Placenta
Stop giggling (or vomiting); this is Classical Latin so the “c”s are all hard (very similar to how the “a” in Ur-an-us is always short).
It’s better than I expected. Sort of a giant sized baclava. On to the recipe…
The internal layers (tracta) are a spelt and wheat mix. Max says to buy whole spelt and mortar-and-pestle it. First, no. Second, I already bought spelt flour for the Globi and have lots left over. This may have caused overly thick layers. The recipe amount is divided into quarters, which are then rolled out into 8-inch rounds “as thin as possible, similar to tortillas”. I went with 8-inches, not “as thin as possible”. If there were a next time (which there will not be), I’d go with fifths and “as thin as possible”.
The filling is feta and honey. The recipe calls for rinsing the cheese to remove salt. I did not sufficiently dry the cheese after rinsing. It made a runny mess, which only became obvious while mixing in the honey. A sieve mostly fixed it. For another layer, more feta would be required. It’s already a fairly thin layer.
The outer crust is just flour and water, which, if you’ve never been unlucky enough to forget the salt while making bread, tastes like paste. It’s remarkably not-bad. It’s also very thin. I think I’d add a bit of salt and sprinkle some baker’s sugar (totally anachronistic, but better) on top were there a next time.
Max recommends a low sided, round casserole dish for baking. I have one, but the top edge is fluted/scalloped and I was worried about getting it out. I used a springform pan, instead.
It looked as if it were covered in zombie skin when I took it out of the oven. As if the name isn’t bad enough. I gave it an egg wash and stuffed it back in at 375 (300 was the baking temperature) for 15 minutes to brown the top. That made it look edible.
The crochet group thought it was OK. All in all, I consider it a success, but a one-time success.
BTW: It’s raining here, so I wrote this at lunch instead of going for a walk. I know. It’s the 21st century; there is no bad weather, just bad clothing choices. I can walk in the rain (a cowboy hat hard-hat makes a great umbrella), I just don’t want to.
Marked Up 