Phyllo, Strudel
Unlike puff pastry doughs, sheet pastry
doughs are prepared one layer at a time, and
are assembled into pastries with a few dozen
layers just before cooking. Charles Perry
speculates that phyllo pastry was invented in
Istanbul in the time of the early Ottoman
empire around 1500; it’s now used to make
the Eastern Mediterranean honey-nut sweet
baklava, savory turnovers (Turkish boreks),
and many savory pies (Greek spanakopita and
others). During the period when the Ottoman
Turks ruled parts of eastern Europe, the phyllo
leaf was adopted in Hungary as retes and in
Austria as strudel.
Food Words: Phyllo, Strudel
Phyllo is the Greek ancestor of French
feuille and like it means “leaf.” Strudel
reflects the unusual rolled form of this
version of sheet pastry: it is German for