Akanthou cheese was produced in the village of Akanthou from raw milk of goats that grazed a variety of aromatic plants in the area.
History: Arch. Kyprianos (1788) refers to “Excellent cheese of Akanthou”, while, in 1890 Sakellarios reports that “the cheeses of Akanthou were the best of the island”. Akathiotiko cheese was produced during the 50-day fasting period prior to Easter and exported to neighboring countries. The shepherds used to place in the milk strainer branches of rock-rose, the leaves of which had a sticky juice with a subtle odor. As a result, the foreign bodies in the milk would stick on the plant leaves, while the milk obtained the special aroma of the plant (Ioannidou M., 2009,Documentary: The bridge across our traditional tastes: The cheeses of Cyprus).
Production method: The milk was warmed, rennet was added and, after coagulation, the curd was cut and stirred. The cut curd was placed in special moulds (“talaria”) and manually pressed. The moulds were placed in the hot cheese whey (first heating). The cheese was removed from the moulds, re-pressed, and placed back into the moulds to be re-heated (second heating). Then, the cheese was removed from the moulds, salted, and placed back into the mould. This procedure was repeated for 2-3 days. Finally, the cheese was removed from the moulds and left outside for 3-4 nights to be humidified by the evening humidity. Lastly, the cheese was placed on “psatharka” (kneaded straw) over smoke from burnt lentisk or was immersed in melted wax (Economides, 2004).
Gastronomy: Akanthou cheese was used for the preparation of “Flaouna” (see number 5), was eaten as meze dish or was grated onto pasta.
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment