Burek, also called borek or byrek, is a family of pastries or pies made across West Asia and Southeast Europe from a thin, flaky dough such as filo, filled with ingredients such as meat, cheese, spinach or potatoes. It may be baked in a large pan and cut into portions afterward, or prepared as individual pastries, and while it is usually baked, some varieties are fried and it can be sprinkled with sesame or nigella seeds and served hot or cold. Across Southeast Europe and West Asia it is commonly served with ayran or yogurt, and it is a Sephardic Jewish custom to eat bourekas for Shabbat breakfast on Saturday mornings.
Facts
Disputed
Origin Period, From (Year)Sourced to the subject's own accountThe earliest record of the Turkish word boerek appears in the 12th-century Turkish epic Danishmendname, where a sweet pastry called seker boregi is mentioned; opens the 12th-century bracket (1101-1200) for the earliest documented use of the word, not a claim about the dish's own invention date, which the source treats as genuinely contested. Origin RegionAnatolia and the Balkans (West Asia and Southeast Europe); origin contested between a Byzantine Greek layered-dough theory and a Central Asian Turkic yufka-dough theory 1 Sourced to the subject's own accountThe source states the exact origin of boerek is unclear, with many cultures claiming credit: one theory traces it to the Byzantine Greek dish en tyritas plakountas, another to the Turkic custom of layering yufka flatbread. Origin Period, To (Year)Sourced to the subject's own accountCloses the origin-year bracket at the 15th century (1401-1500), when food historian Gil Marks speculates yufka dough had evolved into the thin, sophisticated form used for modern boerek, per the source's own framing as speculation, not a documented event in a specific year. Classification
Dietary SuitabilitySourced to the subject's own accountContains Meat or Poultry 1 Connections
In Cuisine
Source Burek (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Burek (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHistory
The exact origin of börek is unclear, with many cultures claiming credit, while the general practice of layering thin breads and fillings has been perserved and independently invented by multiple different cultures.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%B6rek (dietary-suitability)
The pastry is made of a thin flaky dough such as filo with a variety of fillings, such as meat, cheese, spinach, or potatoes.
- In Cuisine: Turkish Cuisine
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