View source for Tiropita

{{Short description|Greek layered pastry food}}
{{Infobox prepared food
| name             = Tiropita
| image            = Tiropita Greek dish.jpg
| image_size       = 250px
| caption          = Tiropita with garnish.
| alternate_name   = 
| country          = {{GRE}}
| region           = 
| creator          = 
| course           = 
| type             = 
| served           = 
| main_ingredient  = [[phyllo]], [[egg]]s, [[cheese]]
| variations       = 
| calories         = 
| other            = 
}}

'''Tiropita''' or '''tyropita''' ([[Greek language|Greek]]: τυρóπιτα, "cheese-pie") is a [[Balkan cuisine|Greek]] [[pastry]] made with layers of buttered [[phyllo]] and filled with a cheese-egg mixture.<ref>{{cite web|last=Ozimek|first=Sarah|title=Tiropita (Greek Cheese Pies)|website=Curious Cuisinière|date=1 February 2017|access-date=10 February 2020|url=https://www.curiouscuisiniere.com/tiropita/|quote="Tiropita (or tyropita) is a Greek pie made from layers of phyllo dough that are filled with a cheese and egg mixture."}}</ref> It is served either in an individual-size free-form wrapped shape, or as a larger pie that is portioned.

When made with [[kasseri]] cheese, it may be called ''kasseropita'' ({{lang|grc|κασερόπιτα}}).<ref>{{cite book |  author1 = Dr. Catherine Donnelly | author2 = Mateo Kehler |  name-list-style = amp | title = The Oxford Companion to Cheese | publisher = Oxford University Press  | date = 2016 | isbn = 9780199330904 | access-date = 23 January 2017 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pRrGDQAAQBAJ&q=kasseropita&pg=PT579 }}</ref>

'''Spanakotiropita''' is filled with spinach and cheese; ''cf.'' [[spanakopita]].<ref>"Hellenic Palace" (restaurant review), ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' '''1''':4:5 (April 29, 1968)</ref>

==History==

According to some scholars, it is stated that in [[Ancient Greek cuisine]], [[placenta cake]] (or ''plakous'', πλακοῦς), and its descendants in [[Byzantine cuisine]], ''plakountas tetyromenous'' (πλακούντας τετυρομένους, "cheesy placenta") and ''en tyritas plakountas'' (εν τυρίτας πλακούντας, "cheese-inserted placenta"), are the ancestors of modern ''tiropita''.<ref name=Faas>{{harvnb|Faas|2005|pp=184–185}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Salaman|1986|p=184}}; {{harvnb|Vryonis|1971|p=482}}.</ref> A recipe in Greek tradition recorded in [[Cato the Elder]]'s ''[[De Agri Cultura]]'' (160 BC) describes placenta as a sweet layered cheese dish:<ref name=Faas/><ref>Cato the Elder. ''De Agri Cultura'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cato/De_Agricultura/E*.html 76].</ref><ref name="Goldstein">{{harvnb|Goldstein|2015|loc="ancient world": "The next cake of note, first mentioned about 350 B.C.E. by two Greek poets, is ''plakous''. [...] At last, we have recipes and a context to go with the name. ''Plakous'' is listed as a delicacy for second tables, alongside dried fruits and nuts, by the gastronomic poet Archestratos. He praises the ''plakous'' made in Athens because it was soaked in Attic honey from the thyme-covered slopes of Mount Hymettos. His contemporary, the comic poet Antiphanes, tells us the other main ingredients, goat’s cheese and wheat flour. Two centuries later, in Italy, Cato gives an elaborate recipe for placenta (the same name transcribed into Latin), redolent of honey and cheese. The modern Romanian ''plăcintă'' and the Viennese ''Palatschinke'', though now quite different from their ancient Greek and Roman ancestor, still bear the same name."}}</ref> 
<blockquote>Shape the ''placenta'' as follows: place a single row of ''[[tracta (dough)|tracta]]'' along the whole length of the base dough. This is then covered with the mixture [cheese and honey] 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.</blockquote>
Placenta remains the name for a flat baked pie containing cheese in [[Aromanian language|Aromanian]] (plãtsintã) and in [[Romanian language|Romanian]] ([[plăcintă]]).{{Cn|date=March 2025}}

Other sources state that Turks also developed similar layered dishes like tiropita. Layered pan-fried breads were developed by the [[Turkic peoples|Turks]] of [[Central Asia]] in the [[Late Middle Ages]].<ref>{{harvnb|Perry|2000|pp=87–92}}.</ref>

The ancient ''tyropatinum'' described by [[Apicius]], despite the similarity in name, was a sweet [[custard]] with no crust.<ref>Betty Wason, ''Cooks, Gluttons and Gourmets'', 2018, {{isbn|178912459X}}, ''n.p.''</ref>

==See also==
{{wikibooks|tyropita}}
*[[Banitsa (pastry)|Banitsa]]
*[[Börek]]
*[[Gibanica]]
*[[Khachapuri]]
*[[Peinirli]]
*[[Placenta cake]]

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist|2}}

===Sources===
*{{cite book|last=Faas|first=Patrick|year=2005|title=Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome|location=Chicago, IL|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|isbn=0226233472|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YXGlAr17oekC}}
*{{cite book|editor-last=Goldstein|editor-first=Darra|year=2015|title=The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0199313396|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jbi6BwAAQBAJ}}
*{{cite book|last=Musco|first=Tom|year=2003|title=UMass Journalism Sicily: A History of Sicilian Cuisine|location=Amherst, MA|publisher=University of Massachusetts Journalism Program|url=https://www.umass.edu/journal/sicilyprogram/sicilianfoodhistory.html}}
*{{cite book|last=Perry|first=Charles|year=2000|chapter=6. The Taste for Layered Bread among the Nomadic Turks and the Central Asian Origins of Baklava|pages=87–92|editor-last1=Zubaida|editor-first1=Sami|editor-last2=Tapper|editor-first2=Richard|editor-last3=Roden|editor-first3=Claudia|title=A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East|location=London and New York|publisher=Tauris Parke Paperbacks|isbn=1860646034}}  
*{{cite book|last=Salaman|first=Rena|chapter=The Case of the Missing Fish, or ''Dolmathon Prolegomena'' (1984)|pages=184–187|editor-last=Davidson|editor-first=Alan|year=1986|title=Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery 1984 & 1985, Cookery: Science, Lore and Books Proceedings|location=London|publisher=Prospect Books Limited|isbn=9780907325161|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jYa3J6xrjt4C}}
*{{cite book|last=Vryonis|first=Speros|year=1971|title=The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century|location=Berkeley, CA|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-52-001597-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wBpIAAAAMAAJ}}

{{Cuisine of Cyprus}}
{{Cuisine of Greece}}
{{Greek pitas}}
{{Cheese dishes}}
{{pastries}}

[[Category:Greek pastries]]
[[Category:Cypriot cuisine]]
[[Category:Appetizers]]
[[Category:Cheese pastries]]
[[Category:Savoury pies]]