Greek food products
Encyclopedia
Olive oilOlive oilOlive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...
Greece produces more than 430,000 tons of olive oil annually, and more than 75% of that is extra virgin. Greek olive oil is exported throughout the world.Olive oil plays a unique role in the Greek diet, being the basis of many traditional dishes and Greece is the world's third leading producer.Olive oil have been around for many thousands of years.
HoneyHoneyHoney is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
Honey in Greece is mainly flower-honey from the nectar of fruit and citrus trees (lemon, orange, bigarade trees), thyme honey, and pine honey from conifer trees.OuzoOuzoOuzo is an anise-flavored aperitif that is widely consumed in Greece and Cyprus, and a symbol of Greek culture.-History:Traditionally, tsipouro is said to have been the pet project of a group of 14th century monks living in a monastery on holy Mount Athos. One version of it is flavored with anise...
Ouzo (a.c. ~ 40%) is an aniseAnise
Anise , Pimpinella anisum, also called aniseed, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia. Its flavor resembles that of liquorice, fennel, and tarragon.- Biology :...
-flavored alcoholic aperitif similar to the French pastis
Pastis
Pastis is an anise-flavored liqueur and apéritif from France, typically containing 40–45% alcohol by volume, although alcohol-free varieties exist.-Origins:...
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TsipouroTsipouroTsipouro is a pomace brandy from Greece and in particular Thessaly , Epirus, Macedonia, Mani Peninsula, and the island of Crete . Tsipouro is a strong distilled spirit containing approximately 45 percent alcohol by volume and is produced from the pomace...
In many areas, individuals or small-time local producers make tsipouro, which is essentially quite different than the widely known ouzoOuzo
Ouzo is an anise-flavored aperitif that is widely consumed in Greece and Cyprus, and a symbol of Greek culture.-History:Traditionally, tsipouro is said to have been the pet project of a group of 14th century monks living in a monastery on holy Mount Athos. One version of it is flavored with anise...
. The taste of tsipouro varies widely by producer, but many Greeks prefer their favorite local tsipouro to the more commonly-available brands of mass-produced ouzo. The traditional hospitality greeting for travellers visiting the monasteries
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
at Mount Athos
Mount Athos
Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the...
is a small glass of tsipouro and a loukoumi, a candy-like homemade treat.
CheeseCheeseCheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
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- FetaFetaFeta is a brined curd cheese traditionally made in Greece. Feta is an aged crumbly cheese, commonly produced in blocks, and has a slightly grainy texture. It is used as a table cheese, as well as in salads Feta is a brined curd cheese traditionally made in Greece. Feta is an aged crumbly cheese,...
: A semi-soft, crumbly, brined white cheese made from goat or sheep milkSheep milkSheep's milk is the milk of domestic sheep. Though not widely drunk in any modern culture, sheep's milk is commonly used to make cultured dairy products. Well-known cheeses made from sheep milk include the Feta of Greece, Roquefort of France, Manchego from Spain, the Pecorino Romano , the Pecorino...
. - KasseriKasseriKasseri is a medium-hard pale yellow cheese made from unpasteurized sheep milk with very little, if any, goat's milk mixed in, in Greece and Turkey...
: a medium hard yellow cheese made from sheep or goat milk - Kefalotyri: A hard and very salty cheese, used mainly for grating and serving with pasta.
- GravieraGravieraGraviera is a cheese from Greece mainly produced on the Greek island of Crete. It is not to be confused with the Swiss cheese gruyère, which is a related cheese that in some languages has a name similar to Graviera....
: A Greek version of GruyereGruyère (cheese)Gruyère is a hard yellow cheese, named after the town of Gruyères in Switzerland, and originated in the cantons of Fribourg, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Jura, and Berne...
, it is served with meals or used for grating and serving with pasta. - Manouri: An unsalted soft white cheese served on its own or used in savoury or sweet pies.
- MetsovoneMetsovone cheeseMetsovone is a semi-hard smoked pasta filata cheese produced in the region of Metsovo . Metsovone has been a European protected designation of origin since 1996....
: A semi-hard smoked cheeseSmoked CheeseSmoked cheese is any cheese that has been specially treated by smoke-curing. It typically has a yellowish-brown outer "skin," which is a result of this curing process. The tradition of flavoring cheese by smoke originated in Denmark making the only type of cheese that is solely a Danish...
traditionally produced in MetsovoMetsovoMetsovo is a town in Epirus on the mountains of Pindus in northern Greece, between Ioannina to the north and Meteora to the south. The largest centre of Vlach life in Greece, Metsovo is bypassed by GR-6 and also by Egnatia Odos Motorway....
. - Mizithra: An unsalted soft cheese made from sheep milk. Served on its own or used in sweet or savoury pies. A slightly aged, sour version is called xynomizithra.
- Anthotyros is a hard grating cheese made by aging mizithra.
Greek wineWineWine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
Greece is a heavy producer and consumer of wine.- KitronKitronKitron is a lemon liqueur produced on the Greek island of Naxos. It is made from the fruit and leaves of the citron tree, which is similar to the lemon tree but stronger and slightly different in taste....
- MavrodafniMavrodafniMavrodafni is both a black wine grape indigenous to the Achaia region in Northern Peloponnese, Greece, and the sweet, fortified wine produced from it.-Winemaking:...
- RetsinaRetsinaRetsina is a Greek white resinated wine that has been made for at least 2000 years. Its unique flavor is said to have originated from the practice of sealing wine vessels, particularly amphorae, with Aleppo Pine resin in ancient times. Before the invention of impermeable glass bottles, oxygen...
- XynomavroXynomavroXinomavro is the principal red wine grape of the uplands of the Naoussa in the prefecture of Imathia, and Amyntaion areas, in Northern Greece. Various writers have compared Xinomavro to Bordeaux, Burgundy, Barolo, etc....
- Vin santoVin santoVin Santo or Vino Santo is a style of Italian dessert wine. Traditional in Tuscany, these wines are often made from white grape varieties such as Trebbiano and Malvasia, though Sangiovese may be used to produce a rosé style known as Occhio di Pernice or eye of the partridge...
See also
- Economy of GreeceEconomy of GreeceThe economy of Greece is the 32nd largest in the world by nominal gross domestic product and the 37th largest at purchasing power parity , according to data by the World Bank for the year 2010...
- Cuisine of Greece