Trahana is one of the oldest foods in the Eastern Mediterranean, a tiny, pebble-shaped grain product that varies widely all over Greece. For the most part it evolved as an ingenious way to preserve milk.
Trahana is always made at the end of the summer when there is enough of a breeze and enough heat to dry the morsels quickly but also because the summer is a time, in the agrarian cycle, when there is an excess of milk. Once the ingredients have been combined, they are broken into chunks, dried, and then broken up into smaller, pebbly pieces.
Trahana comes in two types: sweet and sour. Sweet is made with whole milk, typically goat’s milk, and sour trahana is made with yogurt or buttermilk.
Trahana, in its most basic form, as a filling porridge, is the traditional farmer’s breakfast in the Greek countryside.