Börek

Alternative names	Burek, börek, boreg, byrek
Type	Savoury pie
Course	Tea pastry
Main ingredients	Flaky pastry (usually filo), various fillings
Variations	Meat, potatoes, leafy greens, cheese, eggplant, mushrooms
Cookbook: Börek   Media: Börek

Börek^[1][2] or burek or byrek is a family of pastries or pies made in the Middle East and the Balkans. The pastry is made of a thin flaky dough such as filo with a variety of fillings, such as meat, cheese, spinach, or potatoes. A börek may be prepared in a large pan and cut into portions after baking, or as individual pastries. They are usually baked but some varieties can be fried. Börek is sometimes sprinkled with sesame or nigella seeds, and it can be served hot or cold.

Throughout the Balkan Peninsula, Turkey and Armenia it is commonly served with ayran or yogurt. It is a custom of Sephardic Jews to have bourekas for their Shabbat breakfast meal on Saturday mornings.

The English name börek^[1][2] comes from Turkish börek (Turkish pronunciation: [bœˈɾec], Ottoman بورك), while burek is used in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Forms in other languages include: Albanian: byrek; Greek: μπουρέκι, romanized: bouréki; Bulgarian: Бюрек, romanized: byurek; Armenian: բյորեկ, romanized: byorek; Algerian Arabic: بُريك, romanized: bourek; brick annabi; and Tunisian Arabic: brik.^{[citation needed]}

According to lexicographer Sevan Nişanyan, the Turkish word börek is ultimately originated from Turkic bögrek, from böğür (meaning 'kidney').^[3] Nişanyan noted that the word is also used in Siberian Turkic languages such as Saqa as börüök.^[3] According to another theory, it may have come from the Persian burak (بورک), the diminutive form of būra or buġra or (بوره/بغره), meaning "stew", and refers to any dish made with yufka (filo).^{[citation needed]} The Persian word bureh goes back to the Middle Persian *bōrak.^{[citation needed]} This word ultimately goes back to the Proto-Indo-European root *bher- which meant "to carve, cut, split".^{[4][better source needed]} The name of another pastry, shekarbura, is also borrowed from the same Persian word.^[4] Nişanyan noted the possibility of Turkic origin for the Persian word.^[5]

One alternative etymological origin that has been suggested is that the word comes from the Turkic root bur- 'to twist',^[6][7] but the sound harmony for this proposal would dictate the suffix "-aq",^[8] and Turkic languages in Arabic orthography invariably write börek with an ك not an ق, which weighs against this origin.^{[citation needed]}

One theory posits that the dish in general is a descendant of the pre-existing Eastern Roman (Byzantine) 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 Greek, Ancient Roman and Byzantine cuisine.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Some types of borek could possibly have been prepared in Turkish cuisine, according to this theory, they have been developed in Central Asia before some westward migration to Anatolia in the late Middle Ages,^[13][14] or by nomadic Turks of Central Asia some time before the seventh century.^[15]

The dish was a popular element of Ottoman cuisine, and may have been present at the Ottoman court,^[16][13] though there are also indications it was made among Central Asian Turks;^[14] other versions may date to the Classical era of the eastern Mediterranean.^[9][10][11]

Even though borek is very popular in the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire,^[17] especially in North Africa and throughout the Balkans,^[18] it originated in Anatolia. Borek is also part of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish traditions.^[19] They have been adopted by the Ottoman Jewish communities, and have been described—along with boyos de pan and bulemas—as forming "the trio of preeminent Ottoman Jewish pastries".^[20]

The word börek in Turkish can be modified by a descriptive word referring to the shape, ingredients of the pastry, or a specific region where it is typically prepared, as in the above kol böreği, su böreği, talaş böreği or Sarıyer böreği. There are many variations of börek in Turkish cuisine:

