Börek (also burek and other variants) is a family of baked or fried filled pastries made of a thin flaky dough known as yufka (or phyllo). It can be filled with cheese, often feta, sirene or kaşar; minced meat, or vegetables. Most probably invented in what is now Modern Turkey, in the Anatolian Provinces of the Ottoman Empire in its early era, to become a popular element of Ottoman cuisine.^[1][2][3]

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.

Börek is also very popular in the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire, especially in North Africa and throughout the Balkans.

The Northern Slavic cuisines, historically developed by people living in close contact with the Turkic peoples of Asia and Europe, also feature derivatives of the börek. Börek is also part of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish traditions.

Turkey

Modern Turkey enjoys a wide variety of regional variations of börek among the different cultures and ethnicities composing it, including:

• Su böreği 'water börek' is one of the most common types. Layers of dough are boiled briefly in large pans, then a mixture of feta cheese, parsley and oil is scattered between the layers. The whole thing is brushed with butter and laid in a masonry oven to cook.^[2]
• Sigara böreği 'cigarette börek' or kalem böreği 'pen börek', a smaller, cylindrical variety is often filled with feta cheese, potato, parsley and sometimes with minced meat or sausage. A variety of vegetables, herbs and spices are used in böreks, such as spinach, nettle, leek, potato, and courgette, and usually ground black pepper. The name kalem böreği was adopted in September 2011 by some Turkish pastry organizations in order to avoid alluding to smoking.^[4]
• Paçanga böreği, is a traditional Sephardic Jewish specialty of Istanbul filled with pastırma, kaşar and julienned green peppers that is fried in olive oil and eaten as a meze.
• Saray böreği 'palace börek' is a layered börek where fresh butter is rolled between each of the dough sheets.
• Talaş böreği or Nemse böreği 'sawdust' or 'Austrian' 'börek') is a small square börek mostly filled with lamb cubes and green peas, that has starchier yufka sheets, making it puffy and crispy.
• Kol böreği 'arm börek' is prepared in long rolls, either rounded or lined, and filled with either minced meat, feta cheese, spinach or potato and baked at a low temperature.
• Sarıyer böreği is a smaller and a little fattier version of the "Kol böreği", named after Sarıyer, a district of Istanbul
• Gül böreği 'rose börek', also known as Yuvarlak böreği 'round or spiral börek' are rolled into small spirals and have a spicier filling than other börek.
• Çiğ börek or Çibörek 'raw börek' is a half-round shaped börek, filled with raw minced meat and fried in oil on the concave side of the sac, very popular in places with a thriving Tatar community, such as Eskişehir, Polatlı and Konya.
• Töbörek is another Tatar variety, similar to a çibörek, but baked either in the convex side of the sac, or in a masonry oven instead of being fried in oil.
• Laz böreği, a specialty of the Rize region, is a sweet version, filled with muhallebi (Ottoman-style milk pudding) and served sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Most of the time, the word "börek" is accompanied in Turkish by a descriptive word referring to the shape, ingredients of the pastry, for the cooking methods or for or a specific region where it is typically prepared, as in the above kol böreği, su böreği, talaş böreği or Sarıyer böreği.

Albanian byrek or lakror

In Albania, this dish is called byrek, burek, or lakror; the most common fillings include cheese (especially Gjize, similar to Ricotta) or spinach and egg, but it can also be made with, tomato and onion, peppers and beans, potato or a sweet filling of pumpkin. Lakror generally would have a filling of greens, lakër being an Albanian word for cabbage. Byrek is traditionally made with several layers of dough that has been thinly rolled out by hand. The final form can be small, individual triangles, especially from street vendors called 'Byrektore' which sell byrek and other traditional pastries and drinks. It can also be made as one large byrek that is cut into smaller pieces. Byrek is traditional to southern Albania but is made throughout the country with variations. They can be served cold or hot.

Eastern Arab burek

Arab burek is often stuffed with minced or diced lamb or beef, or a mixture of the two. Various herbs and spices are used to flavour the meat, including turmeric, fresh parsley and nutmeg, and concentrated pomegranate juice, which gives the mixture a unique sweet and tangy taste. Fried or caramelized onions are usually added to the meat, as well as the traditional Arab staple of fried almonds and sultanas or raisins. Traditional Arab cheeses, including Jibin Baladi and Jibin Arab are often used instead of, or together with the meat. The mixture is wrapped in a sheet of dough, and then fried or deep-fried until crisp, and resembles a large egg roll. While most burek are made with phyllo, some traditional cooks and those in the tribal areas prefer a hand-kneaded dough.

