In Greece "Greek yogurt" is just yogurt, and the interesting distinctions are different ones: set versus strained, sheep versus cow, with skin or without, village or supermarket. A guide to how Greeks actually buy, eat and talk about it.

Yogurt is older than Greece; strained yogurt is a Balkan-Anatolian craft; "Greek yogurt" as a global product is a story that runs from a Patissia dairy shop in 1926 through a Queens grocer in 1998 to a market worth tens of billions.

How to swap Greek yogurt for sour cream, cream, butter, mayonnaise and buttermilk; why it tenderises meat; how to keep it from splitting in a hot pan; and a Greek yogurt cake that works every time.

The national dessert takes thirty seconds and three ingredients, if they are the right three. Which honey, which yogurt, how to toast the walnuts, plus spoon sweets, breakfast, savoury and taverna uses.

Strained yogurt, cucumber squeezed dry, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, salt, dill. The ratios Greek households use, why the cucumber must be salted and wrung out, how long it keeps and the common ways it goes wrong.