Moustari

Version A 
"I take the grapes (xinisteri variety) and squeeze them with my hands to get as much juice as possible. Nowadays there are special machines that grind the grapes. Then I pass the juice through the colander and then through a cheesecloth, the kouroukla. I take the pure juice and boil it in a hartzin (big copper cauldron) over wood fire. I put white soil and skim the juice to clean it. The foam, the dirt comes to the surface and i remove it. Then I add rose geranium and basil for fragrance and let it cool. The soil sits on the bottom of the hartzin and we collect the clean moustari and store it in flasks. In the old days we used to put the moustari in pitharia (pottery vessels) and koumnes (small earthenware pithoids) for about ten days. (Androulla Christou, 58 years old from Agrilia, Limassol)

Version B 
Heat the grape juice until it gets lukewarm. Add half of the soil to the grape juice to clean the moustari and skim off the foam that is created. Then let it cool. Put the moustari over heat, add the remaining soil gradually and skim off the foam. Add some lemon juice, turn off the heat and leave it to cool down. Strain the moustari and measure it. (Kyperouda, see Kourri and Lazarou 2007)

Version C 
Put the must in a large pot and boil it. Remove the foam, lower the heat and sprinkle with white soil. It foams a lot and almost overflows. Carefully remove the foam and then add the rose geranium or basil. After boiling for a while, remove it from the heat. Remove the rose geranium and basil. Once the moustari is half cold (after 2-3 hours), sprinkle with a handful of flour and let itt settle overnight. On the following day the soil and flour will be at the bottom. Carefully transfer the moustari into a clean pot. (Kythraiotou 2013, 59)