Arab burek are most often served with other "dry" foods including kibbeh, with a jajik dip (yogurt, cucumber and garlic dip) forming an integral part of a traditional meze meal.

Armenian byorek

In Armenia, byorek (բյորեկ) or borek (բորեկ), consists of phyllo dough folded into triangles and stuffed with cheese, spinach or ground beef, and the filling is typically spiced. A popular combination is spinach, feta, cottage cheese (or pot cheese) and a splash of anise-flavored liquor (such as raki or ouzo). When filling with only cheese, many Armenian-Americans use brick cheese or muenster.

Assyrian burek

Assyrian burek is usually stuffed with spiced ground beef, though potatoes are also sometimes used instead. The stuffing is wrapped in a sheet of dough and then fried in oil and resembles egg rolls.

Bulgarian byurek

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.^[5]

In Bulgarian, the word 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 a cheese and eggs filling.^[5]

Greek bouréki or bourekáki

In Greece and Cyprus, boureki (μπουρέκι [bur'eki]) or bourekaki (μπουρεκάκι [bure'kaki], the diminutive form of the word), are small pastries made with phyllo dough or with pastry crust. A special type of boureki is found in the local cuisine of Crete and especially in the area of Chania. It is a pie filled with sliced zucchini, sliced potatoes, mizithra or feta cheese and spearmint, and may be baked with or without a thick top crust of phyllo.

Galaktoboureko is a syrupy phyllo pastry filled with custard, common throughout Greece and Cyprus. In the Epirus, σκερ-μπουρέκ (derives from the Turkish şeker-börek, "sugar-börek") is a small rosewater-flavored marzipan sweet. The Pontian Greek piroski (πιροσκί) derives its name from börek too.^[6]

Israel

In Israel, bourekas (Template:Lang-he-n) became popular as immigrants who settled there cooked the cuisine of their native countires. Bourekas can be found made from either phyllo dough or puff pastry filled with various fillings. Among the most popular fillings are salty cheese, mashed potato, mushrooms, spinach, eggplant and pizza-flavor. Most bourekas in Israel are made with margarine-based doughs, rather that butter-based doughs so that (at least the non-cheese filled varieties) can be eaten along with either milk meals or meat meals in accordance with the kosher prohibition against mixing milk and meat at the same meal.

Israeli bourekas come in several shapes and are often sprinkled with seeds. The shapes and choice of seeds are usually indicative of their fillings and have become fairly standard among small bakeries and large factories alike.

For example, Salty cheese (Bulgarian cheese)-filled bourekas are usually somewhat flat triangles with white sesame seeds on top. Less salty cheese-filled are semi-circular and usually made with puff pastry. Potato-filled are sesame topped, flat squares or rectangles made with phyllo and tend to be less oily than most other versions. Spinach-filled are made with a very delicate, oily phyllo dough shaped into round spirals. Mushroom-filled are bulging triangles with poppy seeds. Tuna-filled are bulging triangles with nigella seeds. Eggplant-filled are cylindrical with nigella seeds. Bean sprout-filled are cylindrical without seeds. Bourekas with a pizza sauce are often round spirals rising toward the middle or sometimes cylidrical without seeds, differentiated from the bean sprout-filled cyliders without seeds, by the red sauce oozing out the ends. Bourekas can also be found with mashed chickpeas, tuna and chickpea mix, pumpkin and even small cocktail frankfurters.

Bourekas come in small, "snack" size, often available in self-service bakeries, and sizes as large as four or five inches. The larger ones can serve as a snack or a meal, and can be sliced open, and stuffed with hard-boiled egg, pickles, tomatoes and skhug, a spicy Yemenite paste. Supermarkets stock a wide selection of frozen raw-dough bourekas ready for home baking. Bakeries and street vendors dealing exclusively in bourekas can be found in most Israeli cities. Small coffee-shop type establishments as well as lottery and sports betting parlors serving bourekas and coffee can also be found.

In recent years, Israelis have become aware of the high fat (especially trans-fat) content of bourekas leading many to question the dangers associated with their consumption.^[7]

Bourekas have given their name to Bourekas films, a peculiarly Israeli genre of comic melodramas or tearjerkers based on ethnic stereotypes.

