DUKA WORLDThe Journal
Long-form writing on baklava and the people who make it — history, the orchards, the craft, the market and the table. 32 pieces so far.
What baklava actually is, and what it is not
Everyone recognises it. Far fewer people can say what separates a good tray from a bad one — or why two pastries that look identic
The long, disputed history of a layered pastry
Ottoman palace kitchens, a procession of janissaries, and an argument about origins that nobody is going to win.
The pistachio gardens of the world
A tree that wants hot dry summers, cold winters and very little water grows in a narrow band across the planet — and each garden g
Why pistachio is green, and why that green disappears
The colour is chlorophyll and anthocyanin, it is fragile, and almost everything a factory does to a pistachio makes it duller.
Forty layers, and why anybody counts
Layer count is the most quoted number in baklava and the least verified. Here is what it actually controls.
Gaziantep, and the belt of land that decides the flavour
A city became synonymous with a pastry because of what grows two hours away from it. That is not romance; it is agronomy.
Kaymak: the cream that cannot travel
The richest pastries in the Turkish repertoire depend on a dairy product with a shelf life measured in days. That constraint shape
Four in the morning
The working day in a baklava house starts before anyone would choose to be awake, for reasons that are entirely practical.
How long does baklava actually last?
Four days, twelve months, or somewhere in between — the honest answer depends entirely on what happened in the first few hours aft
The Ramadan table, and what it does to a dessert business
A month that moves eleven days a year concentrates most of the annual demand for a category into a few weeks. Planning for it star
Is baklava halal? The short answer and the long one
The recipe is almost always compliant. Almost is the word that matters, and it is the reason certification exists.
What is actually in a piece of baklava
It is a dense, rich, high-energy food and there is no honest way to present it otherwise. Here is how to talk about that with a bu
Why good baklava costs what it costs
Four inputs account for almost the whole price, and three of them are things a producer can choose to skimp on without anybody not
Baklava, börek, kadayıf: what is actually different
They share a pantry and sometimes a dough. They are not variations on each other, and confusing them in a listing costs sales.
The cold chain, explained without jargon
Twelve months of shelf life is not a property of the pastry. It is a property of what happened to it in the first three hours, and
What private label baklava actually involves
Putting your name on someone else's pastry sounds simple. The decisions that make it work — or quietly ruin it — are made months b
Putting baklava on a hotel or restaurant menu
A buffet, a petits-fours plate and a room-service dessert are three different problems. Only one of them is solved by buying the m
Walnut or pistachio: choosing the nut
Pistachio gets the photographs. Walnut gets the repeat orders in half the markets on earth. The right answer depends on where you
The pistachio squeeze: what happened to the price, and what buyers should do
A viral chocolate bar, a drought, and an off-year in the orchards arrived at the same time. Antep yields fell by around 80 per cen
What protected status actually means for Antep baklava
In 2013 it became the first Turkish product to win EU protected geographical indication. That is a legal statement about a place a
Importing baklava into the United States: the paperwork, in order
FDA facility registration, prior notice with real deadlines, and a Foreign Supplier Verification Programme that is the importer's
Importing baklava into Saudi Arabia: SFDA, halal and the certificate that has to match
The Kingdom is one of the strongest markets for this category and one of the strictest on paperwork. The halal certificate you alr
Importing baklava into the European Union: controls, allergens and the label
Border control posts, fourteen named allergens that must be emphasised in the ingredient list, and a labelling regime that is unfo
What is pistachio baklava? The benchmark cut
The piece most people picture when they hear the word. It is also the cut every other line in a Turkish range is judged against.
Nothing matches that. Try a shorter phrase.