Mountain Dairy · Smoked Cheese
Metsovone
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: C messier / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
The cheese dates from the 1950s, when the Baron Michael Tositsas Foundation sent young Metsovo cheesemakers to train in Italy; they came home and modelled it on Italian provolone, smoked over local beech wood instead.
Cow's milk, blended with a little goat's and sheep's milk, is stretched using the pasta filata method, tied into an elongated shape with string, and naturally smoked over beech wood until the rind turns deep gold. Sliced or grilled at Metsovo's mountain taverna counters and market stalls.
Why it's made this way: Metsovo, a mountain village in Epirus, built its cheesemaking reputation around Metsovone, which has held EU Protected Designation of Origin status since 1996 — one of the clearest single-village food identities in Greece.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
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