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.
I’ve never heard of Manti, but I’m gonna have to seek that out!
Sarma, on the other hand, I make at least 7 or 8 times a year. We call them dolma, or just stuffed grape leaves. Before my mom ended up bedridden, she and I would have dolma rolling nights, where we’d sit and roll the grape leaves for hours and make an enormous batch of them. I’m kinda shitty at it, and they turn out. Serviceable at best. My mom, though, she rolls them things like she’s been doing it her whole life. Each one perfect. But she grew up rolling joints in the 70s, so I guess the skill translated! Lol
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.
I’ve never heard of Manti, but I’m gonna have to seek that out!
Sarma, on the other hand, I make at least 7 or 8 times a year. We call them dolma, or just stuffed grape leaves. Before my mom ended up bedridden, she and I would have dolma rolling nights, where we’d sit and roll the grape leaves for hours and make an enormous batch of them. I’m kinda shitty at it, and they turn out. Serviceable at best. My mom, though, she rolls them things like she’s been doing it her whole life. Each one perfect. But she grew up rolling joints in the 70s, so I guess the skill translated! Lol