Börek

Börek

Typical homemade Börek, with a meat, caramelised onion and bell pepper filling
Alternative names	Burek
Type	Savoury pie
Region or state	Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey
Main ingredients	Yufka or phyllo; cheese, meat, or vegetables

Börek (Turkish pronunciation: [bøˈɾekʲ]; also burek and other variants) is a family of baked filled pastries made of a thin flaky dough known as phyllo (or yufka), of Anatolian origins and also found in the cuisines of the Balkans, Levant, Mediterranean, and other countries in Eastern Europe and Western Asia. A börek may be prepared in a large pan and cut into portions after baking, or as individual pastries. The top of the börek is often sprinkled with sesame seeds.

It may have been invented in what is now modern Turkey, in the Anatolian Provinces of the Ottoman Empire in its early era (15th or 16th century), to become a popular element of Ottoman cuisine, or it may date back earlier to the Classical era of the eastern Mediterranean region. (cf. Baklava)

Börek may have its origins in Turkish cuisine and may be one of its most significant and, in fact, ancient elements of the Turkish cuisine, having been developed by the Turks of Central Asia before their westward migration to Anatolia in the late Middle Ages, or it may be a descendent of the pre-existing Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Anatolian dish en tyritas plakountas (Byzantine Greek: εν τυρίτας πλακούντας) "cheesy placenta," itself a descendant of placenta, the classical baked layered dough and cheese dish of Ancient Roman cuisine.Cato included a recipe for placenta in his De Agri Cultura (160 BC).