Loukaniko (
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
: λουκάνικο) is a type of Greek sausage made from pork or lamb and typically flavored with
orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
peel,
fennel
Fennel (''Foeniculum vulgare'') is a flowering plant species in the carrot family. It is a hardy, perennial herb with yellow flowers and feathery leaves. It is indigenous to the shores of the Mediterranean but has become widely naturalized ...
seed, and various other dried herbs and seeds, and sometimes
smoked over aromatic woods. They are also often flavored with greens, especially
leek
The leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of ''Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek ( syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a stem or stalk. The genus ''Alli ...
s.
Loukaniko is often served as a
mezze
Meze or mezza (, ) is a selection of small dishes served as appetizers in the Levantine cuisine, Levant, Turkish cuisine, Turkey, Greek cuisine, Greece, the Balkan cuisine, Balkans, the Caucasian cuisine, Caucasus and Iranian cuisine, Iran. It i ...
, sliced and fried, sometimes with
saganaki
In Greek cuisine, saganaki (Greek σαγανάκι) is any one of a variety of dishes prepared in a small frying pan, the best-known being an appetizer of fried cheese. It is commonly flambéed in North America.
Etymology
The dishes are named ...
. It is also cooked into a variety of dishes.
The name 'loukaniko' is derived from
ancient Roman cuisine
The cuisine of ancient Rome changed greatly over the duration of the civilization's existence. Dietary habits were affected by the political changes from kingdom to republic to empire, and the empire's enormous expansion, which exposed Romans t ...
's ''
lucanica
Lucanica was a rustic pork sausage in Ancient Roman cuisine.
Apicius documents it as a spicy, smoked beef or pork sausage originally from Lucania; according to Cicero and Martial, it was brought by Roman troops or slaves from Lucania.
It has give ...
''
(from
Lucania
Lucania was a historical region of Southern Italy. It was the land of the Lucani, an Oscan people. It extended from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto.
It bordered with Samnium and Campania in the north, Apulia in the east, and Brutti ...
region of
Southern Italy
Southern Italy ( it, Sud Italia or ) also known as ''Meridione'' or ''Mezzogiorno'' (), is a macroregion of the Italian Republic consisting of its southern half.
The term ''Mezzogiorno'' today refers to regions that are associated with the peop ...
) and has been used in Greece since at least the 4th century.
[ Andrew Dalby, ''Siren Feasts'', 1996, p. 181]
See also
*
Lucanica
Lucanica was a rustic pork sausage in Ancient Roman cuisine.
Apicius documents it as a spicy, smoked beef or pork sausage originally from Lucania; according to Cicero and Martial, it was brought by Roman troops or slaves from Lucania.
It has give ...
or ''luganega'', an Italian sausage with a related name
*
Lukanka
Lukanka ( bg, луканка) is a Bulgarian (sometimes spicy) salami unique to Bulgarian cuisine. It is similar to sujuk, but often stronger flavored. Lukanka is semi-dried, has a flattened cylindrical shape, and brownish-red interior in a skin ...
, a Bulgarian sausage with a related name
*
Longaniza
Longaniza (, or ) is a Spanish sausage (embutido) similar to a chorizo and also closely associated with the Portuguese linguiça. Its defining characteristics are interpreted differently from region to region. It is popular in the cuisines of ...
, any of a variety of sausages from Spain, Latin America, and the Philippines with a related name
*
Soujouk
Sujuk or sucuk is a dry, spicy and fermented sausage which is consumed in several Balkan, Middle Eastern and Central Asian cuisines. Sujuk mainly consists of ground meat and animal fat usually obtained from beef or lamb, but beef is mainly u ...
, a spicy, dry, lean sausage found in from the Balkans and Middle East
*
List of smoked foods
This is a list of smoked foods. Smoking is the process of flavoring, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning or smoldering material, most often wood. Foods have been smoked by humans throughout history. Meats and fish a ...
Notes
Ancient Greek cuisine
Greek cuisine
Cypriot cuisine
Sausages
Smoked meat
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