Former Yugoslavia

Across the territories of former Yugoslavia, burek is regularly available at most bakeries, and usually eaten as "fast food". It is often consumed with yogurt. Apart from being sold at bakeries, burek is served in specialized stores selling burek (or pitas) and yogurt exclusively (Buregdžinica).

Serbian (round) burek in Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia

In Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia, burek is made from layers of dough, alternating with layers of other fillings in a circular baking pan and then topped with a last layer of dough. Traditionally it may be baked with no filling (prazan), with stewed minced meat and onions, or with cheese. Modern bakeries offer cheese and spinach, apple, sour cherries, potato, mushroom, and pizza-burek as well.

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.^[8] Eventually burek spread from the southeast (southern Serbia, Kosovo and Macedonia) to the rest of Yugoslavia. Most bakers who offer burek in Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia, Montenegro and Slovenia originate from the Niš area of southern Serbia, Kosovo or Macedonia.

Niš hosts an annual burek competition and festival called Buregdžijada. In 2005, a 100 kg (~200 lbs) burek was made, with a diameter of 2 metres (~6 ft)^[9] and it is considered to have been the world biggest burek ever made.^[10]

Serbian burek became popular in Croatia and in Slovenia in the second half of the 20th century. The first burek in Zagreb was made by bakers near Kolodvor, the main railway station, after World War II.^{[citation needed]}

In Slovenia, burek is one of the most popular fast-food dishes, but at least one researcher found that it is viewed negatively by Slovenes due to their prejudices towards immigrants, especially those from the countries of Former Yugoslavia.^[11] A publication of a diploma thesis on this at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana in 2010 stirred controversy regarding the appropriateness of the topic.^[12] The mentor of the student that had written the thesis described the topic as legitimate and burek as denoting primitive behavior in Slovenia in spite of it being a sophisticated food. He explained the controversy as a good example of the conclusions of the student.^[13] Actually, already in 2008, an employee of the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SRC SASA) had attained his PhD degree with a thesis on meta-burek at the University of Nova Gorica.^[14][15]

Bosnian burek

In Bosnia and Herzegovina a 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, and all of them are generically referred to as pita. Eggs are used as a binding agent when making sirnica and zeljanica.

This kind of pastry is also popular in Croatia, where it was imported by Bosnian Croats, and is usually called rolani burek (rolled burek).

In Serbian towns, Bosnian pastry dishes were imported by war refugees in the 1990s, and are usually called sarajevske pite or bosanske pite (Sarajevan pies or Bosnian pies). Similar dishes, although somewhat wider and with thinner dough layers, are called savijača or just "pita" in Serbia. These are usually homemade and not traditionally offered in bakeries.

Crimea

The Tatar version, one of the national dishes of the Crimean Tatars, is called Çibörek and is made from unleavened dough filled with ground lamb, onions and spices, fried in oil. It is a common street food in the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, and other countries that were once part of the USSR. Cheburek is the Russian pronunciation of the Tatar Çibörek, which means "delicious burek" or "raw börek".

Tunisian and Algerian brik

Brik is a Tunisian or Algerian börek, often fried; its best-known variant is composed of a whole egg in a triangular pastry pocket with chopped onion and parsley. Shrimp and capers are frequently included as well.

Origin and name

Börek has its origins in the Turkish cuisine (cf. Baklava) and is 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.^[2][3]

Börek in Turkish language refers to any dish made with yufka. The name comes from the Turkic root bur- 'to twist',^[16][17] (similar to Serbian word savijača (from savijati - to twist) which also describes a layered dough dish) and the navel shaped tortellini. The Turkish name may had been superimposed on a previous, older name of this type of food that alludes to the Latin umblicus (navel), that survived in the form of the Italian bellico, bilico respectively in its rhotacized Rumanian form buric ^[18]. Borek has been ultimately described as one of the modern survivals of the Ancient Greek plakounta whose phyllo like sheets ultimately allude to the texture of the anatomical organ placenta^[19], itself related to the navel. The Tatar böregi (Tartarian bureks) is a cheese and mint filled alternative name for the dumpling like dish called mantı which very much resemble tortellini.^[20]

See also

• Bierock
• Gibanica
• Pierogi
• Spanakopita

References

Footnotes

Notations

• Frosina.org