Cretan Loukanika

The Cretan loukanika shares the etymology of the Roman lucanica with the mainland loukaniko (see the luganega entry), but the two products diverged over several centuries of the island’s relative isolation. Crete was Venetian for four centuries (1204–1669), then Ottoman for two (1669–1898). It was during the Venetian period that smoking charcuterie developed there, with Italian preservation techniques brought by Venetian merchants combining with local herbs. The result is a sausage drier, more resinous and more herbaceous than its mainland counterpart, in which the orange zest dominates.

The endemic flora of Crete comprises more than 1,700 plant species, about 10 per cent of which occur nowhere else. It is the element that makes this sausage particular. Dittany (Origanum dictamnus), which grows only in the gorges and limestone cliffs of the island, brings a scent at once mentholated and faintly peppery. Cretan wild oregano, more intense than the cultivated varieties on the mainland because of the sunshine and limestone soil, completes an aromatic profile no other Mediterranean sausage can match.

Juniper smoking is a specific Cretan technique. The sheepfolds of the White Mountains (Lefka Ori) use the branches of the wild juniper of the mountain maquis. This wood gives a resinous, lightly camphorated note that neither beech nor oak can produce. Cooking is done over embers of vine shoots or olive wood.

It is eaten with Cretan country bread, Sitia olives and graviera, the local hard cheese. It appears in the mezze of tavernas and at panigyria, the village festivals held in honour of the patron saints. Its making remains artisanal, concentrated in the villages of the Lefka Ori and the regional butchers. The survival of this sausage depends in part on the availability of wild dittany, on which harvesting pressure grows with international herbalist demand.