Lountza

Lountza is a whole pork loin that has been salted, steeped in dry red wine, seasoned with crushed coriander seed and smoked until it is firm enough to slice. It is the best known of the Cypriot cured meats. Cypriot supermarkets sell it at the deli counter and in vacuum packs, and it is on almost every meze table on the island.

The method comes from the mountain villages of Pitsilia, in the Troodos range, where the family pig was killed in winter and the meat had to last the year. The loin went into salt first, then into the local red wine, and then into the smoke. Lountza Pitsilias was registered as a protected geographical indication in the EU in 2021, a few months after Hiromeri Pitsilias, so only lountza made in that area by that method can carry the name.

Freshly smoked lountza is soft and fairly mild. Left to age, it dries further and turns harder and stronger in flavour, and some people prefer it that way for eating raw.

It is usually cooked. Thick slices go on the grill or into a hot, dry pan for a minute or so on each side, until the fat turns golden. Its usual partner is grilled halloumi, and a hot pitta or toasted sandwich of lountza and halloumi is one of the standard Cypriot snacks. It is fried with eggs for breakfast and appears on meze platters next to halloumi and kefalotyri. Eaten raw, it is sliced very thin and served with a glass of zivania or wine.

Outside Cyprus, Greek and Cypriot delis sell vacuum-packed lountza. Check the date on the pack, and once it is open keep it wrapped in the fridge and use it within a few days. A smoked pork loin is the nearest substitute, though it has none of the wine or coriander. Lountza is not the same as louza from Mykonos and the other Cyclades islands, which is a cured pork loin with its own spicing.