Greek Feta Cheese
Greek feta cheese is the most popular cheese in Greece, usually made
from sheep’s milk, with a soft texture and salty taste and used to top off a
Greek salad.
Greek Salad
It’s impossible to miss Greek feta cheese when visiting
Greece. If you order a Greek salad it will almost certainly come with a slab of
white feta cheese on top of it. It’s a delicious cheese that is both creamy and
salty at the same time, and the perfect accompaniment to the salad and its flavor-filled
mix of tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, olives, greens, and onions.
Greek Salad
How is Greek Feta
Cheese Served?
Feta is so popular in Greece that it is served in a variety
of ways, not just with a Greek salad. You can order it as a dish on its own as
part of a meze, and if you order saganaki, or fried cheese, chances are in most
places it will be feta, although several other cheeses can also be used. And if
you’ve never tried saganaki, order it the next time you get the chance. It’s
unusual and really tasty.
Greek Feta Cheese
You will also find feta in tyropita (cheese pies) and in spanakopita (spinach pies), which have some cheese included as well. These are two of the most popular street foods in Greece, and we eat them all the time. It’s basically fast food, so some are better than others, but if you find a good one you will keep going back, guaranteed. An omelette with cheese in it? Yes, that will almost certainly be feta too.
How is Greek Feta
Cheese Made?
In Greece, feta cheese is usually made with sheep’s milk, though it can also be made with a mix of sheep’s milk and goat’s milk. To be legally described as Greek feta cheese there should be no more than 30% goat’s milk. The milk is usually (but doesn’t have to be) pasteurized.
The milk is heated then cooled, when rennet is added. Once
it’s solidified, the cheese is put in a cloth bag for the whey to drain away. The
cheese is then cut up and salt added, and left to mature for several days.
After this, the cheese is then put into brine and matured for several weeks at
room temperature, and then for two months in a refrigerated but high-humidity
place, though these things can vary from maker to maker. You then have feta
cheese!
Greek Feta Cheese
Where is Greek Feta
Cheese Made?
Feta cheese can be made anywhere in the world, and is made from Armenia to Vietnam. That’s because it is a fairly straightforward cheese to make, using simple and available local ingredients, and it goes well with a wide variety of food. However, some historians say it probably originated in Greece.
Within the EU (European Union) Greek feta has a Protected
Designation of Origin (PDO). In other words, you can’t make the cheese outside
Greece and call it Greek feta cheese, even if made in the Greek style. In
Greece it’s made across much of the mainland, and in some of the islands, the
most notable being Lesbos, which is especially renowned for its feta as well as
its wonderful ouzo.
Other Greek food and drink pages
Greece Travel Secrets visits the Zacharioudakis Winery near Ancient Gortina in southern Crete, and does a vineyard tour arranged by our guide from Go Crete.
If you're wondering where to eat in Athens and Piraeus we have a few suggestions including some favorites around the Acropolis, Omonia Square, and Syntagma.
Greece Travel Secrets tours the Lyrarakis Winery on Crete and learns about Crete grape varieties such as plyto, dafni, vidiano, vilana, mandilari and kotsifali.
Greece Travel Secrets visits the Cretan Botano herbs and spices shop near Matala in southern Crete in search of the herb man of Kouses.
The Stilianou Winery near Knossos on Crete uses only Cretan grape varieties, with every bottle numbered, and aims for quality rather than quantity.
Visiting Santorini wineries is a popular activity on this Greek island in the Cyclades, whose volcanic soil provides a distinctive terroir.
How to make Petimezi, the sweet Cretan syrup made from wine must, is explained to Greece Travel Secrets.
The Goules Taverna in Goulediana, south of Rethymnon, has been called one of the best tavernas on Crete and Greece Travel Secrets recently visited them.
For a Crete olive oil tour Greece Travel Secrets visits Biolea, one of the few olive oil factories on Crete that you can visit.
Corfu olives are an important part of this Greek island's economy, with an estimated 3-4 million trees producing olive oil of exceptional quality.
Information for travelers on Corfu Food and Drink including restaurants and tavernas, Corfiot specialties, desserts, wine and other Greek drinks like ouzo.
The First Corfu Beer Festival took place in Arillas in North West Corfu and celebrated the beer of Bavaria and of Corfu, in the Ionian islands of Greece.
Two of the best cocktail bars in Athens, MoMix Kerameikos and The Clumsies, are making creative cocktails using that most Greek of Greek spirits, Metaxa.
Athens Food Tours are being introduced by new company The Greek Fork, and will include tours of the Central Market, and the best street food.
Athens, an Eater's Guide to the City, is published by Culinary Backstreets, who do walking food tours in Athens and the book recommends the best places to eat.
This Athens dining guide doesn't list restaurants but gives practical advice on types of eating places, tipping, hotel breakfasts and picnics.
Athens culinary tours are among the food walking tours offered by an unusual company, Culinary Backstreets.
Greek food and drink is a highlight of any visit and Greece Travel Secrets brings you info about food and drink from all over Greece, from Athens to Zakynthos.
Greece Travel Secrets tells the history of the classic Greek dish tzatziki, with a recipe for making your own yogurt and cucumber dip.
Greece Travel Secrets explains the long history of the Greek dish of dolmades, or stuffed vine leaves, which goes back to ancient Greece, and provides a recipe.
Greece Travel Secrets reveals the history of the classic Greek dish, moussaka, as well as providing a recipe for you to make your own.
Corfu’s special cuisine includes dishes like sofrito and pastitsade and the chance to try ginger beer and kumquats.
Antonis Maroudas is a Zakynthos winemaker who lives on the 'wine road' and is one of the people who make Zakynthos.
The Greece Travel Secrets guide to Greek grape varieties to help you know which wines to choose when dining in restaurants or buying wine in Greece.
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