Placenta cake is a dish from

ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of Classical Antiquity, classical antiquity ( AD 600), th ...

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 leavenin ...

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 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 ...

Archestratos Archestratus ( grc-gre, Ἀρχέστρατος ''Archestratos'') was an ancient Greek poet of Gela or Syracuse, in Sicily, who wrote some time in the mid 4th century BCE, and was known as "the Daedalus of tasty dishes". His humorous didactic po ...

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 his ...

Etymology

The

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the 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 the power of the ...

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 mate ...

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), southe ...

mention of ''plakous'' as a dessert (or second table delicacy) comes from the poems of

. 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 o ...

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,

provided a recipe for ''placenta'' in his '' De agri cultura'' which Andrew Dalby 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 Tracta was a French car maker based in Asnières, Seine, that was active between 1926 and 1934. They were pioneers of front-wheel-drive vehicles. The business The business was directed and cars were designed by the engineer Jean-Albert Grégoire ...
'' 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: 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 is ...

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 wh ...

) 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 nar ...

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. 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 ...

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 ''pla ...

,'' a baked flat pastry containing cheese), in

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

(

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 Easte ...

, 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

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, ...

is added to the dough.

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