The Sticky Historical past of Baklava | Journey

Efkan Güllü’s household has been within the enterprise of baklava for greater than 5 generations. The present proprietor of Güllüoglu Baklava—a famed bakery primarily based in Gaziantep, Turkey, with dozens of branches all over the world—Güllü is the newest in a protracted line of pastry cooks that started together with his great-grandfather, who first discovered to make the candy, flaky desserts whereas stopping within the historical cities of Aleppo and Damascus on his manner again from the Islamic Hajj pilgrimage in 1871.

“In our household, you open your eyes to the world, and the very first thing you see is baklava,” Güllü says. “We be taught the occupation ranging from childhood.”

The dessert consists of nice layers of pastry dough, typically full of nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey. “Baklava is made by thinning the dough to a nice micro-degree, and by placing 10 or 11 layers on high of one another by hand,” says Güllü. It’s not a course of conducive to automation. “It’s actually a craft. It requires a protracted schooling to have the ability to roll out baklava dough so skinny.”

The origins of baklava date again to historical occasions. Across the eighth century B.C.E., individuals within the Assyrian Empire, which unfold throughout components of modern-day Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Syria and Turkey, organized unleavened flatbreads in layers, with chopped nuts in between, to be loved throughout particular occasions. Centuries later, the Historical Greek and Roman “placenta cake” (the Latin placenta coming from the Greek phrase plakous, or “cheese cake,” not the unsavory afterbirth) was a dish consisting of many layers of dough, full of cheese and honey and flavored with bay leaves. Nonetheless, the earliest variations of baklava as we all know it right this moment got here round 500 years in the past, in the course of the Ottoman Empire.

“The earliest reference to baklava is in a poem by the mystic Kaygusuz Abdal, who lived within the first half of the fifteenth century,” writes Mary Isin, an Ottoman meals historian, in her guide, Sherbet and Spice: The Complete Story of Turkish Sweets and Desserts.

Traditionally, the deal with was saved for festive events because of the talent required to make it, in addition to the excessive value of key substances reminiscent of honey, sugar and nuts. In Ottoman occasions, Baklava was an “nearly sacred” a part of Ramadan, Isin explains. Starting in 1520, throughout this holy month, the Ottoman sultan would famously reward it in huge portions to his most elite troopers, the Janissaries, in what was often known as the Baklava Procession. “Lots of of trays of baklava, one for each ten janissaries, had been baked within the palace kitchens, tied in cloths to guard them from mud and arrayed within the Second Courtroom,” Isin writes. “Till the Janissary Corps was liquidated in 1826, one and a half months after the Baklava Procession, this occasion remained a preferred annual spectacle.” Ottoman Christians baked baklava for Lent, with some utilizing as much as 40 layers of phyllo dough to characterize the 40 days of Lent and others utilizing 33 layers to characterize the 33 years of Christ’s life. Jews throughout the empire started serving baklava on the vacations of Rosh Hashanah and Purim as nicely.

Only a few different dishes have crossed religions as a lot as baklava. Maybe the oldest instance of this, Isin writes in an article titled “Adam and Eve’s Wheat Porridge,” is an historical, boiled wheat dessert often known as ashure, or “Noah’s pudding,” ready barely otherwise by every ethno-religious group. “Dishes of boiled wheat sweetened variously with sugar, fruit molasses and dried fruits have for hundreds of years been shared by individuals of various faiths in Turkey,” Isin says, “eaten in various kinds below totally different names by Muslims, Christians and Jews.” Nonetheless, no different meals combines this cross-cultural significance with the enduring recognition of baklava.

Baklava’s fame as a dish of significance additionally meant that it was unfold far and extensive by bureaucrats alongside commerce routes and pilgrimages in the course of the zenith of the Ottoman Empire within the sixteenth century. This made the dessert a staple throughout Center Jap and Mediterranean cultures, from Algeria to Afghanistan. Consequently, quite a few regional variations have emerged over the centuries, typically primarily based on domestically out there substances. “Gaziantep is a area well-known for pistachios,” Güllü says, “so my great-grandfather used pistachios in his baklava.” Throughout Turkey, others started to observe go well with. In Greece, alternatively, walnuts turned the nut of selection, with cinnamon used to taste the filling. Armenian “paklava” is full of walnuts and spiced with cinnamon and cloves, and the Cypriot model typically makes use of almonds in addition to walnuts.

The syrup used additionally varies enormously from nation to nation. In Algeria, the syrup is often flavored with orange-blossom water, whereas in Iran, rosewater and cardamom are most well-liked. A honey and lemon syrup is the go-to in Greece.

Maybe due to its sweetness, baklava typically goes hand in hand with nostalgia and vivid recollections of place. Certainly, for my very own Greek household, though we reside in London, the crunch of the dough and the style of honey, lemon, cinnamon and walnuts instantly brings us again to summers spent in Greece surrounded by cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents on the Peloponnesian coast. From its roots alongside the Mediterranean, it’s now loved all over the world—from Bengali grocery outlets in London’s East Finish to Center Jap bakeries in Latin America to eating places in New York—by individuals lacking tastes of dwelling and by others all the identical. Güllüoglu Baklava now has 48 whole branches open worldwide, from Gaziantep to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to New York’s Brighton Seashore. In Istanbul, Güllüoglu bakeries make round 6,600 kilos of baklava per day.

At present, baklava kinds such an essential a part of the culinary id of so many locations that individuals typically dispute claims to its origins. The Greek-Turkish debate over its origins is especially vociferous. In 2012, when President Barack Obama ate baklava at a dinner celebrating Greek Independence Day, rumors unfold within the Turkish press that he was taking a side in this culinary conflict. In 2013, a lot to the dismay of baklava makers from Greece and past, the European Union awarded protected status to the Gaziantep number of baklava from southern Turkey.

Nonetheless, Efkan Güllü, the grasp baklava baker from Gaziantep, prefers to take a look at it one other manner.

“These are locations which have traditionally been interconnected and have been on the identical commerce routes,” he says. “But in addition, extra essentially, it signifies that we cook dinner in related methods.” Their shared histories are mirrored of their recipes, with every baker including new, native aptitude to an historical basic, like layers upon layers of candy pastry.

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