The most delicious Christmas tradition already started in northern Greece

The most delicious Christmas tradition in northern Greece is of course the “tsigarides” (a form of pork rinds). People are already enjoying them publicly or at their homes in many cities and villages of Pindos mountains making the neighborhoods smell like Christmas! Everyone gathers around the big pots and jars, staring at the vapors in anticipation and waiting patiently. Preparing tsigarides is a small feast: listening to or playing traditional music and offering small treats along with wine or tsipouro until the favorite meze is prepared and enjoyed by both young and old.

The custom of tsigarides has its roots at the old time, when each family had at least one pig in its yard. They had it since it was very young and fed it so that they manage to fatten it as much as possible until Christmas. During those years there were no refrigerators of course and the way to keep the meat after slaughter was inside its fat. So they boiled the fatty tissue and after melting some of the fat, there were small crunch pieces of fat and meat left in the cauldron, the favorite tsigarides!