Offal and Liver

Offal in Greece is tied to Easter more tightly than to any other point in the year, because the lamb killed for Easter Sunday was used completely and nothing was thrown out. Magiritsa, eaten just after midnight on Easter Saturday to break seven weeks of fasting, is built on lamb liver and heart with a great deal of spring onion and dill, finished with avgolemono.

Kokoretsi is the other Easter dish: liver, heart, kidney and sweetbreads threaded onto a spit and bound tightly with cleaned lamb intestines, then turned over charcoal for hours until the outside crisps. On Astypalaia, lambriano stuffs a boned shoulder with chopped liver, heart and rice. Patsas, the tripe soup, sits outside the Easter cycle altogether, a late-night dish in tavernas that stay open until dawn.

Freshness matters more here than with muscle meat, so order from a butcher a day or two ahead rather than taking whatever is sitting in a chiller. Intestines and tripe need rinsing thoroughly and then hours of gentle simmering before they soften. Liver is the opposite case: it turns from pink to grainy and dry within a minute of extra heat, so it goes in late and briefly.