Placenta cake is a dish from
ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
and
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
consisting of many
dough
Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavening ...
layers interspersed with a mixture of cheese and
honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...
and flavored with
bay leaves
The bay leaf is an aromatic leaf commonly used in cooking. It can be used whole, either dried or fresh, in which case it is removed from the dish before consumption, or less commonly used in ground form. It may come from several species of tr ...
, baked and then covered in honey.
[.] The
dessert
Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and most parts o ...
is mentioned in classical texts such as the
Greek poems
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
of
Archestratos and
Antiphanes, as well as the ''
De agri cultura'' of
Cato the Elder
Marcus Porcius Cato (; 234–149 BC), also known as Cato the Censor ( la, Censorius), the Elder and the Wise, was a Roman soldier, senator, and historian known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. He was the first to write hist ...
.
[
]
Etymology
The Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
word ''placenta'' is derived from the Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''plakous'' ( grc, πλακοῦς, gen. πλακοῦντος – ''plakountos'', from πλακόεις – ''plakoeis'', "flat") for thin or layered flat breads.
The placenta
The placenta is a temporary embryonic and later fetal organ that begins developing from the blastocyst shortly after implantation. It plays critical roles in facilitating nutrient, gas and waste exchange between the physically separate mat ...
of mammalian pregnancy is so named from the perceived resemblance between its shape and that of a placenta cake.
History
An early Greek language
Greek ( el, label= Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy ( Calabria and Salento), souther ...
mention of ''plakous'' as a dessert (or second table delicacy) comes from the poems of Archestratos. He describes ''plakous'' as served with nuts and dried fruits and commends the honey-drenched Athenian version of ''plakous''.[
Antiphanes (fl. 4th century BC), a contemporary of Archestratos, provided an ornate description of ''plakous'' with ]wheat flour
Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ''bread ...
and goat's cheese
Goat cheese, or chèvre ( or ; from French ''fromage de chèvre'' 'goat cheese'), is cheese made from goat's milk. Goats were among the first animals to be domesticated for producing food. Goat cheese is made around the world with a variety of ...
as key ingredients:[
]The streams of the tawny bee, mixed with the curdled river of bleating she-goats, placed upon a flat receptacle of the virgin daughter of Demeter oney, cheese, flour delighting in ten thousand delicate toppings – or shall I simply say plakous? I'm for plakous' (Antiphanes quoted by Athenaeus).
Later, in 160 BC, Cato the Elder
Marcus Porcius Cato (; 234–149 BC), also known as Cato the Censor ( la, Censorius), the Elder and the Wise, was a Roman soldier, senator, and historian known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. He was the first to write hist ...
provided a recipe for ''placenta'' in his '' De agri cultura'' which Andrew Dalby
Andrew Dalby, (born 1947 in Liverpool) is an English linguist, translator and historian who has written articles and several books on a wide range of topics including food history, language, and Classical texts.
Education and early career
...
considers, along with Cato's other dessert recipes, to be in the "Greek tradition", and possibly copied from a Greek cookbook.[
]Shape the ''placenta'' as follows: place a single row of '' tracta'' along the whole length of the base dough. This is then covered with the mixture heese and honeyfrom the mortar. Place another row of ''tracta'' on top and go on doing so until all the cheese and honey have been used up. Finish with a layer of ''tracta''...place the placenta in the oven and put a preheated lid on top of it ..When ready, honey is poured over the placenta. (Cato the Elder, ''De Agri Cultura'')
A number of modern scholars suggest that the Greco-Roman dessert's Eastern Roman (Byzantine) descendants, ''plakountas tetyromenous'' ("cheesy placenta") and ''koptoplakous'' (Byzantine Greek
Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman c ...