• Alt Üst Böreği: A type of tray börek. The layered filo is laid out in double layers, or about ten small sheets of filo are stacked on top of each other and greased in between. It is also referred to as "Türk böreği" in Ottoman-era cookbooks.^[21]
• Bohça Böreği: The layers of filo are stacked on top of each other, folded like a bundle, and then baked. This type of börek dates back to the 17th century.^[21]
• Çarşı Böreği: Small pieces of filo, coated in oil, are folded like bundles and then baked.^[21]
• Etli Börek: Meat-filled börek.^[21]
• Fincan Böreği: Layers of filo sheets are stacked on top of each other, cut into circles using a cup, and then fried in oil or baked in the oven. In the 18th century, this börek was filled with pistachios, almonds, and sugar, or cheese, parsley, and dill.^[21]
• Kapak or Tas Böreği: The filling, made with minced meat or chicken, onions, cinnamon, almonds, and pistachios, is placed inside thin sheets of filo, then covered with more filo. It is cooked under a tray or pan. Records from the 17th century show this dish.^[21]
• Kol Böreği: A type of börek where the filo is rolled up like a large cigarette-shaped pastry without cutting it.^[21]
• Laz Böreği: A dessert similar to baklava. According to a recipe from the Ottoman era, it is made with eight layers of filo dough and filled with clotted cream or thick custard.^[21]
• Mekik Böreği: Evliya Çelebi includes spiced shuttle-shaped börek among the famous dishes of Manisa.^[21]
• Mihrap Böreği: A large, triangular, and fluffy börek made from thin filo dough. It is baked in the oven.^[21]
• Nemse Böreği: A round-shaped puff pastry with ribbed edges. It is filled with a mixture of spinach, chard, poppy leaves, parsley, cheese, and onions.^[21]
• Paça Böreği: It is made in the form of a tray börek with fried filo dough and cooked lamb trotters.^[21]
• Puf Böreği: A type of cup-shaped börek, prepared with layered dough or clarified butter and egg dough, in the style of Türk böreği. It is made with a cheese or onion and minced meat filling. When fried in hot clarified butter, it puffs up and becomes hollowed inside. According to Mahmud Nedim (1900), this börek was called "çırçır böreği" because it was light and not filling.^[21]
• Serpme Börek: A börek made from filo that is thinned by hand. It was traditionally made in the palace kitchen.^[21]
• Su Böreği: Freshly rolled, thick sheets of filo are boiled in water and then prepared like tray böreks. Its first recorded version dates back to the 19th century.^[21]
• Süt Böreği: It is prepared with milk mixed with beaten eggs and baked in the oven. Sometimes a little flour is mixed into the milk, or several sheets of filo dough are placed in the tray. It is eaten either plain or with syrup poured over it.^[21]
• Sütlü Böreği: A type of sweet börek with a filling made of rice flour, milk, eggs, sugar, and cinnamon.^[21]
• Şam Böreği: A börek made in the 18th century. It is traditionally eaten with sumac sprinkled on top.^[21]
• Şeker Böreği: A triangular börek filled with a mixture of sugar, almonds, and pistachios, rolled out into pieces of dough. It is either deep-fried or baked. According to the oldest recipe, dating back to the 15th century, musk was also added to the filling.^[21]
• Tatar Böreği: A börek filled with minced meat, folded into small triangles. It is eaten with garlic yogurt after being boiled. Mentioned in a poem by Aşık Hüseyin in the 15th or 16th century, Tatar böreği was a staple at gatherings of Seyyid Hasan, a food enthusiast from Istanbul in the 17th century. The oldest known recipe is found in the 1844 cookbook Melcsü't-Tabbâhin, and it is described as having been commonly prepared at home. Ottoman recipes, with some minor differences, are similar to modern recipes. The cheese version was called "pirogi" or "piruhi".^[21]
• Tava Böreği: A börek filled with almonds, pistachios, sugar, minced meat, dill-flavored cheese, or beetroot, and fried in clarified butter. According to Ahmed Javid, who said "In Arabic they call it katayif," the sweet version of this pastry is the flat kadayıf known today in Diyarbakır as "taş ekmeği" (stone bread), which is filled with walnuts, sealed, and fried.^[21]
• Tepsi or Sini Böreği: A type of börek prepared by layering filo sheets on a baking tray and then baking it in an oven or on a stovetop. It was historically known as "yufka böreği".^[21]

In the former Yugoslavia, burek is an extremely common dish, made with yufka.^[22] Burek spread from southern Serbia to Bosnia in the 16th century and later, after Yugoslavia was formed, throughout the rest of the northern Balkan peninsula. During the early 20th century it became popular in Croatia, where it was imported by Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albanians.

Traditionally burek is made of layers of thin, nearly translucent dough, in a circular baking pan.^[23] Common fillings are cheese and spinach, meat, and potatoes.^[23] It is often eaten along with a plain yoghurt drink.

Zeljanica is a spinach- or chard-based burek common throughout the Balkans.

In Albania, this dish is called byrek. In Kosovo and a few other regions, byrek is also known as pite. Byrek is traditionally made with several layers of dough that have been thinly rolled out by hand. The final form can be small, individual triangles, especially from street vendors called byrektore who sell byrek and other traditional pastries and drinks. It can also be made as one large byrek that is cut into smaller pieces. There are different regional variations of byrek. It can be served cold or hot.

