4 ms·

Pita isn't necessarily baked; is it in some other category?

sean_patel 10y ago
Correct. Pita is not bread. it literally means 'cake or pie' in modern Greek. Like I said, Americans like things 'dumbed down', so anything and everthing that is round and made with dough is called "____ Bread"
- tptacek 10y ago
  51% of Wikipedians believe that the word "Pita" is literally derived from West Asian words (in several languages) for (wait for it) "bread". Pita is obviously bread. Even your definition, which requires "baking in an oven", covers pita. If pita isn't bread, neither is naan --- at which point we've reached a pretty silly place of defining one of the world's most popular breads as "not bread".
  - thaumasiotes 10y ago
    etymonline (not infallible, but generally where I go for etymology questions) doesn't attempt to trace "pita" back beyond modern Greek or Hebrew. It doesn't give the impression that the origin of the word is well understood. I'm mostly with you as to bread (and certainly as to "pita is bread"), but I feel like noodles are generally not considered bread, despite being made from dough.
    - tptacek 10y ago
      Noodles are a great question. Why aren't noodles bread? * They're often made from dough that is identical to bread dough (perhaps minus the leavening) * They're cooked wet (which is why they don't leaven themselves) --- but then so are bagels and pretzels! I'm guessing the reason will go back to the original purpose of bread, which was to create a portable, palatable, readily accessible foodstuff from grain. Without bread, the only straightforward way to eat grains is porridge. So bread can (and I think maybe always is?) eaten out of hand, and is cooked often well in advance of consumption.
      - thaumasiotes 10y ago
        > Why aren't noodles bread? I tend to think that they're not considered "bread" for two reasons: - Their form factor is not appropriate for the concept "bread". - They don't contain perceptible air bubbles. Really, it's mainly the first one. Two categories can be, um, vocabularily distinguished for pretty arbitrary reasons. Noodles are just a case of the same thing from a nutritional perspective leaving the prototype for the "bread" concept far enough behind that they're perceived differently.
- thaumasiotes 10y ago
  > Pita is not bread. it literally means 'cake or pie' in modern Greek. You're going to have a tough time explaining tyropita.

Correct. Pita is not bread. it literally means 'cake or pie' in modern Greek. Like I said, Americans like things 'dumbed down', so anything and everthing that is round and made with dough is called "____ Bread"

tptacek 10y ago
51% of Wikipedians believe that the word "Pita" is literally derived from West Asian words (in several languages) for (wait for it) "bread". Pita is obviously bread. Even your definition, which requires "baking in an oven", covers pita. If pita isn't bread, neither is naan --- at which point we've reached a pretty silly place of defining one of the world's most popular breads as "not bread".
- thaumasiotes 10y ago
  etymonline (not infallible, but generally where I go for etymology questions) doesn't attempt to trace "pita" back beyond modern Greek or Hebrew. It doesn't give the impression that the origin of the word is well understood. I'm mostly with you as to bread (and certainly as to "pita is bread"), but I feel like noodles are generally not considered bread, despite being made from dough.
  - tptacek 10y ago
    Noodles are a great question. Why aren't noodles bread? * They're often made from dough that is identical to bread dough (perhaps minus the leavening) * They're cooked wet (which is why they don't leaven themselves) --- but then so are bagels and pretzels! I'm guessing the reason will go back to the original purpose of bread, which was to create a portable, palatable, readily accessible foodstuff from grain. Without bread, the only straightforward way to eat grains is porridge. So bread can (and I think maybe always is?) eaten out of hand, and is cooked often well in advance of consumption.
    - thaumasiotes 10y ago
      > Why aren't noodles bread? I tend to think that they're not considered "bread" for two reasons: - Their form factor is not appropriate for the concept "bread". - They don't contain perceptible air bubbles. Really, it's mainly the first one. Two categories can be, um, vocabularily distinguished for pretty arbitrary reasons. Noodles are just a case of the same thing from a nutritional perspective leaving the prototype for the "bread" concept far enough behind that they're perceived differently.
thaumasiotes 10y ago
> Pita is not bread. it literally means 'cake or pie' in modern Greek. You're going to have a tough time explaining tyropita.