土耳其船形烤饼

Both are Turkish baked flatbreads, but they're different. Pide is thicker, boat-shaped with folded, pinched edges, and has a more generous topping (cheese, minced meat, egg) baked into the dough — it's substantial and eaten in strips. Lahmacun is very thin, round and crisp, with a thin layer of spiced minced meat spread across the whole surface, usually rolled up to eat. Pide is heartier; lahmacun is light and crisp.

Pide is often called 'Turkish pizza' as a shorthand, since it's a baked flatbread with savoury toppings — but it's its own thing, with a distinctive boat shape, folded edges and chewy hand-stretched base, and toppings like kaşar cheese, spiced kıyma or egg rather than tomato sauce and mozzarella. (Lahmacun is also sometimes called Turkish pizza.) It predates and differs from Italian pizza.

Roll the dough into a long oval, spread the filling down the middle leaving a border, then fold the two long sides inward over the edge of the filling and pinch the two ends together into points — that gives the canoe shape with raised, folded rims. Bake it hot and fast on a preheated stone or tray so the base crisps quickly while the topping cooks. Brushing with butter on exit adds shine and flavour.

For egg-topped pide (yumurtalı), crack the egg into the centre of the boat only in the last few minutes of baking, so the white sets but the yolk stays runny and rich. Adding it at the start would overcook the yolk. The soft yolk, broken into the cheese or meat as you eat, is part of the appeal. It's optional but popular.

Classic Turkish pide toppings include kaşar cheese (kaşarlı), spiced minced meat (kıymalı), diced meat (kuşbaşılı), sucuk sausage (sucuklu), and egg (yumurtalı), often in combination. Vegetable and spinach-cheese versions exist too. The dough and boat shape stay the same; the filling is up to you. Meat versions are typically served with a squeeze of lemon.