Pastries among peoples of different countries always have their own special characteristics that are specific to a particular region: thin Neapolitan flat cake made from unleavened dough with simple tomato and cheese filling has become popular worldwide pizza, rolled Israeli pita or pita bread with sliced meat and vegetables - no less a well-known doner kebab or shawarma, and Tatars' pies fried in butter - by all your favorite pasties. No less famous in Russia are the baked products of Ossetian cuisine, the so-called Ossetian pies. And today they are worthy of competition for any pastries, whether it is pizza, croissants or our pies.
What is an Ossetian pie
Traditional pastries of the peoples of Ossetia are a round or triangular cake with a thick layer of filling. You can even try such a dish without wasting your energy on cooking: Today you can order both by phone and online.
For the Ossetian pie, fresh yeast dough is kneaded, and the following can serve as filling:
- Ossetian cheese and ramson leaves,
- cabbage and cheese
- pumpkin,
- potatoes with cheese
- beans
- minced beef
- chard and Ossetian cheese,
- mushrooms and chives.
The list of possible fillings does not end there: every year bakers offer more and more new variations for this baking. By the way not necessarily salty. There are also sweet options - for example, with cherries. But in any case, there will be many fillings in such a pie, and the dough should be thin, but reliably hide the filling, not letting it stick out. Such Ossetian baked goods are called in accordance with the type of filling used: kofjin - pie with potatoes, zokojin - with mushrooms, cabuskadzhin - with cabbage.
Ossetian pies: new fast food
Hearty and juicy Ossetian pies are now becoming part of urban culture in Russia: they are easy to satisfy hunger, they have different tastes and are convenient for office lunch or a snack in a cafe. Due to such advantages, baking from Ossetia has become one of the modern types of fast food. However, the Ossetians themselves are not happy with the popularity of their culinary heritage: for them this food has a long ritual character, and many cultural organizations of Ossetia advocate that the Ossetian pies should be given the status of a “specialty” in the region and included in the UNESCO list of intangible heritage . This will allow preserving the recipe and ritual significance of Ossetian pies intact and will not make it possible to sell products under this name that differ from traditional recipes.