Preserving

Green Scored and Cured Olives are easy to make at home and make a wonderful snack, appetizer to to accompany many meals, including Greek breakfast.

The ancient Greeks ate a lot of garlic and used to call it “The Stinky Rose”.   Ancient Greek athletes competing in the earliest Olympic games did not turn to steroids to enhance their performance, but to garlic.

This Aromatic Kagianas is is a dish made with eggs, aromatic herbs, such as Kafkalithres (Mediterranean Hartwort), Myronia (chervil) and pasto (cured pork) from Lakonia.

Glyko stafyli or grape preserve are candied grapes in syrup. It is a quick and easy confection to make. You can serve it as it is or used it in other desserts.

I’ve already spoken about syglino or pasto which is cured pork meat which is smoked. However, after the meat is cured and smoked it has to be cooked and preserved in olive oil. This is an old method which they used when there were no refrigerators but it is still used as it adds flavour to the cured meat.

Pantzaria Xydata (pronounced pan-TZAh-rhia Ksee-DAH-tah) are beets preserved in vinegar, which are one of our favourite vegetables to preserve.

Kydoni (quince) is known from ancient years and its cultivation is said to have preceded that of the apple culture. Many references to «apples», in the ancient years may have been to a quince. 

Zalatina, as it is called in Cyprus, or pichti in Greece, is a traditional delicacy, served as an appetizer, originally made from the head and trotters of the pig, which create a gel when it sets.

Making candied or other citrus peels, is a good way to use up the rind and it goes good with any citrus flavoured cake. Try it as it tastes amazing.

Glyko Karpouzi is a fruit preserve made with the rind of the watermelon (karpouzi in Greek pronounced Glee-KHO kar-POU-zee), so whenever you get a thick skinned watermelon, you can use the rind to make this sweet fruit preserve.