Semolina

Semolina is the coarse-milled heart of durum wheat, and Greek recipes treat coarse and fine grinds as two separate ingredients rather than one with a choice of texture. Both are cheap, both keep for months in a sealed jar, and between them they account for a surprising share of the country's home baking, particularly the syrup-soaked sweets made through Lent when butter and eggs are off the table.

Halvas is the clearest example, and it is remembered by its ratio rather than a recipe: one part oil, two semolina, three sugar, four water. The coarse grain is toasted in the oil until it smells nutty and turns a shade darker, hot syrup goes in all at once, and the pan is covered off the heat while the semolina swells and sets.

Fine semolina does the opposite job, dissolving into liquid to thicken it. It sets the custard inside galaktoboureko, holding the filling firm enough to cut between sheets of phyllo, and gives revani its damp, sandy crumb under a lemon syrup. Swapping one grind for the other is the usual reason a halva turns pasty or a custard runs out of the pastry.