Serres Bougatsa me Kima (Μπουγάτσα με Κιμά)

Bougatsa me kima belongs to Serres and the breakfast counters of northern Greece: tissue-thin phyllo folded around spiced minced meat, baked crisp, and chopped into squares with a heavy knife. It isn't a round pie and it isn't a neat little parcel. It is bougatsa, cut on paper, eaten hot, and filling enough to stand in for lunch.

The method that decides it is the filling. The meat must go into the phyllo already cooked and dry, not saucy, not wet with tomato. If the mince carries liquid, the inner sheets soften before the outside has time to crisp. Cook it down until it looks almost too dry in the pan, then trust the butter and phyllo to bring back tenderness.

Hand-stretched bougatsa phyllo is the Serres standard, elastic and thin enough to read light through it. At home, good commercial country phyllo or thin phyllo will still give you a proper tray if you keep it covered, butter it generously, and fold without fear. Your grandmother cooked by eye because she'd made it a thousand times. Here are the numbers until you have.