flipPlakous with honey and fresh cheese
Plakous with honey and fresh cheese
Why this dish? It is at a banquet—that of the poet Agathon—that Plato has Diotima speak through Socrates' mouth. Once the dishes were cleared and the wine brought in, these honey cakes were served: plakous is the very taste of the feast where the finest speeches about love were exchanged.
An ancient cake made of thin layers of pastry filled with fresh cheese beaten with honey, scented with sesame. Tender, melting, and deeply honeyed: the sweetness of the Athenian banquet.
When the deipnon tables were cleared and the guests were crowned, then at last the plakous was brought in, and that is the hour when tongues loosen and one dares to speak of Eros. I made it thus: fresh ewe's cheese, whipped long with Hymettus honey until it became a cloud, slipped between sheets of dough thin as a veil. Sesame on top, like a handful of stars. Taste it slowly: the beauty of a single body is sweet, but that is only the first rung of the ladder.
- •Fresh ewe's cheese — a good lump (filling)
- •Hymettus honey — generously (sweetener and sacred binder)
- •Fine wheat flour dough — several sheets (structure)
- •Sesame seeds — a handful (flavor and crunch)
- •Egg — one (binder for the cream)
Plakous with honey and fresh cheese
An ancient cake made of thin layers of pastry filled with fresh cheese beaten with honey, scented with sesame. Tender, melting, and deeply honeyed: the sweetness of the Athenian banquet.
Why this dish? It is at a banquet—that of the poet Agathon—that Plato has Diotima speak through Socrates' mouth. Once the dishes were cleared and the wine brought in, these honey cakes were served: plakous is the very taste of the feast where the finest speeches about love were exchanged.
When the deipnon tables were cleared and the guests were crowned, then at last the plakous was brought in, and that is the hour when tongues loosen and one dares to speak of Eros. I made it thus: fresh ewe's cheese, whipped long with Hymettus honey until it became a cloud, slipped between sheets of dough thin as a veil. Sesame on top, like a handful of stars. Taste it slowly: the beauty of a single body is sweet, but that is only the first rung of the ladder.
Ingredients (period version)
- Fresh ewe's cheese — a good lump (filling)
- Hymettus honey — generously (sweetener and sacred binder)
- Fine wheat flour dough — several sheets (structure)
- Sesame seeds — a handful (flavor and crunch)
- Egg — one (binder for the cream)
Ingredients
- Ricotta or fresh sheep's cheese — 400 g (filling)
- Honey (thyme honey if possible) — 120 g + a little for drizzling (sweetener and binder)
- Phyllo dough sheets — 6 to 8 (structure)
- Sesame seeds — 3 tbsp (flavor and crunch)
- Egg — 1 (binder)
- Mild olive oil or melted butter — for brushing (to brown the sheets)
Method
- Beat the fresh cheese with 100 g of honey, the egg, and half the sesame seeds until smooth.
- Brush a round baking dish with olive oil; line it with 3-4 phyllo sheets, brushing each with oil.
- Pour in the cheese cream, then cover with 3-4 oiled sheets, tucking in the edges.
- Sprinkle with remaining sesame seeds and bake at 180°C for 30-35 minutes, until golden.
- Remove from oven, drizzle with remaining honey, and let cool slightly before cutting into pieces.
How it was made : Plakous ("the flat thing") is the distant ancestor of the honey-layered cakes of the Greek and Eastern world. Athenaeus cites many variants, almost always around the pair of fresh cheese + honey, sometimes enriched with nuts or sesame. Served during the symposion, it was festive food: honey was both a precious sweetness and an offering to the gods.
The contemporary twist : Serve as individual squares, with a swirl of honey and a few edible flower petals: an ancient "cheesecake" for a themed dinner dessert.
Sources : Athenaeus of Naucratis, *The Deipnosophists* (Book XIV, on cakes) · Andrew Dalby, *Food in the Ancient World from A to Z* · Plato, *Symposium*
Diotima · Charactorium
