Feta

Feta is Greece's most famous cheese and one of the most eaten in the country. It is eaten at breakfast, lunch and dinner: on salads, in pies, baked, grilled or simply sliced with olive oil and oregano.

An ancient cheese

White brined cheeses have been made in Greece for millennia. In the Odyssey the Cyclops Polyphemus makes cheese from his sheep's and goats' milk and stores it in wicker baskets, a process very like feta-making. The name feta, "slice", is more recent: it comes from Italian and spread in the 17th century, perhaps from the practice of slicing the cheese to pack it in barrels.

PDO status

Since 2002 feta has been an EU Protected Designation of Origin. After a long dispute with Denmark and Germany, which made "feta" from cow's milk, in 2005 the European Court of Justice confirmed that only cheese made in Greece to the specification may be called feta. Outside the EU the name is protected by some trade agreements, but not everywhere.

How it is made

The milk is curdled, the curd cut and drained in moulds, then cut into large blocks, dry-salted and placed in brine to mature. Feta aged in wooden barrels (vareli) is considered the best: richer and slightly peppery.

How to spot the real thing

• The label must carry the PDO logo and state sheep's (and goat's) milk.
• It is milk-white, never yellowish; it has no rind; it has small irregular holes.
• It crumbles easily but is not chalky; the taste is salty and slightly sour, with a note of sheep's milk.
• White cow's-milk cheeses sold as "Greek-style cheese" or "salad cheese" are not feta.

In the kitchen

Feta stars in many dishes: horiatiki, the village salad; tiropita and spanakopita; feta psiti, baked with tomato, pepper and oregano; Thessaloniki's spicy bouyiourdi with chilli; fried feta with honey and sesame; peppers stuffed with feta. Keep it in the fridge, covered in its brine.

See also other Greek cheeses and Greek cuisine.