BUTTER 27 



" omphalos " or navel. If not properly stored, this cheese 

 soon dries and becomes rancid or tasteless. 



Agra/a Cheese. This is made entirely from sheep's 

 milk. Coagulation should be completed in 25 to 30 

 minutes. The cheese remains 20 hours in the press. 

 Salting lasts from 40 to 60 days, and the cheeses ripen in 

 four months. If well stored, the cheese may keep for 

 two years. 



Butter 



Butter making is carried on to only a limited extent 

 in Cyprus, and with two or three exceptions is in the hands 

 of shepherds, who use a primitive conical-shaped churn, 

 something after the Danish pattern. Churning consists 

 in beating up the contents of the churn with a stick, to the 

 end of which is fixed a round wooden disc 6 to 10 in. in 

 diameter, not unlike a piston in its action. Sheep's milk 

 is mostly used and, with a modern churn, this will yield 

 9 to 12 per cent, of fresh butter. Goats' milk gives about 

 5 to 6 per cent. About half the above quantities may be 

 obtained with the older, native churn. 



In the Near East (Greece, Turkey, etc.) fresh butter is 

 not used in cooking, as almost all cooked food is fried and 

 butter containing the least water and casein cannot serve 

 the purpose. The pure fat must therefore be extracted. 

 Two methods are applied. The best is that of plunging 

 the tins containing the fresh butter into hot water which 

 heats the butter and sends the fat to the surface. It is 

 then collected and slightly salted. This has a good flavour 

 and keeps well. 



The second method is to place the fresh butter, or the 

 residue from the former process, into tin pans and boil until 

 the water is evaporated, when the albuminoids solidify at 

 the bottom of the pans. The fat which is then on the 

 surface is ladled out. This is inferior in quality, and has 

 a disagreeable smell imparted by the albuminoids which 

 come in contact with the hot pan. 



Xynogala or Yaourti 



The former is the Greek, the latter the Turkish name for 

 this preparation of sour milk. Unlike fresh butter, it forms, 



