🇨🇾 The cattle breeds of Cyprus

Cattle hold a modest place in Cypriot cooking, which leans more on pork, lamb, goat, chicken and the sea. Their beef is best loved preserved as pastourma, salted and heavily spiced, a food shared by Greek and Turkish Cypriots alike. Their milk turns into yoghurt, anari and the staple cheese halloumi, whose name comes from Arabic.

• Preserved beef, salted and heavily spiced as pastourma, is popular with both Cypriot communities.
• Halloumi, the staple cheese of the island, takes its name from Arabic.
• Trahanas keeps milk: cracked wheat is mixed with soured milk, dried, then reheated to eat.
• On Orthodox fasting days Greek Cypriots forgo all animal foods, milk and beef included.
• Beef joins the charcoal skewers, but only rarely in gyros.

Cattle in Cyprus

Cyprus eats from pigs, sheep and goats far more than from cattle, and its cooking leans on the grill, the garden and the sea. Cattle reach the table chiefly as beef and as milk turned into yoghurt, cheese and trahanas, a wheat and soured-milk store food. Beef is enjoyed fresh over charcoal beside pork, lamb and kid, yet it is most distinctive preserved: heavily salted, spiced and dried as pastourma, a food both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities prize. Cheese is the island's dairy pride, above all halloumi, whose name is Arabic in origin, with anari beside it on the grater. Fasting rules of the Orthodox Church sweep milk and beef off many tables through the year. Greece, Turkey and the Levant all leave their mark on how these foods are served.

Milk, butter and beef

Milk is prized for keeping as much as drinking. Trahanas pairs cracked wheat with milk that has soured; the mixture is dried, then simmered up in water or broth, sometimes with cubes of aged halloumi. Natural yoghurt sits beside bulgur as a staple. Cheese is everywhere: halloumi, whose name is Arabic in origin, is grilled over charcoal, tucked into pita and grated over oven pasta, and anari is grated the same way. Beef is eaten fresh off the skewers, though only rarely in gyros, but it is most valued preserved. The silverside and brisket are heavily salted and spiced for pastourma, a spiced dried beef closer to sujuk, and the same meat is minced with fat into sausages.

Festivals, fairs and faith

Faith shapes when the foods of cattle reach the table. The Orthodox Church marks many fasting days for Greek Cypriots, and though not every household keeps them, many do. All animal foods are then set aside, so milk, cheese and beef leave the menu. Pulses step in, cooked plainly or in tomato sauce, then given olive oil and lemon; on the strictest days even the oil waits. Raw onion, garlic and dried red chilli once accompanied these plain meals to add bite, a habit now fading.