(2) Anevato, a gem of a soft Greek cheese

Typical of Greece, this cheese, or the principle of it, has been made for over three millennia. It may not be exactly as it is now, but you can see what I mean. It was made by farmers simply in the mountains and was the basis for food prepared and quick snacks. To complicate things further the history of the country has only been settled for about less than two hundred years, by 1830, and the area of interest was incorporated within Greece only in 1913. In the meantime, dairies arrived and soon production became organised in an artisanal manner with modern methodology. The main dairy making this cheese is well implanted within the area and tend to farmers and their animals, providing supplementary feed. Locals make this cheese during the warm months at the end of the traditional lactation period of their animal which gives a milk rich in solids and fermentation is helped by the ambient temperature. It gained PDO status in 1996.

The area of production of Avenato is the prefecture of Grevena and the municipality of Voio, prefecture of Kozani, part of the Region of Western Macedonia in north-east Greece.

You will smell the cheese first when you see it, then you will realise that it looks like a soft paste slightly granular; sometimes there is a hint of pink or blue hue. The sharpness of the taste will be more apparent when it is made of goat’s milk, and there is a noted touch of spiciness