The most common fillings include cheese (especially gjizë, salted curd cheese), ground meat and onions (ragù-style filling), spinach and eggs, and milk and eggs with pre-baked dough layers. It can also be made with tomato and onions, peppers and beans, potato or a sweet filling of pumpkin, nettles (known as byrek me hithra), or kidney beans (byrek me fasule), popular in winter.^[24]

There are mainly two categories of Albanian byrek: house byrek (byrek shtëpie) and triangle byrek (byrek trekendësh), the latter being mostly found as street food.

Lakror is an pie dish from southern Albania. The pie is sometimes called a type of byrek pastry.^[25][26][27] Lakror is generally filled with a variety of greens or meats.^[27] Another related dish is fli, from the north of Albania and Kosovo. It is made up of layers of a flour and water batter, cream and butter. Traditionally, it is baked on embers like lakror.^[24]

In 2012, Lonely Planet included the Bosnian burek in their "The World's Best Street Food" book.^[22][28] Eaten for any meal of the day, in Bosnia and Herzegovina burek is a meat-filled pastry, traditionally rolled in a spiral and cut into sections for serving. The same spiral filled with cottage cheese is called sirnica; with spinach and cheese, zeljanica, with potatoes, krompiruša. All of them are generically referred to as pita. Eggs are used as a binding agent when making sirnica and zeljanica.

The Bulgarian version of the pastry, locally called byurek (Cyrillic: бюрек), is typically regarded as a variation of banitsa (баница), a similar Bulgarian dish. Bulgarian byurek is a type of banitsa with sirene cheese, the difference being that byurek also has eggs added.^[29]

In Bulgarian, byurek has also come to be applied to other dishes similarly prepared with cheese and eggs, such as chushka byurek (чушка бюрек), a peeled and roasted pepper filled with cheese, and tikvichka byurek (тиквичка бюрек), blanched or uncooked bits of squash with egg filling.^[29]

In Greece, boureki or bourekaki, and Cyprus poureki (πουρέκι, in the Greek dialects of the island) are small pastries made with phyllo dough or with pastry crust. Pastries in the börek family are also called pita (pie): tiropita, spanakopita, and so on.^[30] Galaktoboureko is a syrupy phyllo pastry filled with custard, common throughout Greece and Cyprus. In the Epirus, σκερ-μπουρέκ is a small rosewater-flavoured marzipan sweet. Bougatsa is a Greek variation of a borek which consists of either semolina custard, cheese, or minced meat filling between layers of phyllo, and is said to originate in the city of Serres, an art of pastry brought with the immigrants from Constantinople and is most popular in Thessaloniki, in the Central Macedonia region of Northern Greece.^[31] Serres achieved the record for the largest puff pastry on 1 June 2008. It weighed 182.2 kg (402 lb), was 20 metres (66 ft) long, and was made by more than 40 bakers.^[32] In Venetian Corfu, boureki was also called burriche,^[33] and filled with meat and leafy greens.

The recipe for "round" burek was developed in the Serbian town of Niš. In 1498, it was introduced by a famous Turkish baker, Mehmed Oğlu, from Istanbul.^[34] Eventually burek spread from the southeast of Serbia to Macedonia and Bosnia, and later to the rest of Yugoslavia. Niš, the in official capital of burek, hosts an annual burek competition and festival called Buregdžijada. In 2005, a 100 kg (220 lbs) burek was made, with a diameter of 2 metres (≈6 ft)^[35] and it is considered to have been the world's biggest burek ever made.^{[36][better source needed]}

In Slovenia, burek is a recognizable and widely available fast food, particularly among students and in urban nightlife settings. While it enjoys popularity in certain contexts, it also carries complex cultural associations linked to its Balkan origins, and is not universally embraced as part of mainstream Slovenian cuisine.^[37]

The regional cuisine of the Moldavian West bank of the Pruth still yields a type of dumpling-like food called burechiuşe (sometimes called burechiţe) which is described as dough in the shape of a ravioli-like square which is filled with mushrooms such as Boletus edulis, and sealed around its edges and then tossed and subsequently boiled in borscht like soups^[38] or chorbas.^{[39][better source needed]} They are traditionally eaten in the last day of fasting at the time of the Christmas Eve. It is unclear if the burechiuşe derive their name from the Turco-Greek börek (which is a distinct possibility given the fact that Moldavia was ruled for many decades by dynasties of Greek Phanariotes and that encouraged Greek colonists to settle in the area), so at the receiving end of cultural and culinary influences coming from them, or it takes its name from that of the mushroom Boletus (burete in its Romanian language rhotacised version, and it meant "mushroom" as well as "sponge") by the pattern of the ravioli, which were named after the Italian name of the turnip with which they were once filled.^[40]

