Trahanas

Trahanas solves a problem that no longer exists. Before refrigeration, a household with sheep or goats had far more milk in early summer than it could use, so the milk was soured, cooked into cracked wheat or semolina, spread out to dry hard in the sun, and broken into crumbs that kept for a year. What began as preservation is now simply a flavour nobody wants to give up.

Two versions sit on the shelf and they are not interchangeable. Sour trahanas, xinos, is made with genuinely soured milk or yogurt and tastes sharp and slightly cheesy; sweet trahanas uses fresh milk and is much milder. Cyprus makes a famous soup of the sour kind with cubes of halloumi dropped in at the end, and Crete's xinohondros is the same idea using coarse cracked wheat.

It is cooked as a thick soup rather than a grain, whisked into hot water, stock or milk and simmered until it swells. It thickens far more than seems likely and catches on the base of the pan the moment attention wanders, so it needs stirring and more liquid than the packet suggests. Any large lumps are best crushed before they go in.