: κοπτοπλακοῦς), are the ancestors of modern tiropita
Tiropita or tyropita ( Greek: τυρóπιτα, "cheese-pie") is a Greek pastry made with layers of buttered phyllo and filled with a cheese-egg mixture. It is served either in an individual-size free-form wrapped shape, or as a larger pie that ...
or banitsa
Banitsa ( bg, баница, , also transliterated as banica and banitza) is a traditional pastry dish made in Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Southeastern Serbia (where it may also be referred to as gibanica), prepared by layering a mixture of whi ...
) respectively.[ The name ''placenta'' ( el, πλατσέντα) is used today on the island of ]Lesbos
Lesbos or Lesvos ( el, Λέσβος, Lésvos ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece. It is separated from Asia Minor by the na ...
in Greece to describe a baklava-type dessert of layered pastry leaves containing crushed nuts that is baked and then covered in honey. Through its Byzantine Greek name ''plakountos,'' the dessert was adopted into Armenian cuisine
Armenian cuisine includes the foods and cooking techniques of the Armenian people and traditional Armenian foods and dishes. The cuisine reflects the history and geography where Armenians have lived as well as sharing outside influences from ...
as ''plagindi,'' ''plagunda,'' and ''pghagund,'' all "cakes of bread and honey."[.] From the latter term came the later Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
name ''iflaghun,'' which is mentioned in the medieval Arab cookbook ''Wusla ila al-habib'' as a specialty of the Cilician Armenians settled in southern Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
and settled in the neighboring Crusader kingdoms of northern Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
.[ Thus, the dish may have traveled to the ]Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
in the Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
via the Armenians, many of whom migrated there following the first appearance of the Turkish tribes in medieval Anatolia.
Legacy
Today, derivatives of the Latin word are still used throughout the Balkans: in Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
(''plăcintă
''Plăcintă'' () is a Romanian and Moldovan traditional pastry resembling a thin, small round or square-shaped cake, usually filled with apples or a soft cheese such as Urdă.
Etymology
The word ''plăcintă'' comes from Latin '' ...
,'' a baked flat pastry containing cheese), in Serbia (Palačinke
Palatschinke (or palaccinka, plural palatschinken) is a thin crêpe-like variety of pancake of Greco-Roman origin. While the dessert is most common in South and West Slavic countries, it is also generally known in other parts of Central and East ...
, a very thinly made crepe-like pancake usually rolled with sugar and jam between the layers or served with nuts and dried fruits and commends the honey), and on the island of Lesbos
Lesbos or Lesvos ( el, Λέσβος, Lésvos ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece. It is separated from Asia Minor by the na ...
in Greece ( el, πλατσέντα). The latter is a baked dessert with very thinly made pastry layers and chopped nuts. The dough for this modern is made with thin leaves of crumbly pastry dough soaked in simple syrup. Ouzo
Ouzo ( el, ούζο, ) is a dry anise-flavored aperitif that is widely consumed in Greece. It is made from rectified spirits that have undergone a process of distillation and flavoring. Its taste is similar to other anise liquors like pastis, s ...
is added to the dough.
See also
*List of breads
This is a list of notable baked or steamed bread varieties. This list does not include List of cakes, cakes, List of pastries, pastries, or List of fried dough foods, fried dough foods, which are listed in separate Wikipedia articles. It also does ...
*List of pastries
This is a list of pastry, pastries, which are small buns made using a stiff dough enriched with fat. Some dishes, such as pies, are made of a pastry casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweetness, sweet or Umami, savory i ...
References
Citations
Sources
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External links
*{{cite news, title=American Pie, url=http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/2/2006_2_30.shtml, quote=The Romans refined the recipe, developing a delicacy known as placenta, a sheet of fine flour topped with cheese and honey and flavored with bay leaves., work= American Heritage, date=April–May 2006, access-date=2009-07-04, url-status=dead, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090712030514/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/2/2006_2_30.shtml, archive-date=2009-07-12
Ancient dishes
Byzantine cuisine
Ancient Greek cuisine
Greek cuisine
Historical foods
Roman cuisine
la:Placenta (libum)#Ferculum Romanorum