Lemnos Cheeses

H Lemnos, the granary of Athens in the classical times of Antiquity, the lowest island of the Aegean, is characterized by the large production of agricultural and livestock products and the great tradition it has in cheese making, which are famous for the quality of preparation and their unique taste. The most common of these are feta, basket, kaskavali and melichloro.

Η slice of Lemnos is PDO product and it is a hard feta with a salty and sour taste, produced from free-range sheep raised on the vast pastures of the island.

The basket is a white cheese, with a soft to semi-hard structure, without skin, solid with scattered holes and the shape of a small basket with ridges from the baskets-molds in which it is shaped (formerly made of wool or wicker, today they are plastic). Its taste is full-bodied, salty and slightly acidic, with aromas reminiscent of wood. It has been characterized as PDO product with production area the island of Lemnos. The basket is produced from sheep's milk, which gives the best quality cheese, but also from a mixture of goat's and sheep's milk in a ratio that does not exceed 30%.

The dark or honeyed is a cheese produced by tradition in Lemnos. It is traditionally made from sheep's milk, which after draining, is exposed in shady places, during periods when the humidity is relatively low (after the end of spring), so that it gradually dehydrates. In the first phase, the cheese acquires a texture between green and dry, while when the dehydration proceeds, the cheese becomes hard. It is consumed with pasta, saganaki but also as a table.

The cascavali is one of the oldest cheeses of Lemnos and it is a strongly aromatic cheese with a buttery taste that was produced since medieval times. The traditional way of drying it is done in wooden crates with a sieve, at relatively high temperatures for cheeses (above 22 degrees). Kaskavali is consumed as table cheese, saganaki and grated on pasta.