How to tell good baklava from a tired, sugary tray

Layers, fat, syrup and the color of the pistachio tell you most of what a box of baklava will taste like before anyone lifts the lid.

Start with the layers

Real baklava is sheets of phyllo, thin enough to read a newspaper through, brushed one at a time and stacked until the pastry is about as tall as a thumb is wide. Look at the cut side. Distinct, papery layers with tiny air gaps mean the dough was handled properly. A pale, solid block means thick dough or too little fat between the sheets, and it will chew instead of shatter.

Read the fat and the syrup

Butter is the fat that carries the flavor. Check the ingredient list for butter, flour, sugar, nuts, water and a little lemon. If palm oil or glucose syrup sits near the top, the pastry was built to last on a shelf, and it tends to taste flat. The syrup should work as a glaze, not a pool. Press a piece lightly through its paper. A wet ring means it was drowned, and the bottom layers will have gone soft. A good piece glistens on top and still crackles when bitten.

The nuts, and how to serve it

Pistachio should be a bright, slightly yellow green. Gray or brown means old nuts. Walnut brings a faint bitterness that balances the sugar, hazelnut is rounder and more toasted, and cashew is softer and sweeter. Which one is best is a matter of taste, not measurement. What you can measure is the ratio: a good piece shows a generous line of nuts, chopped coarse enough that you can see pieces rather than a sandy paste.

Keep baklava at room temperature in its sealed tray. The fridge hardens the butter and dulls the flavor. One or two pieces on a small plate is plenty, with black tea poured unsweetened, because the pastry already brings all the sugar the cup needs. How sweet is too sweet is personal. Some people want a sharp lemon edge in the syrup, others a honeyed one, and neither is wrong.