[4][5] A recipe in Greek tradition recorded in Cato the Elder's De Agri Cultura (160 BC) describes placenta as a sweet layered cheese dish:[4][6][7] Shape the placenta as follows: place a single row of tracta along the whole length of the base dough.

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.Placenta remains the name for a flat baked pie containing cheese in Aromanian (plãtsintã) and in Romanian (plăcintă).

Other sources state that Turks also developed similar layered dishes like tiropita.

Layered pan-fried breads were developed by the Turks of Central Asia in the Late Middle Ages.

[8] The ancient tyropatinum described by Apicius, despite the similarity in name, was a sweet custard with no crust.