One bread, two names. Is it Bokon or Matnakash?

Two months ago I started an all-out search for reader Devyn Egigian who was looking for a recipe for a bread called “bokon”. After several unsuccessful attempts, it was decided she might have meant “matnakash”. Does any of this ring a bell?

Long story short: I found a recipe, made it, then posted the recipe and photos. Devyn made the bread and really, really like it. In fact she like it SO much, she wrote the following comments, which I wanted to share.

Devyn wrote:


“Hi again, Robyn!

This was DELICIOUS!! I have to say, I think we may have hit the nail on the head. It is more like perhaps a homemade version (as opposed with something more commercial) of bokon. Honestly, it’s hard to tell because it was just that good!


In my own research on the matter, I contacted my grandmother who says that everyone she knew referred to the bread I was after as bokon, (she’d never heard of matnakash)and that often times it was used as a base for pizza.


Either way, I’m happy with this bread. Thank you so much for your efforts!

One more thing! I just received a call from my grandmother, who received a call from another friend of hers, and she put me in touch with a bakery in the area. I gave them a call and they were well familiar with bokon and said that bokon and matnakash are the same thing. So the mystery is solved and it left me with a FAR better recipe for it than I could have picked up in the store. Thank you, thank you!!”
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With the success of this recipe, Devyn’s next bread experiment will be one of the  katah (gata) recipes we posted a while back. She promises to let us know how that works out, too.


Thanks, Devyn, for your enthusiastic kitchen experiments! We’re glad this all worked out.