In Romania, the plăcintă is considered a variation of the phyllo-wrapped pie, with the dough traditionally stuffed with cheese.^[41] In Dobruja, an eastern territory that used to be a Turkish province, one can find both the Turkish influence—plăcintă dobrogeană either filled with cheese or with minced meat and served with sheep yoghurt or the Tatar street food Suberek—a deep-fried half-moon cheese-filled dough.

In Algeria, this dish is called bourek, a roll of pastry sheet stuffed with meat, onions, and spice, is one of the main appetizers of Algerian cuisine.^[42]

It is a starter served when receiving guests and especially during Ramadan evenings during the round meal of the holy month, usually accompanied by Algerian Chorba or Harira. Other forms include bourek packed with chicken and onions, shrimp and béchamel sauce, or a vegetarian alternative usually made of mashed potatoes and spinach.^[43]

Another Algerian variant of Bourek is called Brik or Brika, a speciality of Algeria's east,^[44][45] notably Annaba. It is a savory entree made from brik leaf, stuffed with mashed potatoes and a mixture of minced meat, onions, cheese and parsley. The whole is topped with a seasoned raw egg which cooks once the sheet of brik has been folded and soaked in boiling oil.^[46]

In Armenia, byorek (Armenian: բյորեկ) or borek (Armenian: բորեկ) consists of dough, or filo dough, folded into triangles and stuffed with spinach, onions, Armenian cheeses (such as lori or motal), or ground beef.^[47] The most widespread variants are panri borek (Armenian: պանրի բորեկ, "cheese borek"), msov borek (Armenian: մսով բորեկ, “meat borek”), and spanakhov borek (Armenian: սպանախով բորեկ, "spinach borek").

Burekas (Hebrew: בורקס) have long been part of Sephardic Jewish cuisine, ever since the migration of a large portion of that community to the Ottoman Empire following the Expulsion of Jews from Spain. The name "burekas" is the plural form of the original Balkan dish, as conjugated in Judaeo-Spanish. The name refers both to larger varieties (palm-sized or larger) and smaller varieties (originally called "Burekitas" by contrast, though the word has fallen out of use in Modern Hebrew). Burekas were later introduced to Israel by Sephardi immigrants from communities in Turkey and the Balkans during Ottoman rule. They are now sold commonly in bakeries, as well as dedicated market stalls, throughout the country.

Israeli Burkeas may be prepared with a variety of different fillings; although meat is less-commonly used because of Jewish dietary laws - specifically the prohibition against mixing milk and meat. Many types of burekas prepared and sold in Israel (particularly those that do not contain cheese) are made with Margarine-based doughs rather than butter-based doughs, in order to make them Parve - allowing them to be eaten as part of any type of meal. The most popular fillings are salty cheese (primarily Feta), spinach, eggplant and mashed potato. Other fillings include mushrooms, sweet potato, chickpeas, olives, mallows, swiss chard, and tomato sauce (known as "burekas pizza"). Burekas are traditionally offered as snacks during large gatherings and even office meetings. Multiple locally-made brands and varieties of pre-made, frozen burekas (for quick baking or frying) are commonly sold in grocery stores.

Other related pastries traditionally consumed by Sephardic Jews include bulemas and boyoz, which are also popular in the Turkish city of Izmir.^[48]

It is also a popular dish in Libya, where it is known as brik.^[49]

In Saudi Arabia, Burēk (Arabic: بُريك, Hejazi Arabic pronunciation: [bʊˈre̞ːk]), is usually made in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, it mostly resembles the Bosnian rolled burek but can also come in other variants, and it is stuffed with minced meat or with salty cheese and dill. It is usually served during the month of Ramadan, same goes to samosas.

In Tunisia, there is a variant known as the brik (/briːk/ BREEK; بريك) that consists of thin crepe-like pastry around a filling and is commonly deep fried. The best-known is the egg brik, a whole egg in a triangular pastry pocket with chopped onion, tuna, harissa and parsley.^[50] The Tunisian brik is also very popular in Israel, due to the large Tunisian Jewish population there. It is often filled with a raw egg and herbs or tuna, harissa, and olives, and it is sometimes served in a pita. This is also known as a boreeka.^[51]