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The European tradition of pastry-making is often traced back to the shortcrust era of flaky doughs that were in use throughout the Mediterranean in ancient times. In the ancient Mediterranean, the Romans, Greeks, and Phoenicians all had filo-style pastries in their culinary traditions.
In the plays of [[Aristophanes]], written in the 5th century BC, there is mention of sweetmeats, including small pastries filled with fruit. [[Ancient Roman cuisine|Roman cuisine]] used flour, oil, and water to make pastries that were used to cover meats and [[fowl]]s during baking in order to keep in the juices, but the pastry was not meant to be eaten. A pastry that was meant to be eaten was a richer pastry that was made into small pastries containing eggs or little birds and that were often served at banquets. Greeks and Romans both struggled in making a good pastry because they used oil in the cooking process, and oil causes the pastry to lose its stiffness.<ref>[http://www.pfisterconsulting.com/history.htm History of Baking and Pastry Cooking<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113214001/http://www.pfisterconsulting.com/history.htm |date=2013-01-13 }}</ref>
In the [[medieval cuisine]] of [[Northern Europe]], pastry chefs were able to produce nice, stiff pastries because they cooked with shortening and butter. Some incomplete lists of ingredients have been found in medieval cookbooks, but no full, detailed versions. There were stiff, empty pastries called coffins or '[[huff paste]]', that were eaten by servants only and included an [[egg yolk]] glaze to help make them more enjoyable to consume. Medieval pastries also included small tarts to add richness.
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