Mutton meat with trahana in the traditional wood-fired oven

Mutton meat combined with sweet trahana is a traditional dish -an old traditional recipe- that many generations have grown up with. Trahana was traditionally homemade and consisted of wheat flour or cracked wheat and milk. It could be preserved for long time and it was the typical winter meal. Many generations of Greeks have grown up eating trahana (with or without meat), including us. We want to revive these long-forgotten flavors with this recipe, which is linked with old Sunday meals and festive occasions. The main difference between the traditional recipe and our version is that we’ll slow cook the ingredients in the traditional wood-fired oven. Furthermore, we’ll use a clay pot and we’ll add trahana to the stew without adding extra water, to keep the flavor of this recipe intact.

Let’s see, step-by-step, the distinctive stages of the preparation and the slow-cooking process of this recipe in the traditional wood-fired oven.

INGREDIENTS

2.5kg (5.5lb) mutton meat (cut for typical serving size)
3lt water
300g sweet trahana
1 tbsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 medium onions

PREPARATION

Put the pieces of meat in a single layer into a large clay cooking pot, and add 3lt of water. Mark the level of the water before placing it in the oven, in case you have to refill it later. Slowly cook the mutton in the traditional wood-fired oven for 3 hours.

This is your first task before placing the pot with the mutton in the oven and it’s the first stage of the cooking process, as well.

COOKED ON Traditional wood-fired oven

COOKING

Preheat the traditional wood-fired oven before arranging the pieces of meat in the clay cooking pot. Use thin pieces of dry wood as kindling. Place them inside the oven and add thicker pieces of wood on top (refer to the video above for further details). Initiate fire. Leave the oven’s door open to establish the fire. Once the fire is well established, close the door and keep the internal chimney inside. Make sure to leave a gap underneath the door for proper air circulation.

After having saturated the oven and the fire has burnt down to embers, remove the embers. If you wish you can use these embers in your charcoal grill to prepare a few quick appetizers for your friends. This is what we also did, as you can see in the video above. At first, after having saturated the oven, the internal temperature is too high. That’s why you have to close the oven’s door, leaving the chimney out of the cooking chamber this time. When the temperature is down to 250⁰C-270⁰C (482⁰F-518⁰F), place the clay cooking pot at the back of the oven and close the door. Cook for 3 hours (perhaps for a little longer) without opening the door. In the end, the mutton is tender and the slow-cooking has brought out its flavor. And then follows the second stage of the cooking process.

Pour a little water in a small pan and cook the chopped onions until tender. Add the tomato paste and the spices. Lastly, add 300g of sweet trahana and stir for a little while. The purpose of this stage is to preheat the ingredients before adding them to the stew so that you won’t disturb the slow-cooking process.

After removing the clay pot and adding all the ingredients inside, cover it with the lid again, and place it at the back of the oven for at least one extra hour. One hour later, remove the clay cooking pot from the oven and wait until the food cools down.

It is served -and consumed- hot. Accompany it with red wine and (cooked or raw) seasonal salads. It’s the perfect recipe for Sunday meals and winter gatherings.

Happy cooking everyone! Enjoy cooking with your friends!