Markook — Syrian Saj Bread

This is the thin bread of Syria. Nothing goes into the dough but flour, water and salt; there is no yeast. The balls are turned and stretched over a round cushion until the edges let the light through, then flipped onto a convex iron griddle, the saj. Cooking is measured in seconds: one side blisters, it is turned, lifted and folded at once. The stack on the counter can reach half a metre.

Where the name comes from

The name rests on the Arabic raqiq, meaning thin or delicate. The same bread appears in the 10th-century cookbook of Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq under the name ruqaq, and the description matches: large, paper-thin, unleavened. The name shifts by region — shrak, ruqaq, mashrouh.

How it differs from tannur bread

The difference is method, not ingredient. Tannur bread is slapped onto the inner wall of a clay oven and comes out thick and open-crumbed. Markook cooks on the outer face of the saj and stays as thin as paper. The two do different jobs at the same table: tannur bread for scooping, markook for wrapping and for breaking under a fatteh.

What you go to see is the baking, not the bread

You understand this bread at the counter, not in a shop window. The baker turns the dough over the back of the hand, throws it against the cushion and drops it onto the middle of the saj; the hands never stop and one loaf takes under a minute. In mountain villages and out in the country the same work is done over a stone hearth. Ask before you photograph.