17.5.2023
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 175/25
[New home cooking] (1925) by A. Vitsikounakis.
There are also historical references to the product in Elliniki Tyrokomia [Greek cheesemaking] (1956) and I istoria tou ellinikou galaktos kai ton proiondon tou [The history of Greek milk and dairy products] (2004).
Lastly, the gold medal won by the Grigoriadis company at the Paris international fair in 1909 for the quality of their kashkavalia [kashkaval cheeses] is further evidence of the product’s high quality and commercial importance over time.
‘Κασκαβάλι Πίνδου / Kashkavali Pindou / Κασκαβάλ Πίνδου / Kashkaval Pindou’ has continued to win awards to this day – it won a quality award at Prodexpo (Russia) in February 2011 and received an award from the International Taste Institute in January 2021.
The product’s strong reputation and high quality has meant that production units in the defined area have continued to make and distribute it to this day, as evidenced by numerous recent publications.
By way of example, in Tris aiones mia zoi: yiayia Filio i mikrasiatissa (2005), a memoir by Filio Haidemenou, the product is mentioned in connection with memories of daily life, rural life, folklore, etc. in the defined area, confirming that it was one of the cheeses that was made by the shepherds who raised their sheep up in the mountains.
In Flavours of Greece (London 2011) by Rosemary Barron there is a detailed description of Greek dairy products and cheeses, and the author notes that kaskavali is a special meze cheese because of its flavour.
In Gastronomos, a magazine devoted to culinary topics and raw materials, there is an article by Vivi Konstantinidou entitled ‘Kostaki!
Fai, paidi mou, to kashkavali sou!’
[Come on Kostaki!
Eat your kashkaval!] where the author describes her experience of giving her son cheese for the first time and recommends that people try Kashkavali Pindou, saying that it makes excellent toasted cheese sandwiches (11 October 2021).
Browsing the web gives over 6 000 hits for the product and many recipes for dishes that use ‘Κασκαβάλι Πίνδου / Kashkavali Pindou / Κασκαβάλ Πίνδου / Kashkaval Pindou’ in combination with other ingredients, such as chicken and lountza, pizza, meat loaf with croutons and paprika, and prasotigania [leeks fried with pork] and wine.
Regarding the human factor and how it helps to determine the specificity of the product, this ties in closely with the geomorphology of the defined geographical area, which is dominated by the presence of Greece's largest mountain range, the Pindos, which impacts the quality of the milk and the way the cheese is made.
Specifically, the area is rich in pastureland but unsuitable for other types of farming, so the inhabitants’ main activity is extensive livestock farming and the production of dairy products.
It has a continental climate, with cold winters with frequent snowfall and cool summers, giving an average annual temperature of 10 °C. There is also frequent rain; average rainfall is 600-800 mm/year and there are no long periods of dry weather in summer.
The influence of the climate can be clearly seen in the vegetation, which is not purely Mediterranean, as in the mountainous and semimountainous areas it resembles that of central Europe, with numerous fir, beech, chestnut, oak and plane tree forests and extensive areas of grassland.
The area is also home to a rich and unique variety of plants – a total of 2 012 wild plant taxa have been recorded, 21,9 % of which are endemic to the Balkans and 5,6 % of which are endemic to Greece.
The sheep and goats whose milk is used to make the cheese come from breeds that have been reared in the area for many years and are adapted to the harsh climatic conditions.
The holdings are of medium capacity and keep only grazing animals that produce milk in small quantities but with a high fat content.
The area is the place of origin of the Aromanian-speaking nomadic herders (Vlachs), who developed a particular way of making ‘Κασκαβάλι Πίνδου / Kashkavali Pindou / Κασκαβάλ Πίνδου / Kashkaval Pindou’ that is perfectly in harmony with the rugged mountainous terrain, and this is the main reason why it became established as one of the area’s main products and acquired an excellent reputation.
The cheesemaking process consisted of a first stage, which was the curdling in situ of the milk produced up in the mountains in summer, to produce a cheese mass that was sliced up and transported down to the neighbouring lowland areas.
This was followed by the second stage of the process, which consisted of mixing the curds with hot water and then maturing the cheese.
This way of making ‘Κασκαβάλι Πίνδου / Kashkavali Pindou / Κασκαβάλ Πίνδου / Kashkaval Pindou’ has a major advantage in that it allows the use of raw milk or milk that has soured, as when the cheese mass is mixed with hot water it is partially sterilised.
Frequent dry salting gives the cheese its slightly salty taste.