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Feta is widely known as that white cheese sprinkled on a Greek salad (and all too often the salad is 90% iceberg lettuce).
But feta is much more than that.
Believe it or not, some people are so passionate about this cheese that they have come to blows.
"Feta cheese", in the American vernacular, has come to mean any white, curd cheese packed in brine. It is a cheese common in the Balkans and has a long history there. Traditional versions of this cheese are made from sheep milk, but variations made with goat milk have been around for centuries. What we know as "feta" is usually the Greek variety (from whence the name), but several others, including domestic versions, are now available.
Technical Notes:
1. Many Greeks complain about the use of the word "feta" for non-Greek, non-sheep cheeses, in much the same way that the French complain about the use of the word "champagne" to mean "any sparkling wine". To date, the EU has not limited the use of the word "feta" to Greek cheeses only.
2. It is essential that the cheese be made from sheep or goat milk. The bovine variety is just plain blah.
3. Why the brine? Feta cheese dries out easily and must be stored in its brine in order to stay fresh. In the old days, no one kept it in the back of frig for weeks on end.
4. No feta cheese is Number One. Everyone has an opinion about which feta is the best. Some are very sharp, others mild, some dry and crumbly and others creamy. It is a matter of taste and what you intend to do with the feta.
5. Feta for breakfast? I say yes! Try "kavalti", a traditional Turkish version of breaksfast: some tomato slices, cucumber slices and feta slices serve with a hard boiled egg, tea and toast. Very refreshing, not to mention healthy.
The magic of feta is that it retains much of the original properties since the days when nomadic shepherds made it: simple, salty, fresh and yummy.
Tags:
balkans, cheese, cucumber, feta, worthy of an ode
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Posted on 9/15/2005
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