Tiropita or tyropita (
Greek: τυρóπιτα, "cheese-pie") is a
Greek pastry made with layers of buttered
phyllo and filled with a cheese-egg mixture. It is served either in an individual-size free-form wrapped shape, or as a larger pie that is portioned.
When made with
kasseri
Kasseri or Kaşar (Greek: κασέρι, Turkish: ''kaşar''Merriam-Webster Unabridged ''kasseri''/ref>) is a medium-hard or hard pale yellow cheese made from pasteurised or unpasteurised sheep milk and at most 20% goat's milk. "Kasseri" is a pr ...
cheese, it may be called ''kasseropita'' ().
Spanakotiropita is filled with spinach and cheese; ''cf.''
spanakopita.
History
Layered dishes like tiropita may originate from layered pan-fried breads developed by the
Turks of
Central Asia before their westward migration to
Anatolia in the late
Middle Ages (''cf.''
baklava
Baklava (, or ; ota, باقلوا ) is a layered pastry dessert made of filo pastry, filled with chopped nuts, and sweetened with syrup or honey. It was one of the most popular sweet pastries of Ottoman cuisine.
The pre- Ottoman origin of the ...
).
Some scholars state that in
Ancient Greek cuisine,
placenta cake (or ''plakous'', πλακοῦς), and its descendants in
Byzantine cuisine
Byzantine cuisine was the continuation of local Greek cuisine and Mediterranean gastronomy. The development of the Byzantine Empire and trade brought in spices, sugar and new vegetables to Greece.
Cooks experimented with new combinations of foo ...
, ''plakountas tetyromenous'' (πλακούντας τετυρομένους, "cheesy placenta") and ''en tyritas plakountas'' (εν τυρίτας πλακούντας, "cheese-inserted placenta"), are the ancestors of modern ''tiropita''.
[.] A recipe recorded in
Cato the Elder's ''
De Agri Cultura'' (160 BC) describes placenta as a sweet layered cheese dish:
[
]Shape the ''placenta'' as follows: place a single row of ''tracta
Tracta was a French car maker based in Asnières, Seine, that was active between 1926 and 1934. They were pioneers of front-wheel-drive vehicles.
The business
The business was directed and cars were designed by the engineer Jean-Albert Grégoire ...
'' along the whole length of the base dough. This is then covered with the mixture heese and honey Heese is a Germanic surname. It may refer to:
*Daniel Heese (1867–1901), German Christian missionary in South Africa
*Fred Heese (born 1943), Canadian sprint canoer
*Horst Heese (born 1943), German former professional football player and manager
...
from the mortar. Place another row of ''tracta'' on top and go on doing so until all the cheese and honey have been used up. Finish with a layer of ''tracta''...place the placenta in the oven and put a preheated lid on top of it ..When ready, honey is poured over the placenta.
Placenta remains the name for a flat baked pie containing cheese in Aromanian (plãtsintã) and in Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
( plăcintă).
The ancient ''tyropatinum'' described by Apicius, despite the similarity in name, was a sweet custard
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency fro ...
with no crust.[Betty Wason, ''Cooks, Gluttons and Gourmets'', 2018, , ''n.p.'']
See also
* Banitsa
* Börek
*Gibanica
Gibanica ( sr-cyr, Гибаница, ) is a traditional pastry dish popular all over the Balkans. It is usually made with cottage cheese and eggs. Recipes can range from sweet to savoury, and from simple to festive and elaborate multi-layered ...
* Khachapuri
* Peinirli
* Placenta cake
References
Citations
Sources
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{{pastries
Greek pastries
Cypriot cuisine
Appetizers
Cheese dishes
Savoury pies
