Guide
The Greek Pantry: What to Buy to Cook Greek Food at Home
In short
A working Greek pantry needs good extra virgin olive oil, dried Greek oregano, red wine vinegar, Kalamata olives, feta in brine, dried pulses, short grain rice, phyllo, cinnamon, bay, tomato puree, honey and lemons. Almost everything else is fresh.
The non-negotiables
Extra virgin olive oil, and enough of it that you do not flinch at a recipe calling for a hundred millilitres. Buy a large tin of something decent for cooking and a smaller bottle of something special for finishing.
Dried Greek oregano, ideally on the stalk. The difference between Greek rigani and generic supermarket oregano is substantial: it is more aromatic, more resinous and much less like dust. This is the single cheapest upgrade you can make to your Greek cooking.
Red wine vinegar. Greek cooking uses it far more than lemon in dressings and stews. Balsamic is not a substitute for anything here.
Feta in brine, and Kalamata olives with the stones still in.
The dry goods
Dried pulses do more work in this cuisine than most people expect: gigantes or butter beans, chickpeas, brown lentils, split yellow peas for fava, and haricot beans for fasolada. Tinned versions are acceptable for the quick dishes and noticeably worse in the slow ones.
Short or medium grain rice for soups, stuffed vegetables and rice pudding. Long grain will not release the starch these dishes rely on.
Kritharaki, the rice-shaped pasta known elsewhere as orzo, and a thick tubular pasta for pastitsio.
Phyllo pastry in the freezer, always.
The spice shelf
Greek spicing is narrow and used with confidence rather than broad and used timidly. Cinnamon, both ground and in sticks, is the defining one and appears in savoury dishes as often as sweet.
Beyond that: bay leaves, whole cloves, allspice, cumin for the Asia Minor dishes, sweet paprika, and nutmeg for bechamel. Dried mint for meatballs and stuffed vegetables.
Mastic and mahleb are worth seeking out for baking, particularly for tsoureki, and neither has a substitute.
What not to bother with
Bottled lemon juice, which tastes nothing like a lemon. Pre-crumbled feta. Ready-made tzatziki. Dried dill, which loses everything that makes dill worth having. Garlic paste in a tube.
Also, the jars of mixed Mediterranean herbs. Greek cooking almost never combines many herbs at once. It picks one, usually oregano or dill or mint, and commits to it.
Common questions
What is the most important ingredient in Greek cooking?
Olive oil, without much competition. It is used in quantities that surprise people, and in the ladera dishes it functions as the sauce rather than the cooking medium.
Is Greek oregano different from normal oregano?
Yes, noticeably. Greek rigani is more aromatic and resinous, and is usually sold dried on the stalk. It is a genuine upgrade over generic supermarket oregano and costs very little.
Do I need special equipment for Greek cooking?
Almost none. A large deep roasting tin, a heavy pan for stews and a box grater cover most of it. A briki for Greek coffee and a souvla for spit roasting are the only genuinely specialist items.