A square parcel of puff pastry filled with a braised stew of cubed lamb and green peas — a börek that, unusually, is built from flaky butter-puff dough rather than thin yufka. The lamb is simmered tender with onion and sometimes carrot and potato, cooled, sealed into pastry squares, brushed with egg and baked until they puff up tall and bronze. Inside is a small, rich meat stew in a crisp golden shell. It is a guest-table and restaurant dish across Turkey.
Talaş böreği, also called Nemse böreği — Austrian börek — stands apart from the yufka family in using laminated puff pastry, and its alternative name points to the European, French-influenced baking that entered Ottoman and later Turkish cuisine. The word talaş means wood shavings or sawdust, a nod to the way the crisp puff pastry flakes and crumbles. Rather than an ancient Anatolian dish, it reflects the meeting of a Turkish braised-lamb filling with a Western pastry technique, and is treated as a more refined, special-occasion börek.
The shell shatters into buttery flakes the moment it is bitten, scattering like the shavings its name describes, and gives way to a hot, soft pocket of stewed lamb and sweet peas in a little concentrated gravy. The contrast is the whole appeal — dry, crisp, fatty pastry against moist, savoury, spoon-tender meat. Served hot, often two or three to a plate, it eats like a small individual meat pie and is filling on its own.
Puff pastry is what defines the dish, and it works on a different principle from yufka: hundreds of butter-and-dough layers, folded and chilled, trap water that flashes to steam in a hot oven and forces the layers sky-high. That is why the filling must be fully cooked and thoroughly cooled and fairly dry before wrapping — a hot or wet filling melts the butter layers before they can puff, collapsing the rise and leaving the base soggy. A hot start around 200°C drives the initial lift before the temperature is eased to set the crust through.
Variations
The classic filling is cubed lamb with green peas, often extended with onion, carrot and potato in a light gravy; a beef version is common, and a pistachio-and-lamb filling appears in richer renditions. Some cooks fold the pastry into triangles or rounds rather than squares. A plainer everyday relative skips the puff lamination for a shortcrust-style dough, but the tall, flaking puff version is what the name properly denotes.
On the Palate
Where Talaş Böreği sits in the Turkish flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
6 steps · 45 min active + 45 min waiting
- 140 min
Braise cubed lamb with chopped onion and a little water until tender, then add peas and cook until the liquid is thick and scant.
- 215 min
Season the filling, let it cool completely and drain off any excess liquid.
Watch outThe filling must be fully cooled and drained dry before wrapping — a hot or wet filling melts the butter layers before they can puff and leaves the base soggy.
- 35 min
Roll out chilled puff pastry and cut it into squares.
- 48 min
Spoon cooled filling onto each square and fold over into a sealed parcel, pressing the edges firmly.
- 53 min
Set the parcels on a lined tray, seam down, and brush the tops with beaten egg.
- 635 min
Bake at 200°C until risen and deep golden, easing the heat if needed to cook through, and serve hot.
Watch outStart hot at 200 to force the initial rise, then ease off to cook through — a cool start and the layers never lift.
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