Lefkada Salami

The salami of Lefkada, of Venetian origin, thanks to the distinctive aroma of garlic and whole peppercorns, became from the 20th century one of the first Greek branded foods.

In my youth - half a century now - the Corfu butter, the salami by Lefkada and roe of Messolonghi It was one of the few highly branded local foods in the country and could be found in the central grocery stores and sometimes in the suburbs of the neighborhood. My boss loved the air salami, with its light garlic aroma and whole peppercorns.

Since then, the society of abundance has reaped and the market has been flooded with industrialized salamis and all kinds of foreign cold cuts. Our own flavors were set aside and forgotten. Only recently we are rediscovering our neglected small gastronomic treasures, and Lefkada salami is one of them. A delicious meze that the fanatics cut thin slices to accompany it wine, the Ouzo or tsipouro. But it also goes well with breakfast, with tomatoes, cheese, oil and oregano - my favorite sandwich when I was a kid.

The patent is considered Italian and is supposed to have been transported by the inhabitants of the island of Burano in Italy, who moved to Lefkada and were the first to produce it.

Its fame and duration in time Lefkada salami owes it to Delimari family, which - as the locals of Lefkada admit - supported its production in all periods. Today, the salami air of Delimaris and Polychronopoulos is widely traded, while in Lefkada many locals prefer Balomenos and Malakasis, who make much smaller quantities, but all passed through their hands.

Delimaris

The Katopodi-Delimari family decided, in 1964, to expand the activity of the butcher shop in the production of air salami and sausage. Give the product the name "air salami Delimari", Which very quickly stood out for its quality, taste and aroma, and became known outside Lefkada. In 1982 the craft grew and moved to a larger and better standard area and, in 2002, to a modern sausage processing plant.

Polychronopoulos

The butcher shop D. Polychronopoulos is a small family business, located in the area of ​​Fysses, Lefkada. Since 1950, the Polychronopoulos family, following the tradition, produces air salami and village sausages made from pure raw materials of the wider area, emphasizing on the one hand the natural way of ripening, and on the other hand the traditional "tying" technique used by until today.

Patched

If one sees people crowding at the entrance of a shop in the narrow alleys of the city of Lefkada, it will be their workshop Nikos Balomenou, which sells saffron from Lefkada. From a young age in kurbeti, he knows the meat industry very well and explains to us how preservatives destroy yeast and do not allow them to do their "job" well. Nikos sausages, a poem - light, delicious plain foie gras if fried for a while in their wine and fat.

Malakase

The company Job Malakasis has its roots back in the post-war period, when its founder, Job Thomas Malakasis, first dealt with the saffron of Lefkada around 1945. In 1973 the production unit is built on the east beach of Lefkada, where it is still located as a workshop and gas station. His son, Thomas, open-minded and progressive, always following the traditional recipe, is in the phase of creating new modern facilities as well as a new network of customers throughout Greece.