Beef

Beef came late to Greek cooking, and for good reason: cattle were working animals on land better suited to sheep and goats, so beef stayed occasional until the country grew more prosperous through the twentieth century. It has since become the standard braising meat of the mainland table, the default choice for stifado, for moschari kokkinisto, and for a Sunday tray of giouvetsi.

Cut matters more than grade. Chuck and shin, full of connective tissue that dissolves into gelatine over two or three hours, are what Greek braises are built on, and a lean steak cut put into the same pot turns dry and stringy instead. Stifado uses beef cubed large and cooked with its own weight in small whole onions, which is where the sauce gets its sweetness.

Greek cooking seasons beef with warm spice rather than herbs: a cinnamon stick, a few whole cloves, allspice and bay, most obviously in Corfu's pastitsada, where the braise is spooned over thick bucatini with grated kefalotyri. The usual mistake is heat. A braise held at a rolling boil tightens the muscle fibres and squeezes the meat dry, and no amount of extra time afterwards will loosen it again.