby makes and sells baklava for raising money and during Greek fest, and it’s absolutely incredible. I always assumed I just didn’t care for Turkish baklava but liked Greek. After your comment, I’m wondering if it’s a boxed vs homemade dynamic I’m tuning into.
I think it’s a mix of staleness and philo dough quality. The imported turkish stuff has to be made, packaged, transported etc , it gets cooled, whatever and takes ages to get to you. Meanwhile the dough is getting stale and absorbing too much of the syrup, so it becomes lower quality. Also, as you point out, it’s mass produced.
Also, the homemade greek stuff probably starts out with higher quality philo dough, and is made fresh that morning.
Not to say the greeks, armenians , syrians or whatevers don’t have the capacity to make better baklava, I’m sure they all have great chefs.
Those are all really fair points. I wish I lived somewhere where people made good food, but alas, I have to wait for church bake sales lol
You could learn to make your own! :D
Disclaimer : do not learn to make baklava from scratch, you will go mad. It’s up there with Sarma and Mantı as one of the most labor intensive parts of turkish cuisine.