A slice of Greece: feta cheese

Hard to imagine greek cuisine without it, Feta, the epitome of the country’s cheese making legacy, is a real palate charmer. It’s roots go back thousands of years to earliest antiquity. A white cheese, aged in brine, it ranges in texture from soft to semi-hard, may be solid or perforated with tiny holes, and unlike many French cheeses, it has no skin. It’s flavor, which differs slightly depending on where it comes from, rages from mild and sweetish to tangy and rich, filling the mouth, while its aroma may contain traces of herbs and wood, as well as butter, milk and salinity.

In ancient Greece, the earliest records of cheesemaking can be found in Homer‘s ‘Odyssey’ where the Cyclops Polyphemus was the first to prepare feta’s ancestor.

“We entered the cave, but he wasn’t there, only his plump sheep grazed in the meadow. The woven baskets were full of cheese, the folds were full of sheep and goats and all his pots, tubs and churns where he drew the milk, were full of whey. When half of the snow-white milk curdled he collected it put it in the woven baskets and kept the other half in a tub to drink. Why my good ram are you the last to leave the fold? You have never been left behind by the flock before. You were always first walking ahead to graze the tender sheets of grass.”

According to myth, Cyclope Polyfimos was the first to prepare cheese. Transporting the milk that he collected from his sheep in skinbags made of animal stomachs, one day he realized to his great surprise that the milk had curdled and had taken a solid, tasty and conservable form. When that myth actually translated into reality is impossible to verify, but according to various bibliographic and scientific references, the production of feta has been known at least since then.

The ancient Greeks called the product that emanated from the coagulation of milk “cheese”. The name Feta, literally meaning “slice,” originated in the 17th century, and probably refers to the practice of slicing up cheese to be placed into barrels, a tradition still practiced today. The name Feta prevailed in the 19th century, and since then has characterized a cheese that has been prepared for centuries using the same general technique, and whose origin is lost in time.

In the museum of Delphi, a statuette of the 6th B.C. century can be found that depicts the exit of Ulysses hanging under the Cyclopes favorite ram. 8,000 years later the way Feta is produced remains much the same, differing only in areas such as automation and packaging.

There are certain  flavor combinations that are synonymous with the Greek summer. One of these is a slice of feta, sprinkled with olive oil and fragrant oregano, eaten with a chunk of fresh sourdough bread. There’s also the classic “horiatiki” salad, a symphony of sweet tomato, crunchy cucumber, tangy onion and fruity olive oil, complemented by some sharp, salty feta.Fruits like watermelon, melon, grapes, peaches and pears, become so much more enticing with some buttery crumbled feta.

This ancient Greek dairy staple, known in Byzantine times as “prosphatos", meaning “fresh cheese” is not just an indelible part of Greece’s culinary identity. It’s also a source of National pride.