When meat is baked in parcels it is referred to as “kleftiko”. This dish is sometimes referred to as fetta kleftiko. In Greek, kleftiko means to steal. It is said that when Greeks were fighting to gain their freedom from the Ottoman rule and hiding in the mountains, they would seal all the ingredients for their meat dishes in a clay pot and bury it with hot coals deep underground. They would then cover the clay pot with dirt and slow braise the meat. This was an ingenious way to hide their food from the Turks and to ensure that there were no delicious cooking smells in the air to betray their presence and bring the Ottomans to their hideout.
Nowadays, lamb or other ingredients such as chicken are sealed inside baking paper and aluminium foil to keep the meat moist and seal all the flavour and fragrant juices, or baked in a large covered clay pot.