Greek yogurt, called yiaourti, is thick and creamy, nothing like the runny commercial yogurts found in Western Europe and in the U.S. Yogurt has been a tradition in Greece, indeed throughout the Balkans, probably since the first itinerant shepherds tried to store milk in their goat skins only to find that the agitation and the heat had turned the milk into something else, sour, unusually refreshing, and delicious. Traditional Greek yogurt is made either with sheep’s milk or with goat’s milk, although today cow’s milk yogurt prevails in most supermarkets.
There is unstrained yogurt, which is somewhat like the plain yogurt known to Americans, only a bit smoother in texture; and there is the strained, or strangismeno, yogurt which has the consistency of American sour cream. It is available widely in Europe and the United States.
