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As I started to explore Greek Cuisine more intense in the last few years, I always had in mind to look for traditional recipes that existed in every part of Greece. Also my focus was to try and find the customs that we had for each celebration.  That’s how I ended up learning about  Pork for christmas…

You see Greeks are during Christmas they do prefer to cook variations of recipes with Pork rather than turkey which is mainly westernized tradition.

So there many different variations but …putting a whole pork skewered is kind of extreme. Well, that’s how Greeks do it sometimes.  In times of celebration, or just in times of good weather Greeks do grill meat on there gardens as long as they have the proper barbeque and that’s what happened once during Christmas with my family.

Now in Easter, the tradition talks about lamb, but this a completely different season. So Greeks try pork in many variations and when they want to have fun -like my father at that time-  they skewer a whole one for their family.

Obviously there are not a lot of things you can say about this recipe and if you are kind of soft seeing a whole pork over the fire then maybe you should check some other recipes now.

Since I was young I can remember seeing my father or my grandfather preparing lamb for easter and I always thought that I will need to learn the procedure …just in case.

First of all it is important to prepare it from the previous day, as cooking starts really early in the morning. All the ovals needs to have been removed before hand. You need to put a lot of salt and pepper from the inside of its belly.

You need to take the stick and push it from its bottom all the way up to pass through its head.  Nevertheless, if for some reason you cannot pass it through its head, you can do it through its mouth as we did it over here.

You need to tie it in with iron wire on his spine so are sure that it wont break during the process.  Throw into its belly, 3-4  lemons cut in half and start sewing it. That will allow all its liquids to remain inside and keep it soft.

My father always woke up really early in the morning to put a fire and start the cooking. It took him usually around 3 hours but it always depends with the size of the pork.

Its not for the vegetarians…but trust me its good!!

 

Bonus when you do Christmas in Greece with your family: Dessert