Cyprus

Recipes by the places recorded in their sources.

Cyprus

12 recipes

Fresh folded halloumi with faint mat marks and sparse mint flecks on an ivory plate.
Elevated risk

Halloumi, cow-milk method

A firm cow-milk cheese cooked in hot whey, salted and folded with optional mint. This fresh halloumi keeps its shape when grilled or pan-fried.

Cyprus · Modern adaptation
· Dairy
Original illustrative photograph of a hard, mature sheep-milk Graviera wedge with a smooth dry rind and rounded internal eyes, reflecting source-documented traits of the Cypriot method; not a photograph of a specific producer or batch.
High risk

Graviera, Cypriot sheep-milk method

This Cypriot graviera is a hard sheep-milk cheese with a dry rind and round eyes. Its curd is heated, pressed and dry-salted before a long cool ripening.

Cyprus · Traditional method
· Dairy
Illustrative traditional-style sheep-milk Kashkaval: a smooth-rinded semi-hard cylindrical cheese wheel with a uniform pale-yellow interior and one cut wedge.
High risk

Kashkaval, traditional sheep-milk method

Kashkaval is a firm sheep-milk cheese whose acidified curd is worked in hot brine. This large-batch method finishes with repeated dry salting, wax coating and cool ripening.

Bulgaria · Traditional method
· Dairy
Illustrative editorial image of Cypriot Moungra: cauliflower florets with a light sourdough coating and ground dark mustard in a plain ceramic bowl.

Moungra

Moungra is a Cypriot preparation of blanched cauliflower coated in mustard and sourdough slurry and matured about a week; the Cyprus Food Museum records three versions with different measures.

Kyperounta
Vegetables
Photograph of Tarhana and related dried fermented soup bases.
High risk

Tarhana and related dried fermented soup bases

Tarhana is a Turkish soup base: yoghurt, flour or semolina and usually onion, tomato and red pepper, fermented as a dough for days, rubbed into grains and dried.

Türkiye
Whole glossy cherries in red amber syrup in a small clear glass dish

Cypriot-style cherry spoon sweet

Cypriot cherry glyka made by layering firm pitted cherries with sugar, briefly boiling them, chilling overnight, and boiling again to concentrate the syrup. This version is refrigerated and has no shelf-stable canning process.

Cyprus
· Fruit
Photograph of Talatouri (Cypriot tzatziki).

Talatouri (Cypriot tzatziki)

The Cypriot form of tzatziki: strained yogurt and grated cucumber with garlic, finished with mint and lemon juice where the Greek version uses dill and vinegar.

Cyprus
Condiments
Photograph of Tzatziki.

Tzatziki

A cold dip, soup or sauce of strained yogurt, cucumber and garlic, eaten across Greece, Turkey and the wider Balkans and Levant under names that include cacık and tarator.

Greece
Condiments
Illustrative reconstruction of oenogarum ingredients; ancient sources do not establish an exact ratio or serving appearance.
Elevated risk

Oenogarum

Oenogarum is fish sauce mixed with wine, pepper and often olive oil: a Roman table sauce in the Apicius cookbook, and a reduced, strained sauce in a later medical text.

Roman world · Historical attestation
· Fish and seafood
Illustrative still life of a small terracotta vessel and cup of dark amber fish sauce, inspired by ancient Mediterranean artifacts; not a reconstruction of one recipe or period.
High risk

Garum (garos, liquamen)

Garum, Greek garos and Latin liquamen, was the fish sauce of the ancient Mediterranean: fish and viscera salted and left in the sun, then drained off as a savoury liquid.

Greece · Historical attestation
· Fish and seafood
A hard pale kefalotyri slab and triangular cut portion on an ivory plate.
High risk

Kefalotyri, Cypriot method

Kefalotyri is a hard sheep-and-goat-milk cheese made in Cyprus as well as Greece. This Cypriot method cooks and presses the curd, then brines, coats and matures the cheese.

Cyprus · Traditional method
· Dairy