Hirino me selino avgolemono

The story

In much of Greece the Christmas table belongs to pork rather than turkey, and the reason lies in the village calendar. Families traditionally slaughtered the household pig in the days before the holiday — on Lesbos around December 15, the feast of Saint Eleftherios — set aside the fresh meat for Christmas, and salted the rest or made it into sausages for the winter. On Lesbos that Christmas pork is cooked with celery and finished with a rich avgolemono, the egg-and-lemon sauce that turns the cooking broth silky and bright. The same dish, hirino me selino (χοιρινό με σέλινο), is counted among the Christmas foods of Central Greece, and celery stews of this kind are also a holiday fixture in Macedonia, where they are said to have spread with refugees from Asia Minor after 1922. Greek cooks want the sauce to taste clearly of lemon, and they shake the pot rather than stir it once the eggs go in. For Greek American families it puts a village Christmas within easy reach: pork shoulder, a couple of bunches of celery, eggs and lemons are all it asks for.