Amazing Meat
Up in the cool mountain sanctuaries, the goats and sheep are nibbling on my horta and are free to cross the new freeways for more food. Or they can simply rest on the warm asphalt until encouraged to move on. Lamb, by custom, is simply grilled or roasted and is a featured dish for feasts. The technique for grilling can cause great dispute among the cooks and back-seat cooks in the crowd. Certain Cretan grilling techniques are unique, which is a long delicious story. Ground lamb and innards are used in a wide variety of dishes in the springtime during Pascha (Easter). Small-scale lamb breeding is timed for Easter, so tiny chops are a rarity by summertime unless they have been frozen. Mutton is perfectly delicious as is goat, especially when it’s braised with a little tomato and cumin.

In the regions where the wild game has easy access to food, fresh water and hiding places, there’s often an abundance of wild hare, quail and squab. You’ll see variations of rabbit stifado, a wonderful stew loaded with caramelized onions, tomatoes and aromatics. Rabbit is relatively easy to raise and there’s no connection to Disney here to deter people from enjoying such savory dishes.

Turkeys and chickens are used for certain feasts. Chickens are more prevalent and can be seen roaming far from home. Truly free range poultry, as is the norm in rural Greece, can be tougher but more flavorful then their confined cousins. Their robust flavor is particularly good for making chicken stock.
Pork is abundant because it is easy to raise. In ancient times pork was reserved for the elite but not anymore. Pork fat is used in cooking in cooler northern regions where olive trees cannot be cultivated. Believe it or not, olive trees do not grow everywhere in Greece! In northern regions, like Evros on the border of Bulgaria and Turkey, you’ll see rich influences from the Balkans and the Near East – incredible homemade sausages, a great horta selection, hot peppers spicing up a range of dishes, white asparagus, corn and cabbage.

Beef, while available in urban butcher shops or freezer sections, is difficult to produce here due to limited pastureland. It’s not worth the trouble for small-scale farmers because it is too expensive for the average resident. However, braised veal dishes and spicy beef pies are favored by the locals of the Ionian islands.

springtime, but small-scale cheese makers sometimes produce throughout the year.

The fascination with emulsifying ingredients to create rich sauces has been noted in ancient Greek texts. So-called mother sauces such as béchamel, brown sauce, mayonnaise and avgolemeno originated here. From these foundations, many complex sauces have been developed. Within this context, there are mother cheeses that are the foundation for as many variations as there are cheese makers. Feta is the most popular, Kasseri is a semi-hard cheese similar to Romano but creamier, Kefalotiri resembles Parmesan.